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Clippers vs. Kings Recap: The Bench Keeps it Interesting
Shorthanded and struggling on both ends once again, the L.A. Clippers (11-11) lost their third-straight at the hands of the Sacramento Kings (9-14), 124-115 Wednesday night. A game in which the Clipper bench accounted for 71 of the team’s points — without Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Nicolas Batum — Luke Kennard and Terance Mann kept the score respectable with 19 points apiece on great efficiency. Ivica Zubac was the best Clipper starter to take the floor, adding in 17 points (8-10 FG), seven boards and a steal in just under 24 minutes. For Sacramento, the three-headed offensive attack of De’Aaron Fox (24 points), Terence Davis (23), and Davion Mitchell (20) gave LAC too many troubles throughout the night. Read on for our full Clippers vs. Kings game recap.
Summary
The good news: the Clippers turned the ball over just twice in the opening frame. The bad news: the Kings, who rank 27th in 3-point shooting efficiency (32.2%), knocked down six threes to establish the tone for rest of the night. Both teams started out from the field as you’d imagine of two squads sitting below .500 in their last 10 games. Sparked by some nifty runners and mid-range jumpers, however, the Clippers were able to briefly build some steam before going 3-for-11 on decent looks in the last 5:03. A theme that ended up becoming perhaps the story of the game — the Clippers went ultra big to start out but just couldn’t take advantage of the Kings’ weak interior defense enough. After one, Sacramento held a 29-21 lead.
Anytime you trail by as much as 20 in the first half and end up cutting it to 10 at the break, you have to feel pretty fortunate. Without George, and Marcus Morris Sr. far from his sharpest form, the Clippers struggled to generate consistent offense once again as the Kings’ surging confidence had a 61.9% FG mark to show for it in the period. With nine assists to just two turnovers as a team here, the Clippers ended up getting eight more shots up than Sacramento but just could not get much of anything from their starters outside of Zubac and Reggie Jackson. Easily the most exciting Clipper takeaway from the second quarter was the play of Brandon Boston Jr., who had a team-high nine points in a 10-minute stint that helped LAC keep within range, down 62-52 at the break.
In the third, the Clippers went with the 3-big starting lineup once again and simply got played off the court. Outside of a nice Serge Ibaka to Zubac layup here and an Eric Bledsoe and-1 layup there, the Kings put up 20 points to the Clippers’ 11 in the first 5:07 stretch of the third before Tyronn Lue had to signal for time. Morris Sr. (1-9 FG) and Ibaka (2-8 FG) would not return the rest of the way. While Davis, Fox and Mitchell got just about whatever they wanted, Zubac (9 points), Eric Bledsoe (6) and Terance Mann (9) were the only three Clippers to score here. Heading into the fourth, the Clippers trailed 99-76.
With the game having been far from competitive throughout the third, the Clippers went with a Keon Johnson-Kennard-Jay Scrubb-Boston Jr.-Isaiah Hartenstein lineup. With 39 points in the period, and against several of Sacramento’s key guys, the young guns delivered one of the most fun Clipper quarters in recent days. While Kennard, Johnson and Scrubb played the entire frame, Mann and Justise Winslow came in and provided some extra unexpected energy as well. Dialing up the intensity on both ends, the reserves brought the Clippers as close as eight but just did not have enough time, nor a big enough margin of error needed to bring the miracle comeback effort all the way home.
Clippers vs. Kings Game Notes
- The Good: In the grand scheme of how strange this game was, Keon Johnson, Isaiah Hartenstein, Brandon Boston Jr. and Jay Scrubb are all names that come to mind when thinking about who played well, especially considering how small their roles are currently for this team. They played incredibly hard out there despite the lop-sided score. As for the main rotation guys, Luke Kennard and Terance Mann did just about all of their damage in the second half once the minutes and usage fell their way.
- The Quietly Good: While Ivica Zubac had another one of his vintage, often under-appreciated outings, Eric Bledsoe was also sneakily solid tonight. Aside from a pair of turnovers that immediately led to layups, and some soft defense going under on screens, Bledsoe had a handful of important individual plays in 19 minutes of action.
- The Ugly: The rust is obviously a factor here, but Marcus Morris Sr. and Serge Ibaka unquestionably did not have it tonight and were severely outplayed by the younger guys. The gamble to go big just did not work out as the Clipper starters weren’t able to do enough damage inside to warrant the level of ease that the Kings’ guards were able to score with.
- Up Next: On the front end of a back-to-back, the Clippers will visit the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on Friday, Dec. 3, at 7 p.m. PT.
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Clippers vs. Kings Recap: The Bench Keeps it Interesting
Ralston Dacanay