Beantown Beatdown: Clippers notch statement win, dismantle Celtics
L.A. gets redemption behind Kawhi Leonard's 26.
The last time the LA Clippers and Boston Celtics met, it was a one-sided thumping handed out by a Boston team that was rolling as the best team in the league while the Clippers were saddled with life without Kawhi Leonard for the time being.
On Saturday night, one of those things remained: an uncompetitive game.
This time, however, it was the Clippers enjoying the spoils as L.A. enjoyed a double-digit cushion for the final 31 minutes of Saturday’s affair, looking eerily similar to Friday’s victory over Toronto.
Thanks largely to a 21-0 run in the third quarter, the Clippers (30-14) ran the Celtics out of their own house, leading by 36 at one point as they cruised to a 115-96 scoreline that made this one look more competitive than it was.
“Yeah, the guys were pretty motivated,” LA Clippers coach Tyronn Lue told reporters in Boston after the game.
“[We were] playing against a great team. Joe [Mazzulla]’s done a great job, an amazing job, just having his team playing the right way, understanding the pecking order, understanding who they want to play through and how they want to play. When they came into L.A., they did us pretty bad.”
Pretty bad is an understatement. The loss to Boston in December was the Clippers’ worst loss of the season, a 145-108 shellacking that left the Clippers with a sour taste in their mouth.
“Guys were locked in,” Lue said of Saturday’s game. “We understand it was a back-to-back, but guys were locked in and they was up for the challenge. This was a game we thought [Paul George] might be out, but he wanted to play to see where we’re at and just a measuring stick against a great team that, like I said, is a great team. We just kinda wanted to see where we were at. We had that on our mind.”
Kawhi Leonard paced the Clippers with a game-high 26. Leonard accomplished that in just 29 minutes, adding seven rebounds, two assists, two steals, and two blocks while knocking home 10 of his 15 field goal attempts. Leonard is averaging 23.6 points across 40 contests this season.
Lue mentioned postgame that Leonard “played great” despite the struggles of some of the rest of the team. Outside of Leonard, the Clippers shot just 40 percent from the field. But it was enough.
“Kawhi played great but overall, I just thought defensively we did some good things of just trying to keep [Jayson Tatum] off-balance — blitzing him, switching, firing, not letting him get comfortable. Same thing with Jaylen [Brown]. Just trying to keep them off guard because they’re great players, they’re great scorers. I thought we did a good job.”
To Lue’s point, Jayson Tatum was 8-for-18 from the field and finished with 21 points. However, Jaylen Brown struggled on the night, tallying just eight points on 3-for-13 shooting across 24 minutes as the Celtics (35-11) suffered just their second home loss of the season.
After the win, Lue gave credit to the team’s coaching staff and players for executing the game plan.
“Dan Craig, [Brendan O’Connor], Jeremy [Castleberry], Dahntay [Jones], just with the prep, Jay Larranaga, just trying to keep this team off-balance because they’re so high-powered as far as scoring, and we did a good job just making adjustments and changing and we did some good things.”
Boston shot 36 percent overall and, like the Clippers, were 10-for-40 from deep. The Clippers outscored the Celtics 64-48 in the paint.
“It was like more of a playoff, detail-oriented walkthrough today,” Lue said. “I give [the players] credit, they executed pretty good for the most part.”
Joining Leonard in double-figures was Paul George, who finished with 17 points in 22 minutes after being questionable to play on Saturday due to an ongoing left groin strain. George was 5-for-11 from the field and had six rebounds.
Lue said postgame that George came out of the game just fine. Whether that means George suits up for Monday’s game in Cleveland remains to be seen. But it has to be encouraging for the team to see George play through bumps and bruises.
James Harden notched nine points, eight rebounds, and seven assists in 27 minutes. Despite Harden’s 2-for-11 shooting, the veteran guard controlled the game at a high level and generated quality shots for teammates. The Clippers outscored the Celtics by 36 points in Harden’s minutes.
Mason Plumlee has done his part of picking up some of the void left by Ivica Zubac who is still out with a calf injury. Plumlee finished the night with eight points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes, but more than that, the patchwork starting lineup outscored the Celtics by 25 points in their 17 minutes and 34 seconds together.
Coupled with Friday night’s game in Toronto, the starting lineup consisting of Harden, George, Leonard, Plumlee, and Terance Mann has outscored opponents by 49 points in their 35 minutes and 18 seconds together over the last 24 hours.
Postgame, Lue stated that the Clippers had learned from the previous meeting against Boston when the Celtics opted to stick a center on both Mann and guard Russell Westbrook, which at times bogged the Clippers down offensively. There were no such hiccups on this night.
Mann finished with 14 points in 24 minutes and added six rebounds (three offensive) and three assists while having several key plays throughout the game on both ends of the floor that made an impact to keep the Clippers rolling.
Westbrook had four points, five assists, and four rebounds off the bench while Amir Coffey played a nice role, totaling 10 points. Norman Powell had four.
Backup center Daniel Theis made his return to Boston in emphatic fashion by scoring 18 points in 26 minutes. The big man outscored Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, Derrick White, and Jrue Holiday combined (17 points). Theis also grabbed seven boards.
It wasn’t a flawless game for the Clippers, but it was good enough by a wide margin against the team with the best record in the NBA. Lue knows there’s still a way to go before this team can feel like a finished product.
“We still got some room for improvement.”
It could get scary if they get that done.