Clippers return to the site of their last bad loss, and lose big to New Orleans again
Only in hindsight did the Clippers’ last visit to New Orleans become a good memory.
Because in the moment, on March 14, nothing felt auspicious about a 20-point loss, coming off their uneven play leading into the NBA’s All-Star break. The Clippers’ biggest sin was the way they offered little resistance amid the rout.
“I just didn’t think we had the right mindset coming into the game,†coach Tyronn Lue said Monday in a pregame videoconference. “I think that was a wake-up call for us.â€
In the five weeks since, the Clippers are an NBA-best 18-5 in part because of the events that took place that day in New Orleans. Serge Ibaka hurt his back; Ivica Zubac has started at center ever since and the team’s defensive turnaround has been attributed by several Clippers to Zubac’s increased role.
It also prompted Lue to replace starting forward Nicolas Batum with Marcus Morris in hopes of jump-starting Morris’ comfort as a scorer.
He’d made 50% of his three-point attempts since.
The team that arrived Monday to Smoothie King Center, which included DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo, veterans who weren’t added for several weeks, looked and played in some ways like a wholly different group.
DeMarcus Cousins’ 10-day contract with the Clippers is nearly over, but coach Tyronn Lue is convinced Cousins could help them in their NBA title push.
And yet they departed with a 120-103 loss that was just as one-sided as the one in March.
The Clippers trailed by as many as 25, made 31% of their three-point tries and committed a season-high-tying 19 turnovers that translated to 21 Pelicans points, and yet as uncharacteristically as their offense played, their defense was the bigger culprit. At one point in the first quarter, New Orleans made 10 consecutive baskets.
With Luke Kennard resting and Kawhi Leonard missing his fourth consecutive game because of a sore right foot — he has played in one of the team’s last nine games — there was not enough shooting to turn the Clippers’ moments of fight into a full-fledged comeback.
“We were out of sync, and give them credit, they played a great game,†said Paul George, who made one of six three-point attempts en route to nine points against the pestering defense of Lonzo Ball. “Defensively and offensively, they were on it. Second time we played them here and they’ve been hot.â€
Highlights from the Clippers’ 120-103 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday.
Terance Mann scored a team-high 17 points and Cousins added 16 points and 11 rebounds off the bench during a defeat that denied the Clippers from clinching a postseason berth for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons. Morris made three of 10 three-point tries to score 15 points.
New Orleans (27-34) shot 51% behind the arc and 53% overall.
“It all started because we were missing shots and we can’t let our offense dictate our defense,†Lue said.
Playing short-handed, the Clippers (43-20) nonetheless had been able to sneak by Portland, Memphis and Houston for victories last week. Lue didn’t want to tether Monday’s result to playing on fumes, though: Of their 31 misses behind the three-point arc, many were wide open.
Injuries in Detroit and uncertainty with the Clippers led Reggie Jackson to consider quitting basketball. The Clippers have been rejuvenated by his return.
After the Pelicans went on a 27-4 run in the first quarter to lead 29-13, one of the few rays of Clippers optimism was the production of Cousins, who scored eight points within his first four minutes off the bench in the second quarter. It didn’t matter that the former All-Star big man still is processing a playbook he described as “the size of a dictionary†— he simply used mano-a-mano force and, once, a balletic baseline spin, to cut his paths to the basket.
Only hours earlier, Cousins signed a contract for the rest of the season.
“It wasn’t enough for tonight, but just seeing him post and be able to score down on the block, able to make the right pass, it’s good to see,†Lue said.
“He had a good game for us.â€
Down 17 within 11 minutes, the Clippers pulled within six with 2:52 to play in the first half, only for the Pelicans to close on a 7-0 run to lead by 14 at the break.
The NBA’s best three-point-shooting offense can eliminate a nine-point deficit like it faced with eight minutes to play in the third quarter in just three possessions.
Instead, within three minutes, the Clippers were down 17 again.
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