Clippers play reserves, drop regular-season finale vs. Thunder
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The Clippers’ opportunity to get their lick back — as Patrick Beverley put it when he talked about payback before the season began in December — is here.
After closing the regular season Sunday with a cautious 117-112 loss in Oklahoma City, the Clippers’ quest for the franchise’s first title, and for redemption after last season’s stinging second-round collapse, will being next weekend against the Dallas Mavericks.
After the NBA’s chaotic final day of play, filled with conflicting motivations, Tyronn Lue’s squad — which closed the regular season 47-25 — settled into the fourth seed in the Western Conference standings, setting it up with a first-round rematch with the Mavericks, who finished fifth after losing to Minnesota on Sunday.
“We know we have our hands full,” said Lue of the Mavericks, against whom the Clippers are 1-2 this season (including the franchise-worst 51-point loss early this season). “We know they are a good team, they have been playing great this year, it is going to be a good challenge for us.”
For the Clippers’ part, it was a day of rest Sunday, when their bench was a who’s who of notable contributors.
One notable participant was on the court Sunday, though, working himself back into game shape. Center Serge Ibaka played an effective 19 minutes in his second game back after missing 30 consecutive because of a pinched nerve.
“It was really good,” Lue said. Serge said he felt great, especially after the first game, coming back the next day, had no soreness, no pain. And tonight he said he felt great as well. Just getting his wind back was the biggest thing for him, getting in better game shape.
“Overall, he’s not happy with his shot right now but that is going to come, we know he can shoot the basketball. So the physicality of the game, the speed of the game was the most important thing we need to see and I thought he did a good job of that in these two games he played.”
He finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds in 19 minutes of the Clippers’ regular-season closing loss to the reeling Thunder, who’d lost 26 of their past 28 games.
But behind 29 points from Aleksej Pokusevski, and 24 points, 18 rebounds and seven blocks from Moses Brown, OKC finished the season with a win that bumped its overall record to 22-50.
That means the Thunder just miss a share of the league’s third-worst record — a feat for which they would have been rewarded with a coin flip with Orlando to see which team is awarded one of the coveted bottom three places, and with it the 14% chance of winning the top pick in the NBA draft.
For the Clippers, the priority was rest over rust and health over rhythm, with nary any regard for climbing up into third in the Western Conference standings.
And so Kawhi Leonard sat, and so did Paul George. Marcus Morris Sr., Nicolas Batum and Rajon Rondo joined them. DeMarcus Cousins was out with a sore left foot and Amir Coffey missed the game due to coronavirus health and safety protocols.
And then starting center Ivica Zubac was done for the night after six seconds, Reggie Jackson at halftime, Patrick Beverley with 9:30 to play in the third quarter and Terance Mann with 7 minutes in the fourth.
In a back-and-forth game down the stretch — the fourth quarter featured five ties and three lead changes — the Clippers went with the lineup less traveled.
Patrick Patterson played a career-high 42 minutes and scored 10 points. Rookie Daniel Oturu notched a career-high 37 minutes and finished with a double-double, with career-highs of 13 points (on a career-high 12 shots) and 12 rebounds.
Recent acquisition Yogi Ferrell finished with a game-high 19 points in 27 minutes, Luke Kennard went 1 for 7 from deep and and finished with 13 points in 30 minutes) and rookie Jay Scrubb contributed 14 points in 36 minutes in his fourth career game.
That crew didn’t win the game, but they were responsible for only three turnovers — which was all the Clippers recorded Sunday, a season-low.
“I thought the young guys did a great job, they played hard, competed, it was just good to see those guys out there on the floor like that,” Lue said.
Overall, the Clippers shot 10 for 43 (23.3%) from 3-point range, but still finished the regular season 41.4% from behind the arc, the highest percentage in franchise history — though shy of the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors’ historic mark of 41.6% .
For the season, nine Clippers shot 40% or better from 3 (with a minimum of 15 attempts) — the most players on a single team shooting better than 40% from three in NBA history.
L.A. — which shot 12 for 15 from the free-throw line Sunday — also finished with an 83.9% percentage from stripe, the highest in NBA history.