LOS ANGELES — Clippers coach Tyronn Lue was just saying before Tuesday’s improbable low-scoring thriller, the biggest thing he learned about his guys halfway through this season, is that they can handle adversity: “When you’re going through tough times, just kind of seeing the character in who people are and we’ve been doing a good job of trying to hold it down.”
After a frustrating, frostbitten first half on Tuesday night, the Clippers had scored an NBA season-low 28 points. They found themselves in a 25-point hole against the Denver Nuggets with seven minutes left in the third quarter. And, yes, undermanned as usual.
And wouldn’t you know it, they handled it, winning 87-85.
Dating to 1997-98, Tuesday’s 25-point comeback victory is tied for the fourth-largest in team history, postseason included.
It was the Nuggets’ lowest-scoring game this season, and tied the lowest tally by a Clippers opponent this year.
Reggie Jackson, most notably, was having a certifiably adverse game when he strung together three consecutive buckets to give the Clippers a 76-75 lead.
His fourth straight was a dunk on reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic – just Jackson’s second slam this season. The dunk cut Denver’s lead to 79-78 and made fans forget about Jackson’s 1-for-9 shooting start and begin chanting his name again as they had during the Clippers’ run to the Western Conference finals last season.
No one was chanting his name in L.A., but Aaron Gordon surely had fans back in Colorado cheering with his 30 points, 13 of which came in the fourth quarter as Denver (20-19) fought back the Clippers.
But back-to-back 3-pointers from Amir Coffey (18 points) and Nicolas Batum (six points) gave the Clippers their biggest lead until then, 86-81.
Then Marcus Morris Sr. made a free throw and blocked Gordon and Nikola Jokic.
A missed 3-pointer by Jokic and a missed last-second heave from Gordon settled it.
Jokic finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists – his ninth consecutive double-double and the 15th time in 16 games that he has reached the 20-point threshold.
The Clippers (21-21) were without Luke Kennard, who missed his sixth game in protocols – and Justise Winslow, who missed his second. Add to that: No Kawhi Leonard (ACL), Paul George (elbow), Isaiah Hartenstein (ankle) or Jason Preston (foot).
The Clippers struggled early: Going into halftime trailing 41-28 – their tally representing the lowest first-half scoring total in an NBA game this season. It’s also the fewest first-half points since the Clippers scored 27 in their 51-point loss to Dallas last season.
(But it wasn’t the fewest first-half points in league history – that record belongs to the 1999 Clippers, who mustered only 19 points entering intermission of a game against the Lakers.)
Among the sad stories: Starting center Ivica Zubac played just five first-half minutes, in which he scored two points, was assessed three fouls and got smacked in the head by the ball twice.
Jackson was 1 for 9 and 0 for 3 from 3-point range – and a team-worst minus-14 in the box score – after 17 first-half minutes.
And Morris was called for a Flagrant 1 when his forearm connected with Austin Rivers’ neck area – and Rivers, fittingly for how things were going Tuesday, missed both free throws.
Rivers – the former Clipper and son of former Coach Doc Rivers – played despite experiencing an allergic reaction that sent him to the hospital while working out with teammates at UCLA on Monday.
“We were at the practice gym over at UCLA, working out, optional shooting, and he just had an allergic reaction,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone, noting that the cause of the reaction remained a mystery. “And it was kind of scary for him and those around us. He was in the hospital for a while, he got released yesterday evening and thankfully he was able to get up today, feel much better, go through shootaround. … Thank goodness he is feeling much better.”
A game after he had a season-best 22 points and six 3-pointers in Denver’s 99-95 victory over Oklahoma City, Rivers had four points and five rebounds against the Clippers on Tuesday.
Still, despite shooting just 12 for 44 (27.3%) from the field and 1 for 14 from 3-point range, the Clippers benefited from an almost equally poor early offensive showing from Denver, which went into halftime having shot 16 for 43 (37.2%) from the floor and 2 for 16 from deep.
So the Clippers trailed by only 13 points entering the third quarter, a deficit that would balloon to 25 a few minutes later.
Terance Mann helped ignite a rally – and the crowd of 15,077 – after the hosts fell behind 59-34.
The Clippers took off on a 21-3 run to cut the lead to 62-55, capped by Coffey’s high-degree of difficulty make and drawn foul over defenders at the rim.
Mann played all 12 minutes in the third period, shot 4 for 6 and scored nine of his 13 points then to help kickstart the Clippers, who scored 27 third-quarter points, one shy of their entire first-half effort.
More to come on this story.