Clippers rally from 22 down to beat Warriors،
LOS ANGELES — After the final buzzer sounded and the LA Clippers pulled off an improbable 22-point comeback against the Golden State Warriors for a well-deserved victory, Paul George left the floor with a clenched fist before hugging Kawhi Leonard and James. Harden.
George buried a step-back 3 over Klay Thompson with 9.9 seconds left to help the Clippers knock out the Warriors 113-112 at Crypto.com Arena.
George’s shot gave the Clippers (9-10) their only lead of the game. A Warriors team playing without injured Andrew Wiggins, Chris Paul and Gary Payton II led 70-48 with 11:45 left in the third quarter, but was outscored 65-42 the rest of the game.
“It was a gutsy win for us,” Clippers coach Ty Lue said. “We needed to win like that just to keep fighting, keep fighting, keep competing and win a big game like this.”
The Clippers, who have endured growing pains since trading for Harden on Oct. 30, were looking at the possibility of losing back-to-back to the Warriors after falling to San Francisco on Thursday. It would have been a frustrating end to a week that began with a home loss Monday to a Denver Nuggets team without Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon.
Instead, the Clippers somehow held Golden State to 20 points in the fourth quarter. After watching Draymond Green bury four 3-pointers in the first quarter alone, the Clippers held Golden State to 5-of-21 shooting from deep in the second half to earn their biggest win of the season.
Harden (21 points, nine assists) thought the Clippers were down by as many as 18 before being corrected after the game.
“Wow, 22,” he said when asked about the second-half deficit. “…We don’t want to keep going up and down. We want to be consistent.
“I said [George] And [Leonard] before the match, “Let’s get our rhythm back. Let’s be wise, as we will be later in the season. Let’s start now.’
The Clippers had no trouble integrating Leonard, George, Harden and Russell Westbrook. Lue initially started the four before Westbrook moved to the second unit in an effort to ease the transition.
All four stars tried to sacrifice and rely on each other, as the Clippers’ offense seemed stagnant and passive at times. But in the 131-117 win in Sacramento on Wednesday, the Clippers looked dominant with Leonard, Harden and George taking turns putting pressure on the defense while Westbrook provided energy, hustle, passing and scoring. rebounds on the bench.
Lue called the win a model for how they should play on both ends, only to see them fall to Golden State the next night.
Before the Clippers could get revenge on Saturday, they still had to watch Stephen Curry (22 points, 11 assists) drive the lane in the final seconds. With Leonard guarding Curry and Westbrook standing on the baseline under the basket to help, Curry passed to Green in the left corner but missed as Westbrook quickly recovered to contest the shot, allowing George (25 points) and the Clippers to celebrate.
“It’s huge,” Leonard said of the victory. “We’ve tried to be consistent. We’re improving, but very slowly… You know, the way things are going, it’s great to get a win.”
Lue said he hopes this can propel the Clippers to more wins and climb the Western Conference standings. He admitted that the process of integrating Harden and finding the right balance between his four stars has been very difficult.
“It’s going to be tough and it’s going to be tough,” Lue said. “Guys are playing a different way than they’re used to. And it’s hard to tell four All-Stars and four future Hall of Famers to play differently when they’ve been doing it for so long. And that will be the challenge for the coaches all year.”
“It’s been pretty tough,” he added when asked if it was harder than he expected. “But I’m built for this. I love this team. I love our squad… It’s my job to find out and the job of our four guys to find out as well.”
