213hoops.com
Thunder Roll Clippers, Snap Winning Streak
The Clippers have had a triumphant December so far, but they hit their first speed bump of the month Thursday night in a 134-115 defeat in Oklahoma City. Playing on the second night of a back-to-back without Kawhi Leonard, who is day-to-day with a minor hip injury suffered Wednesday in Dallas, the Clippers didn’t have the legs to match up with a young, dynamic, and talented Thunder squad that left them in the dust time and time again throughout the night.
James Harden led the way for the Clippers with 23 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists, but was challenged by the lengthy Thunder defense keying in on him as he shot just 7-18 from the field and turned the ball over 3 times, with multiple poke-aways as he tried to get penetration. Paul George, returning from illness, played just 29 minutes and posted 22 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists–a solid outing, but not enough to compete with an elite opponent on the road without Kawhi Leonard.
As one might expect, Ivica Zubac struggled with the Chet Holmgren matchup and played free safety early in a matchup with poor-shooting Thunder wing Josh Giddey, but when Giddey made three threes in the opening minutes of the game, Zubac was pulled and the Clippers played long stretches with no center on the floor. It’s hard enough for this team to play without a center when Leonard was active, but playing without a center and without their biggest wing led to some pick-up 5-out lineups (like Harden, Westbrook, Norm Powell, Brandon Boston, and Amir Coffey) that offered little resistance to the Thunder’s dribble penetration heavy offense.
The Clippers rallied several times–from down 13 to down 3 in the late first, from down 14 in the mid-2nd to up 1 early in the 3rd, from down 20 to down 13 in the 4th–but they were ultimately chasing Oklahoma City the entire game and found themselves reacting more slowly to loose balls in the third quarter as the Thunder put the game away. Call it a schedule loss if you want, as tired legs was certainly a contributing factor. Overall, that was part of a hill too big for the Clippers to climb, along with a very good opponent, Kawhi’s injury, George’s recovery from illness, and Oklahoma City’s hot shooting (they’re 6-0 this year when making 16 threes at 45%+).