After a successful 6-game road trip, the Clippers would slip up against the Boston Celtics on Friday night in Los Angeles as both teams were without a pair of crucial starters.
Clippers vs Celtics Game Summary
The Clippers and Celtics are two of the best teams in the NBA and contenders in their respective conferences, and there are some similarities between the two: both feature a stellar duo of superstar wings with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in Boston and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in LA, and both have all-defense guards who are the heart and soul of their teams in Marcus Smart and Patrick Beverley. Take Brown, George, Smart, and Beverley out of the equation due to various injuries, and this match-up got a whole lot weirder (though not any less entertaining).
The Clippers got off to a strong start offensively despite George’s absence as Luke Kennard started in his place and found 8 early points, finishing the half (and the game, unfortunately) with 13 from the starting shooting guard position. The Clippers took a 12-point lead out of the opening frame and would have likely extended it before halftime if not for a short scoring flurry from Celtics backup Carsen Edwards disrupting things during the second quarter. Still, the hosts took an 11-point advantage into the break as Leonard and Morris joined Kennard in double figures in the first half.
But in the third quarter, the Celtics not only erased the Clippers’ double-digit lead but built one of their own, flipping a 73-63 score to 79-89 in a six-minute, 26-6 run that saw the Celtics go 6-6 from downtown as the Clippers went just 1-9 from the field with a pair of turnovers. In total, Boston outscored the Clippers 38-20 in the frame, shooting 8-11 from beyond the arc compared to 2-8 for LAC and scoring 8 points off of 4 Clipper turnovers. It was a devastating quarter for the Clippers, who got caught in a perfect storm of fatigued sloppiness on offense leading to transition opportunities for Boston and a wide disparity in shot-making on the open looks each team generated.
To their credit, LA clawed back admirably in the fourth despite being in the midst of their 8th game in 13 nights, a span that included 6 flights. Lou Williams had 14 points and a pair of assists in the frame as Zu added 6 of his own before checking out of the game, and the team even got so far as to retake the lead twice in the waning minutes. But both times, mental errors immediately handed the advantage back to Boston: first, Luke Kennard commited an extremely late foul on a missed three by Carsen Edwards to send the Celtics guard to the line for three free throws with 2:25 left, and then after Nicolas Batum came up with a steal to give the Clippers the ball back as they led by 1 with 40 seconds left, Kawhi Leonard immediately coughed the ball back up and Kemba Walker hit the final go-ahead shot of the game.
Clippers vs Celtics Game Notes
- Paul George: I’d say that everyone in Clipper nation was holding their breath as we wait to hear more about George’s toe injury, which held him out of tonight’s game, but because Clippers fans are Clippers fans it seems like most people have already decided he’s going to miss a ton of games. In reality, we’re going to have to be patient in the coming days while we wait for more news about exactly what’s causing Paul’s discomfort and how long the team will (or won’t) be without him.
- Bad Reggie: After alternating stellar and solid performances in his first few games starting in place of Patrick Beverley, Reggie has come down to earth in the Clippers’ last few contests. He had just 9 points on 3-9 shooting in Brooklyn, 0 points on 0-3 shooting in Cleveland, and 2 points on 0-4 shooting tonight against the Celtics. In addition to being cold, which happens to everyone, Reggie’s head is totally out of the game as he misses easy reads, makes puzzling decisions with the ball, and dies on screens defensively. He’s definitely earned a bit of a leash and shouldn’t be benched after a few bad games, and the team needs at least some minutes from him with Pat and Paul both out, but hopefully the coaching staff is helping him get his focus levels back up–and if he puts up another performance like tonight’s, they shouldn’t leave him out there for 21 minutes.
- Turnovers, Points off: The Clippers are one of the lowest turnover teams in the NBA, committing just 13.3 per game, but they got caught with 16 tonight and gave up 26 Celtic points off of those miscues. They also only forced 7 mistakes by Boston for only 8 Clipper points, making for a huge disparity in that area. While each team’s runs were fueled by hot-and-cold three-point shooting and timely offensive rebounds, those two categories mostly evened out over the course of 48 minutes. Points off turnovers was the big decider tonight.
- What’s Next? While the Clippers wait for news on George (and the return of Patrick Beverley), they have a few easier games on their upcoming schedule. It’s nice, because these are winnable contests while shorthanded and could give the team some reps and confidence if they have to prepare to spend a few weeks without PG, but you’d also hate to look back at the end of the season and have dropped games to a few of these teams. The team’s next five come against Sacramento, Minnesota, Chicago, Cleveland, and Miami (the reigning Eastern Conference champs are just 7-14 and dropped their last 2 games to Charlotte and Washington despite getting key players back from injury)–a little winning streak here is just what LAC needs heading into some tougher games in the back half of the month.
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