The LA Clippers snapped their two-game skid as they beat the Indiana Pacers, 114-100 behind a historical game from Ivica Zubac.

Summary

A lot of good things happened for the Clippers against the Indiana Pacers, but the biggest storyline of the game was Ivica Zubac. The Clippers man in the middle absolutely dominated the Pacers to the tune of 31 points and 29 rebounds to go along with three assists and three blocked shots. He also shot 14-17 from the field. Since the NBA began keeping track of blocks, Zubac became only the third player in history to put up those numbers. The last player to do so was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on February 3, 1978.

Zubac helped the Clippers get off to a good start and at the end of the first quarter he was already at 14 points and nine rebounds. He scored off teammates passes around the rim and he scored by grabbing offensive rebounds and getting second-chance points.

The Pacers managed to hang with the Clippers though, and neither team was able to grab an advantage. Basketball is often a game of runs and that certainly held true before halftime. It was a much better second quarter for the Clippers than the last two games though, and they led at the half, 59-57.

The third quarter was all Clippers as they continued to ride the momentum from Zubac who carried the offense. They couldn’t hit any shots, but neither could the Pacers who missed all of their 12 three-point attempts in the quarter. A six point Clipper lead (68-62) quickly became a 15 point lead and the Clippers never looked back after that point.

It was a quality win for the Clippers over a pretty solid Eastern Conference team. They were never able to get their looks from three to fall but they did enough collectively to pull off the win. In addition to Zubac’s 29 points, the Clippers had five other players reach double-figures in scoring. Norman Powell had 19 points, Terance Mann had 14, Marcus Morris added 13 and John Wall and Moses Brown had 10 each.

Notes

Amir Coffey continues to produce when called upon despite seeing uneven minutes. With Kawhi Leonard and Paul George out, he’s been placed in the starting lineup and he’s responded. His numbers may not be shooting off the stat page but he impacts the game in many ways. He gives the team another ball-handler and shot creator and a few of Zubac’s buckets came off Coffey passes.

David Yapkowitz

David Yapkowitz

David is in his sixth season as credentialed media at Los Angeles Clippers games and second season covering the team for 213 Hoops. He also covers the game at the college and high school levels. When his professional basketball dreams did not materialize, he turned to the next best thing, writing about it.

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