INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Los Angeles Clippers hosted the San Antonio Spurs on Monday, at the new state-of-the-art Intuit Dome. After a remarkable comeback by the Clippers, who trailed by as many as 26 points in the first quarter, the Spurs became the first NBA team to lose at the new facility and are also the team that lost the biggest lead of this young NBA season.
Norman Powell scored 23 points, Amir Coffey added 21 to lead the Clippers over the Spurs 113-104. James Harden scored 17 points and Ivica Zubac had 17 points and 13 rebounds. It was the Clippers’ largest comeback when trailing at the end of the first quarter and tied for the third largest when trailing by any deficit since 1996.It was the largest blown San Antonio lead at the end of the first quarter and the fourth-largest by any deficit in franchise history.
San Antonio, led by Victor Wembanyama, initially dominated the game, showcasing their new offensive strength and defensive intensity. However, the Clippers, fueled by their bench players, particularly Coffey and Powell, began chipping away at the deficit.
The second quarter was a turning point for Los Angeles, as the Clippers tightened their defense and forced turnovers. They also capitalized on their offensive opportunities, scoring 34 points in the period to reduce the lead to 8 points by halftime.
The third quarter saw a continuation of the Clippers’ momentum. They scored efficiently and limited the Spurs’ offensive output, further narrowing the gap.
In the fourth quarter, the Clippers’ defensive intensity reached its peak, forcing crucial turnovers and contested shots. Their offense also clicked, with Powell and Coffey leading the charge. The Clippers outscored the Spurs 27 to 7 during a stretch in the final period, as they completed a stunning 26-point comeback and secured a 113-104 victory.
While Wembanyama scored 24 points, he did so on 9-of-22 shooting from the field. And shot only 1-4 from three-point range. That gave him a field goal percentage of 40.9% and a long-distance percentage of 25%. While he did contribute significantly to the team’s scoring, those shooting efficiency stats were below his season average.
After the game, Wembanyama said his team missed coach Gregg Popovich- who missed his second game due to an unknown illness and remains in San Antonio. “Of course, we all want to see Pop back,” said Wembanyama. “But it’s our job to [keep playing] regardless of the conditions right now. It’s just to keep, you know, playing my game and my game consists of shooting threes, too. So I’m just going to, if I’m open, I’m just going to keep shooting them, you know, and I’m going to make them.”
Julian Champagnie, had a strong game with a career-high 21 points, and was a significant contributor offensively, though his effort was not enough to overcome the loss of defensive specialist Jeremy Sochan who left the game just before the turning point in the first half.
When asked what happened to Sochan, who has been a key contributor this season, interim coach Mitch Johnson said he didn’t know. “I know he had something with his finger or hand. I saw him messing with it during the game. I’m not sure about the status. Obviously, he didn’t come back. I know he’s in some pain.”
Johnson added that the Spurs will also remain without the services of Devin Vassell throughout the remainder of this road trip, which sees them taking on the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
“Obviously, we didn’t shoot the ball great from three tonight,” said Johnson. “I thought we had pretty good shots for the most part. They made 19 threes, and you give them credit for that, and we made 11. That’s a lot of points to make up in other parts of the game. So it’s a thing, and we’ll continue to work on it. Again, a young team that hasn’t played much together, it will maybe take us a little bit more time to find solutions for our second, third, fourth options, whoever may be on the court.”
This win marked the Clippers’ first victory at Intuit Dome this season and snapped a three-game losing streak.
“I think the first thing going into a locker room like ours is just making sure the guys believe that we can be really good,” said veteran Chris Paul- who scored six points and dished 6 assists. “They’re such great guys, but I can’t fathom 22 wins, right? So when you go through things like that where these guys work hard and practice and try every day and, you know, don’t see the wins, you know, that stuff can get pretty routine where you’re just like it’s never enough. And so we’re going to keep building and make sure they know that going into every game, you know, we can win. And they see it because of how we started out.”
Takeaways
Spurs: San Antonio was 16 of 26 from the field in the first quarter but 22 of 60 the rest of the game.
Clippers: LA was 19 of 37 on 3-pointers and had a season-high 16 offensive rebounds.
Key moment
The Clippers went on a 33-9 run during a nine-minute span late in the third quarter until the four-minute mark of the fourth. Powell’s 3-pointer with 7:25 remaining gave LA its first lead at 93-91. It went up for good (96-93) with 6:26 left on Coffey’s 3-pointer.
Key stat
The Clippers outscored the Spurs 31-18 in the final 12 minutes.
Up next
Both teams are in action on Wednesday. The Spurs are at Houston and the Clippers host Philadelphia. Paul George, who was with the Clippers for five seasons, is expected to face his former club for the first time.
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