This game won’t top the Clippers’ list of 2021 accomplishments, but after trading punches with the admirable Toronto Raptors for most of four quarters, LA managed the decisive blows, winning 105-100 and reclaiming the West’s third seed. The Clippers were saved by their shooting and late-game execution; Fred Van Vleet and Pascal Siakam starred in Kyle Lowry’s absence; the Raptors were voracious on defense; Patrick Beverley returned; Marcus Morris Sr. and Reggie Jackson stepped up; and more in this Clippers vs Raptors recap:
Summary
With most everything else failing, the Clippers went to their bread and butter: the three-pointer. After falling behind at the half, they shot it often and they shot it well, overcoming an otherwise lackluster performance to put away an undermanned but relentless Toronto Raptors squad.
Here’s what you need to know:
The three is king . . . again. It is the refrain of the modern NBA, and the Clippers again demonstrated its veracity, using the three-ball to make up for their many shortcomings tonight. The Clippers converted 15 (44%) of their 34 attempts from behind the arc, which isn’t an outstanding mark for this team but was easily their most reliable source of offense. It was also bettered their opponents’ success rate by 10%.
With Kawhi Leonard and Paul George largely suppressed — more on that later — the scoring burden fell upon fellow starters Marcus Morris Sr., Reggie Jackson, and others — more on them later too — to hit their open shots. They did, especially in the back-and-forth third and fourth quarters. With the three-pointer keeping the Clippers neck-and-neck with the Raptors, the game came down to . . .
Late-game execution, which is pretty important too. After weathering a 10-0 Toronto run in the middle of the fourth quarter, the Clippers’ starters clawed back to a tie, the last of which came at 99-99 with 2:28 on the clock. Then Paul George blocked a Van Vleet three-pointer. Then Paul George made his own three-pointer. Then Paul George drew a charge on Siakam. (Who said Paul George couldn’t be clutch?) Then Reggie Jackson made a three-pointer.
That sequence sealed the five-point victory, as neither team would score in the final minute. With the game in the balance, the veteran, star-laden Clippers made the deciding plays. Van Vleet, driving the bus with Kyle Lowry scratched with back tightness, missed five of his final six field goal attempts, four of them three-pointers, in the game’s five closing minutes. Paired with Siakam’s miscue, it was enough to scuttle a night they can otherwise be proud of, because . . .
Van Vleet and Siakam were a handful. The two mid-career Toronto mainstays led the game in scoring, with 27 and 24 points respectively, covering for the absence of three fellow starters: Lowry, OG Anunoby, and Chris Boucher.
Their paired excellence was evident from the start, with Siakam exploding for 11 points and Van Vleet recording four of his 13 assists in the first quarter. Both played more than 40 minutes too, carrying a rotation that was also without headlining deadline acquisition Gary Trent Jr.
Van Vleet did much of his damage inside, working his way into the Clippers’ soft midrange underbelly for kick-outs and drop passes to the wily Khem Birch. His five-for-14 mark from three was a real blemish, but his only one.
Siakam’s performance wasn’t flawless either — he hit just one three and turned it over four times — but his lanky drives menaced the Clippers, especially in transition. In front of Toronto’s defensive blitz, it was almost enough for the upset.
The Raptors’ defensive pressure nearly flummoxed the Clippers. Starting alongside Van Vleet and Siakam were Birch, Stanley Johnson, and Yuta Watanabe, a trio of long-limbed pests in near-constant motion. Empowered by Toronto Head Coach Nick Nurse’s aggressive schemes, the Raptors swarmed Leonard and George on the ball, forcing the secondary and tertiary options into action.
It was a good plan. The Clippers turned the ball over 18 times, six more times than Toronto. Leonard attempted just six field goals, finishing with 13 points mostly on the strength of his six free throws. George got loose a little more often, with Leonard clearly Toronto target number one, tying Morris Sr. for a team-high 22. Despite their middling statistics, both Clipper stars were aggressive for long stretches, demonstrating good process. They were simply quieted by better defensive activity.
But the Raptors bedeviled Rajon Rondo in particular, along with the rest of the Clippers’ reserves. Patrick Beverley made a welcome return from injury, joining Rondo, Nicolas Batum, Terance Mann, and DeMarcus Cousins off the bench to build a lineup light on shooting and chemistry. Rondo had a rare stinker on national television, coughing it up six times under the heat of the Toronto onslaught, multiple times on elementary-level miscommunications. The Clipper reserves lost their minutes to their kinetic Toronto counterparts, led by April’s Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month Malachi Flynn and a couple guys I hadn’t heard of.
Eventually, it was sharper and more engaged team play from the Clippers that broke the Raptors’ stranglehold. Note that six Clippers (and four of five starters) recorded at least three assists and know that it took a teamwide effort to break the struggle.
Marcus and Reggie carry the load. Into the scoring void stepped Marcus Morris Sr. and Reggie Jackson. As mentioned, Morris Sr. tied George with a team-high 22, nailing four of five from deep, with the fifth going halfway down. Jackson assumed a higher usage role than is preferred, but in scoring 18 points with five assists he showed that Tyronn Lue has three viable options at point guard. Both Morris Sr. and Jackson played 33 minutes, with Beverley limited to just 15 in his return to on-court action.
The Clippers have the third seed to themselves again. Denver’s loss to the Lakers last night brought them even with the Clippers in the loss column, but the good guys took a half-game advantage after tonight’s win.
Notables
- Ivica Zubac scored eight points to go with eight rebounds and two blocks, modest totals that once again bely his sizable impact. His team-high plus-21 in 30 minutes is more educational.
- Every Toronto reserve finished with a positive plus-minus, even Rodney Hood, who strangely appeared in only the final three minutes of the first half. Rookie Jalen Harris, the 59th overall pick in last year’s draft, led his bench with 11 points on perfect shooting (4-4 FG, 3-3 3PT) in just his seventh career game.
That does it for this recap of the Clippers win over the visiting Raptors. Stay on the lookout for our player grades tomorrow morning, and an episode of TLTJTP soon.
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