Playing without Kawhi Leonard, Clippers’ win streak ends at nine

 

Thunder forward Chet Holmgren celebrates after bouncing the ball to himself off the backboard and then dunking. 

(Nate Billings / Associated Press)

DALLAS — Kawhi Leonard's team's nine-game winning streak ended Thursday in Oklahoma City without him, one night after he crashed the court in Dallas.

After suffering a contusion in the last minute of his team's victory the night before, Leonard's left hip became injured, forcing him to miss the game, and the Clippers' perfect month of play came to an end in a 134-115 loss.

Coach Tyronn Lue responded, "Day to day," when asked how serious Leonard's injury was. The team's next game is a Saturday matinee at home versus Boston, who currently leads the Eastern Conference.

After missing just one game due to illness, Paul George made a comeback and scored 22 points in 29 minutes. James Harden finished with nine rebounds, six assists, three turnovers, and 23 points.

The Clippers (17-11), playing their third game on the road in four days, fell behind early in the second quarter by a score of 14 points. They patched up a hole in their defense, which prevented Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the front-runner for the most valuable player, from scoring more than 31 points on 11 of 25 shots. They had trouble stopping the 7-foot-1, slender Chet Holmgren, the Thunder's lone big man, who scored 13 of his 23 points in the first half and set up what turned out to be the game-changing highlight in the third quarter. 

"He has talent," George remarked. The reason we couldn't quite figure it out is that he's not really a 'large.' We had some issues with him since he can play and move like a guard and wing.

George claimed that while his illness had made the past two days "been hell," he was no longer plagued by the groin soreness that kept him out of action during his first game of the season last week.

Lue stated that the Clippers' three-week winning streak "doesn't take away from what we've built and what we've done" despite their first loss since Nov. 30.

several Clippers identified several areas where they had witnessed the greatest advancements during that time.

Center Ivica Zubac said, "figuring out how we want to play offensively, like what we want to run, what's the plays, where we are going to get the ball to our main guys."

As of Nov. 30, Los Angeles has an offensive rating of 17th, averaging 113.6 points per 100 possessions. They have generated 125.2 points and ranked second ever since.

Russell Westbrook, who was given a standing ovation by Thunder supporters when he arrived during the first quarter, remarked, "Probably defensively, just getting stops on demand, especially in the fourth." Along with a season-high 13 rebounds and 15 points, Westbrook was also responsible for five of the team's 15 turnovers.

"Winning teams make big stops in the fourth quarter, and closing games and getting stops is very important," the speaker stated. "I believe we made some jumps there, execution."

Up until November, the Clippers had the fourth-worst defensive rating in the league in clutch circumstances. 30; however, since then, they have allowed just 93.8 points per 100 possessions, a 33.3-point improvement (this is not a typo). According to a team source on Wednesday, the adjustment came about as a result of the squad's growing feeling of urgency during their November six-game losing skid.

"Just being strong-willed and resilient," he remarked. Had a difficult beginning when James and PJ [Tucker] arrived, but we're simply going to have to persevere, work hard every day, and accept that it will be difficult. I give these players credit; they accomplished it, so we know it will be a difficult game on Saturday. All we need to do now is get ready to begin a new run of success. However, I am proud of our players for overcoming all obstacles to return with a nine-game winning run and for their outstanding play.

They still have concerns despite all of the progress. For Zubac, the issues were reducing turnovers and permitting opponents to have possession of the offensive glass. new yet have occasionally been tenacious. While he acknowledged that the Clippers might still improve at "making the right reads, quicker reads, a little faster at times," Westbrook felt that overall, they performed well over the previous three weeks or so.

Even though they were without Leonard and Oklahoma City had just finished two days of rest, the team's three-week turnaround in areas they thought were both quantifiable and not helped them stay in the game on Thursday.

The Clippers took a one-point lead and had some brief momentum in the third quarter thanks to three-pointers from Harden and George. However, it only took the Clippers two and a half minutes to fall behind if they had needed more than two quarters to build that initial advantage. once more by double digits, as part of the Thunder's 12-0 run (18-8) that was started by Holmgren's alley-oop dunk off the backboard that he had thrown to himself.

Oklahoma City scored 45 points, the highest the Clippers had allowed in a quarter since November 1st, and by the end of the quarter, the Clippers were behind by 17.