'Oh S—!': Comeback snuffed out as T'Wolves get last laugh over Clippers
A late rally gave the Clippers a chance, but in the end it was Minnesota's night.
A loud “Oh s—!” could be heard in the final seconds of Sunday’s game between the LA Clippers and Minnesota Timberwolves.
It was an apropos reaction to describe the 48 minutes the Clippers had just endured.
Russell Westbrook drove to the rim with four seconds to play and the Clippers trailing by four. As Westbrook went to lay the ball up, it got away from him, evoking the line from the guard as the ball rolled meekly off of the iron and into the waiting hands of Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns thus allowing the Timberwolves to escape with a 109-105 victory that kept them atop the Western Conference standings.
Before the game began, the emcee inside Target Center declared this the “biggest game of the year” for the Timberwolves to hype the crowd ahead of the action. It seemed to work, as Minnesota came out of the gates guns blazing and took an early 21-8 lead.
Trailing by 12 with about eight minutes to play in the fourth quarter, Lue opted to roll with a small lineup of Russell Westbrook, Norman Powell, James Harden, Paul George, and Kawhi Leonard to get the Clippers back into the game. They ended up falling behind by 17 before making a run that got them within three with about a minute to play. But Minnesota saw the game out at the free throw line from there.
“I feel good,” said Clippers coach Tyronn Lue after the game despite the defeat.
“Our guys kept fighting, kept competing. Just didn’t have the smartest game today. I thought we made some passes we wouldn’t normally make, some rotations on defensive plays we wouldn’t normally make. Just wasn’t a good mental game for us I didn’t think, but like I said, give those guys credit. [Anthony Edwards] was a monster, Rudy [Gobert] was huge for them. They played well but our guys did a good job of fighting back, going small, and just trying to change the game a little bit.”
The Clippers, who were without usual starting center Ivica Zubac on the night due to right calf tightness, struggled for most of the evening before making the aforementioned spirited rally, but eventually fell to 25-14 on the season and a full three games back of Minnesota in the standings.
“It was a late scratch for [Ivica Zubac],” said Lue.
Late is an understatement.
Zubac was downgraded to questionable on the final injury report roughly 30 minutes before the opening tip but then was later officially named in the starting lineup that teams send out prior to the game. It wasn’t until right before the opening jump ball that it was learned Daniel Theis would be starting instead.
“Found out pretty early on he had some calf tightness when he went out to do his warmups,” Lue elaborated. “We knew he had a little bit yesterday, but nothing that serious we didn’t think [he wouldn’t play], and then as he went through his warmup it got tighter and tighter. He tried everything he could do to play, some stuff in the hallway, went through layup lines, but just couldn’t get it going, so it was smart for us to make sure that he doesn’t try to do something worse to it. So the decision was made right before jump ball.”
Playing without Zubac is no small thing. The big man has been an anchor for the Clippers over the last five-plus seasons while being one of the league’s most durable centers during the time as he had played in 360 out of a possible 372 regular-season games since his arrival in 2019.
“We kinda knew that he (Ivica Zubac) was dealing with some issues the last few games,” forward Kawhi Leonard said to reporters in Minnesota postgame. “Tonight he just wasn’t able to go, but I think [Daniel Theis] came in and did a good job with stepping in, but we missed him tonight, Big Zu. He’s able to protect that paint for us. Like I said, we missed him.”
Earlier in the game, the Clippers bench got a few hearty laughs at Minnesota center Rudy Gobert’s expense when the Frenchman badly missed a few free throws. Those laughs dissipated by the end of the night as Gobert, who started the evening going 1-for-6 from the charity stripe, got the last laugh by hitting six of his eight fourth-quarter free throws to salt the game away, including two with 59.5 seconds to go after Westbrook fouled Gobert in a three-point game.
Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers with 26 points while Norman Powell added 24 off the bench on a hyper-efficient 9-for-12 from the field. Russell Westbrook had 12 points, 13 assists, and eight rebounds in 29 minutes.
The Clippers just didn’t get enough from the non-Leonard starters.
Paul George (16 points) and James Harden (14 points) combined to go 9-for-33 on the night. Harden had four turnovers. Westbrook finished with three. The miscues came at some inopportune times for a Clippers team that was operating with slim margins all night.
The Clippers shot 43.4 percent compared to Minnesota’s 56.7, but L.A. did knock in 17 treys to keep within touching distance. The Timberwolves went 20-for-31 from the line. To make matters worse, the Clippers shot only 53 percent inside the paint and knocked home just one of their 10 mid-range tries.
Guard Anthony Edwards paced Minnesota with 33 points on 10-for-16 shooting, scoring 20 in the third quarter alone. Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 17 points; Rudy Gobert had 15 points, 18 rebounds, and four blocks; Jaden McDaniels tallied 14 points, four rebounds, and four assists, plus a big 3-pointer late; and Kyle Anderson knocked down just his fourth triple of the season en route to 10 points.
Losing to this Minnesota squad isn’t the end of the world for the Clippers, especially when factoring in how well the Clippers have played as of late and the last-minute scratch of Zubac, which did have some residual effect on the team, at least early on.
Another big test for the Clippers comes on Tuesday when the Oklahoma City Thunder (27-11) come to Los Angeles. The Clippers lost on the road to the Thunder roughly three weeks ago in a game that Leonard missed and saw the Clippers on the tail end of a three-games-in-four-nights road stretch. The Thunder play against the Lakers on Monday night.
On the plus side, the Clippers will get four days off following Tuesday’s upcoming game, more than enough time to dot some I’s and cross some T’s as they look to get back on track following nine games in 16 days.
It was the Timberwolves who got the last and best laugh Sunday despite the Clippers’ frantic efforts. Depending on the health and availability of Ivica Zubac, Tuesday could prove to be no laughing matter.