Clippers fail to get over hump, lose Hallway Heartbreaker to Lakers

All the King's horses and all the King's men were too much for the Clippers.

(Photo by Justin Russo, Russo Writes)

LOS ANGELES — Missed chances can haunt you.

For the LA Clippers, Sunday night was one of those unfortunate times when they could potentially look down the road as one that got away.

With a chance to clinch the all-time Hallway Series head-to-head against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Clippers couldn’t get over the finish line first. That tally now moves to 49-47 in favor of the Clippers with just two games remaining before the Clippers move to their brand-new Intuit Dome.

Unlike their prior meeting this season, there was no 1,044-day wait between wins for the Lakers. But like their Nov. 1 matchup, the Clippers attempted a late rally to prevent themselves from losing. And like that night, which was also a Lakers home game, the Clippers came up short due to some of their own shortcomings.

Turnovers were a big problem for the Clippers as they coughed up the rock 16 times on Sunday. The miscues resulted in 14 points as the Lakers were able to get out in transition and make the Clippers pay for their carelessness as the Clippers fell 106-103.

A big talking point from this game will undoubtedly be the night that Kawhi Leonard had, both on the court and eventually off of it as Leonard sat for nearly the final three minutes as the Clippers furiously raced to come out on top.

“He was close to his minutes restriction and we got a back-to-back tomorrow,” LA Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said following the team’s sixth loss in their last 25 games.

“We got five games in eight days,” Lue explained before continuing, “So just me, my thought was, we need him [back] in the game because the game kind of got away from us a little bit. So, when [Paul George] came out, bringing [Leonard] back in a little earlier than we normally do and he had to play his extended minutes early in the [fourth] quarter instead of late in the quarter.”

Lue took responsibility for the decision, saying that it was “on” him.

Leonard played 35 minutes on Sunday, tallying 15 points and eight rebounds to go with two assists, three steals, and two blocks. However, Leonard had his worst shooting performance of the last six weeks as he managed to sink just six of his 17 field goal attempts in the process.

“They just did a good job of shrinking the floor,” Leonard said postgame when asked what the Lakers did to take him out of his rhythm. “You know, just contesting every shot. It just didn’t fall for me.”

Paul George managed 22 points in his 38 minutes as he was seemingly the only Clipper who got it going from deep on a night in which the team as a whole seemed to struggle offensively. George made four 3s while the Clippers made 14 as a team, but did so by shooting under 40 percent.

Center Ivica Zubac had a monster night, finishing with 20 points and 19 rebounds in nearly 38 minutes of action. Zubac’s 10 offensive rebounds on the evening were the third time the big man has finished a game with that many since joining the Clippers in 2019.

Beyond George and Zubac, it was a lot of tough sledding for the Clippers on the offensive end.

James Harden had 15 points and nine assists but was just 4-for-13 from the field and had a season-worst-tying five turnovers. Norman Powell hit some big shots down the stretch but saw his potential game-tying 3-pointer rim in and out at the buzzer as he finished the evening with 14 points on 3-for-12 shooting.

Terance Mann took five shots, making two of them — both 3s — and finished with six points in his 25 minutes. Since the turn of the calendar marked the New Year, Mann has made seven of his 12 long-range attempts. Mann also supplied three assists.

Russell Westbrook was just 3-for-9 en route to seven points but also sported a team-worst minus-12 in his 19 minutes. Daniel Theis had two points in nine minutes.

“I thought we missed some shots,” said Lue.

“We were hesitant on a couple shots and we just didn’t play a good offensive game. I just told our guys at halftime it was a bad flow to the game offensively. I thought our defense was pretty good, but offensively we couldn’t get in the flow and get in a rhythm, and I thought [Lakers coach Darvin Ham] did a good job just mixing up his coverages, doing different things, switching, sometimes blitzing, sometimes firing. So, they did a good job of trying to keep us off-balanced and like I said, our guys [George], [Leonard], and James [Harden] never really got going offensively.”

According to data obtained from the tracking site Second Spectrum, the Clippers finished the evening with a Quantified Shot Quality (qSQ) — which measures the likelihood of any shot going in, if the average player takes that particular shot — of 54.8 percent. Unfortunately for the Clippers, their Effective Field Goal Percentage for the night clocked in at just 46.8 percent, meaning the Clippers underperformed their shot quality by exactly eight percent.

The Lakers, on the other hand, overperformed their shot quality by 12.4 percent, according to the data obtained.

LeBron James scored 25 to lead the Lakers, including a ferocious third-quarter dunk over Paul George. James also added eight rebounds and seven assists. Anthony Davis added in 22 points and 10 rebounds to aid James in the win.

Taurean Prince had 13 points, including the most important shot of the game as his 3-pointer with 1:17 to play broke a 98-all deadlock and propelled the Lakers into a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. D’Angelo Russell supplied 13 points off the bench for the Lakers.

This isn’t a loss that will cripple the Clippers, but it does hurt them quite a bit.

It was another missed chance against the Lakers, and losses like these could sting the Clippers when they’re jostling for playoff seeding over the next few months — especially when direct competitors like the Minnesota Timberwolves, Sacramento Kings, and Phoenix Suns all lost on the same night and gave the Clippers a chance to score a vastly important victory.

The Clippers will now attempt to pick themselves up off the mat and prepare for another tough game on Monday night as they welcome the Phoenix Suns to town. When the two sides met last Wednesday, the Clippers looked firmly in control all night outside of a late spurt by the Suns yet still walked away with the win.

The good news is that the Clippers can wash this harsh taste out of their mouth pretty quickly, but they’ll need to buckle down or else some of the positive progress the Clippers have made over the last five weeks could erode in just one 24-hour stint.

“That’s the best thing about the NBA,” Zubac said in the locker room after the game when asked if the good news was that there’s a game tomorrow.

“Best thing about the NBA — you play tomorrow. So, if we win, who cares about this one? Nobody will remember the last game and that’s all it is. We got another one tomorrow. Go get a win. That’s it.”