Los Angeles, California Local News
Clippers can’t hold off Suns, drop to 0-3 at Intuit Dome
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INGLEWOOD — Playing an opponent twice in eight days has its benefits. The teams know each other’s tendencies and remember what schemes they like to run.
So, when the Clippers hosted the Phoenix Suns for the second time in five games on Thursday night, recalling what happened before wasn’t an issue.
“There’s not any real advantage playing against three Hall of Famers, but we know what they are running,” Lue said. “We know how they tried to attack us last game. We know how we need to play, how to attack them.”
That memory muscle didn’t save the Clippers on Thursday, when they built a 21-point lead before losing to the Suns, 125-119, at the Intuit Dome. The loss came one night after they gave away a late lead in a one-point loss to Portland.
This game didn’t resemble the opening night contest in which the Suns won in overtime. In that game, the Clippers watched helplessly as hot-shooting Phoenix made all 10 of its free throws in the extra period. But it was a harbinger of things to come as the Clippers’ next two games came down to the final minute.
Nothing changed this time. After leading by as many as 19 in the first half, the Clippers again were left scrambling for an advantage in the waning moments of the game, an edge that never materialized.
“I mean, we just got to learn from it,” Lue said. “We got to continue to keep getting better. We got to close games better and just something to keep learning from. All five of our games have been close, come down to the wire. We’ve been fortunate to win two of them, but in any of those games, we could be 0-5. We could be 5-0.
“So, just staying the course, understanding that our margin for error is very slim. So, we can’t turn the basketball over. We can’t have defensive breakdowns, we can’t allow offensive rebounds, and then we got to take good shots and be good offensively.”
The Suns took advantage of the Clippers’ miscues to pull ahead by what looked to be an insurmountable eight-point lead at 115-107 on a floater by Royce O’Neale.
James Harden trimmed the deficit to six with 1:58 left and added a pair of free throws at the 1:25 mark to get the hosts within 115-111. The six-time All-Star guard made one of two foul shots before O’Neale buried a corner 3-pointer to give the Suns an 118-112 lead with 44 seconds remaining.
The Clippers (2-3) couldn’t mount any sort of comeback as their turnovers continued (they had six in the fourth quarter) and the clock ran out, dropping them to 0-3 at their new arena.
“All those things matter. Each possession matters until we understand that it’s going to be tough games, and like I said, we are in the game,” Lue said. “We are playing hard, we are competing, but we got to play smarter, and we got to be better.”
The Clippers did none of those things down the stretch. Every time the Clippers pushed ahead, the Suns (4-1) pushed back.
Phoenix was unstoppable in the third quarter, shooting 80% from the field on its way to a 51.2% mark for the game. The Suns also made 82.1% of their free throws (23 for 28).
Harden said the Clippers, with nine new players, are going through NBA-style growing pains.
“It’s definitely frustrating, but nothing we can do about it,” Harden said. “We got to find ways to get better.
“Obviously you want to win games … but it is what it is. If we were winning games in this, then it’s a conversation, but we kind of brush it off, so we just got to make sure we stick with it and we will.”
First, the Clippers need to learn how to stop the opponent’s stars.
Kevin Durant, who said fans in The Wall section affected him in the previous meeting, showed more poise the second time, scoring 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Fellow All-Star Devin Booker was seemingly unflappable, scoring a game-high 40 points on 11-of-18 shooting (5 for 9 from 3-point range) with eight assists.
Harden finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists, his fourth triple-double as a Clipper, the fourth-most in franchise history, and eclipsed the 26,000-point mark (26,004). He is one of 20 players in NBA history to reach that mark.
Harden also notched his fourth consecutive game with a points/assists double-double, the longest streak by a Clippers player since Chris Paul in 2017.
Ivica Zubac posted another double-double with 22 points and 12 rebounds, while Norman Powell had 23 points.
Kevin Porter Jr., who has had a lackluster start to his Clippers career, had his best outing of the early season. Sporting green hair (part of his pregame Joker costume), he scored 14 points.
With Harden in charge, the Clippers jumped out to a double-digit lead and led 37-20 after one quarter. He had 12 points and seven assists in his first 11 minutes.
The Clippers eventually pulled away to a 19-point lead (46-37) in the second quarter, sowing the seeds for a potential blowout victory.
The Suns, despite playing without Bradley Beal (elbow), clawed their way back into the game, pulling to within 50-40 before Powell got hot, scoring eight consecutive points to put the Clippers firmly ahead going into halftime. They led 70-52 at the intermission and by 21 in the first minute of the third quarter, but the Suns outscored them 39-23 in the period.
Booker and Durant got going in the third to spark the Suns, combining for 20 points. O’Neale, who finished with 21 points, and Ryan Dunn, who had 16, also had some timely long-distance shots after the break.
Phoenix finished with 73 points in the second half.
“You can’t take no team lightly,” Harden said. “So, for us, I think it’s going to be a lot of close games and we just got to find ways to execute and win ’em. The last two were tough, but we’ll get there sooner than later.”
Originally Published:
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Janis Carr
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