Fourth quarter surge helps Clippers avoid matinee letdown
Paul George's bobblehead night ended with a poster dunk and a win.
LOS ANGELES — Matinee games have been a minor bugaboo for the LA Clippers this season.
Coming into play on Saturday, the Clippers were 2-2 in afternoon home games, a staple of their current arena situation that’ll be alleviated once they enter their brand-new Intuit Dome this summer.
But their two prior victories — one over the Golden State Warriors and another over the Brooklyn Nets — required heroics. And Saturday’s game followed a similar storyline.
“It was a great start,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue told reporters postgame about the team jetting out to a quick 12-2 lead before the Pistons had time to know what hit them. But, as Lue would then allude to, it was a tad downhill from there.
“Just the way the game goes,” said Lue. “You’re not going to play great every night. Like I told you before the game, [Detroit Pistons coach Monty Williams], his team is playing fast, they’re playing well together, they execute and their pace, like attacking the basket, attacking the rims, especially with Ivey, really put a lot of pressure on us.”
The Pistons motored out to a 64-51 lead early in the third quarter, causing fans inside Crypto.com Arena to groan with each passing play that saw their favorite team fall into a larger hole.
But, like he has in the past, Lue opted to play without a center to try to jumpstart his players and bring the team back. And, just like those times, it worked.
The Clippers used a 37-22 run over the third and fourth quarters to take a lead they’d never relinquish, ultimately dispatching the Pistons, 112-106.
The win moved the Clippers to 35-16 on the season and keeps them second in the Western Conference as they prepare to play the top-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves in Los Angeles on Monday.
“We were able to go small in that second half and kind of switch a lot of things, and we rebounded the ball well,” Lue said after the win.
“Once we did that, then [we] was able to score a lot better as well. So, just changing the game up and like I said, you’re not going to play great every game, but I give our guys credit for just staying with it, being resilient and finding a way to win this game.”
The Clippers were led by Paul George’s game-high 33 points.
George, who celebrated his latest bobblehead on Saturday, mirrored the image of the treasure handed out to fans — a two-handed slam — when he dunked the Clippers into a four-point lead with about six minutes to go.
“I just happened (to make it) on my bobblehead night,” George told reporters in the locker room postgame.
George scored 15 in the fourth as the Clippers outscored the Pistons, 36-25.
“He’s a great player,” Detroit guard Cade Cunningham said of George following the game. “It wasn’t his night in Detroit, it was Kawhi’s night, so you knew he was gonna come at us. He’s got all the tools, so you just gotta throw the book at him and try to be as solid as possible. But when you’re guarding a guy like that, you’re locked in because they could do something to you. I love challenges like that. I’ve always been a big fan of his game, so it’s fun to get out and compete against him.”
Kawhi Leonard finished with 24 points, five assists, and four rebounds in 35 minutes. James Harden struggled for some of the night but tallied 14 points, eight assists, and six rebounds. Ivica Zubac started and scored six points and grabbed five rebounds in 20 minutes. Terance Mann added two points.
The bench was big for the Clippers in this one, and Russell Westbrook and Amir Coffey both left their respective imprints on the game.
Westbrook finished with 13 points, three rebounds, and two assists while Coffey had 12 points in 27 minutes.
“I think, like I said, Amir [Coffey] was huge for us tonight,” Lue mentioned. “Made some big shots and just be able to switch one through five, be able to rebound the basketball and then just attack offensively. They double-team and now we have five guards on the floor. We got shots and was able to drive closeouts and so it helped us out a lot.”
Guard Norman Powell suffered a facial laceration in the fourth quarter that required stitches. Postgame, Powell could be seen in the locker room wearing the marks of battle, telling reporters that he was “fine” before saying, “I’m tough like that.”
Jaden Ivey led Detroit with 23 points while Cade Cunningham put up 22 points, 10 assists, and six rebounds. Center Jalen Duren capped off his night with 10 points and 18 rebounds. Newcomer Simone Fontecchio had a nice debut off the bench, scoring 20 points in 32 minutes.
The Pistons fell to a league-worst 8-44.
Saturday marked the first time in Clippers franchise history that they finished with zero offensive rebounds in a game. The Clippers also became the fifth team since rebounds were first tracked in 1973-74 to finish with zero offensive boards in a game, but are the fourth of those five teams to win.
As mentioned earlier, the Clippers meet the Timberwolves on Monday as the two teams vie for the top spot in the West. Minnesota won the only other meeting this season.
Depending on the health and status of Norman Powell, the Clippers could potentially see themselves shorthanded for that matchup. Factoring in Ivica Zubac’s ongoing minutes limit, which sources tell Russo Writes is capped at around 24 at the present moment, and Monday’s meeting with Minnesota could be impacted by forces beyond the Clippers’ control.
Despite the rough way that Saturday’s game went for the better part of three quarters, the Clippers have to feel a bit fortunate to walk out of their home arena with a win.
At 35-16, the Clippers are still in a good spot to land the West’s top overall seed. It’s something Lue and the squad are aiming for.
“The biggest thing is just try to be number one at the end of the season.,” Lue told reporters before the game. “That’s what we're fighting for, to try to get the number one seed at the end of the regular season.”
While Saturday wasn’t the cleanest of shows, a win was achieved. And another step towards that top seed was secured.