The Clips suffered one of their worst losses of the year, falling to the Kings 123-96 in a game that was a rout from start to finish.
Summary
There’s not a point talking too much about the first half of this one. The Clippers’ offense was mostly ok-ish in the first quarter, scoring 24 points mostly behind Terance Mann’s energy and Ivica Zubac’s offensive rebounding. However, their defense was awful, allowing the Kings to put up 38 points, with Sabonis in particular getting wherever he wanted. The second quarter flipped the script, as the Clippers’ defense – buoyed again by Robert Covington and Nic Batum at first – stiffened up, keeping the Kings to a mere 22 points. On the other hand, the Clippers’ offense was miserable, bricking open looks, turning the ball over, and failing to play with energy. The result was a 14-point quarter, worst of the season, and a 22 point halftime deficit.
In a change of pace, here are some fun halftime numbers:
- Clippers shooting 14-49 (28.6%) from the field
- Clippers shooting 2-15 (13.3%) from three
- Clippers with four assists to nine turnovers – and the Clippers starters having zero assists
- Moussa Diabate being a -13 in four minutes with his only stats being a foul and a turnover
- Reggie Jackson and Marcus Morris combining to shoot 1-16 from the field, 1-7 from three, and 1-3 from the line while looking incredibly slow and tired
Reggie Jackson started off the quarter with a quick 5-0 run on his own, but hit the ground hard again, and looked to be in a ton of pain. After that, it was all Kings, as the Clippers’ starters, especially Jackson and Morris, simply looked completely exhausted. The Clippers missed a number of layups, and missed those in with some brutal turnovers. At the 5:29 mark, with the Clips down 29, Ty Lue went to a no-shot creator lineup by brining in Nic Batum and RoCo for Reggie and Morris. This unit, weirdly, was able to get going offensively with some drives, but could not get stops. At the 2:40 mark, with the Clips down 25, Ty went to the young guys, throwing in Moussa, Jason Preston, and Brandon Boston alongside Amir Coffey and RoCo. This unit also played well offensively but still couldn’t get stops, and trailed by 21 going into the final frame.
The young guys + RoCo lineup continued to look good, going on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to 16 and prompt a Kings timeout. On the other side, however, Mike Brown re-inserted his starters, and the rout was on once more. In just a couple minutes, the Clippers were down 29 again, and the benches were emptied at the 7:40 mark. Garbage time commenced with not a whole lot of excitement and the Clippers trailing by around 30 the entire way.
Notes
That Balancing Act: All year, and even before the season, we were talking about the tightrope Ty Lue would have to walk in playing his key guys enough minutes to build reps while not pushing them too hard. Due in large part to the Clippers’ injuries, it has not gone well – as mentioned multiple times throughout, Reggie and Morris look absolutely dead on the court. With the Clippers’ stars returing, Ty will have a choice – does he keep his rotation open and use the returning stars (who should be fresh at least) to buy rest for those vets? Or does he keep playing Reggie and Morris substantial minutes to get those reps and build chemistry? I’d lean towards giving Morris and Reggie, if not games off, at least minutes loads in the 25 range for a week or so. They need a lightened load and they’re not doing much good on the court now anyway. Still, it’s a pickle.
Zu & Mann Solid: While nobody on the Clippers truly played well today considering how bad they were on both ends, Terance Mann and Ivica Zubac have the best claims to strong play. Zu had 13 points and 15 rebounds in 27 minutes on 5-6 shooting, while Mann contributed 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists on 6-13 shooting. Not brilliant games, but compared to most of the Clips’ regulars, it was a Shaq-Kobe 2000-2002 combo level performance. It’s not a surprise that the Clippers’ two youngest key players are the ones who look less damaged by the minutes load.
