LOS ANGELES — When the Denver Nuggets had the ball with five seconds left and down 102-100 on the road against the LA Clippers Thursday night, I got a case of déjà vu.
On Jan. 11, 2022, the Nuggets visited the Clippers and took a 25-point third-quarter lead. The Clippers, playing without Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, came back to take an 89-87 lead. But they couldn’t put the game away, as Nicolas Batum missed a dagger 3-pointer.
Instead of calling a timeout, Denver center Nikola Jokić advanced the ball into the frontcourt. With time winding down, Jokić attempted a go-ahead 3 and missed, with just enough time for an Aaron Gordon game-tying field goal attempt. But Gordon’s putback was no good and the Clippers secured one of the most memorable comebacks in team history.
Fast forward to Thursday night, and the Nuggets had taken a 25-8 first-quarter lead in LA. The Clippers, playing without Leonard due to right knee soreness, came back to lead by halftime. The Clippers’ lead grew to as large as 13 points in the third quarter, but they couldn’t put the game away. This time, it was James Harden who missed the dagger 3-pointer with six seconds left.
Considering Denver head coach Michael Malone was ejected with 7:54 left to play, assistant David Adelman chose to take the timeout rather than play it out. Jokić received the ball farther from the basket than ideal, and his go-ahead 3-point attempt was no good. The Clippers held onto the 102-100 victory against the defending champions and tied the regular season series 2-2. It completed one of the most eventful comeback wins the Clippers have had all season.
“In a lot of those situations, especially when you have your horses, when you get a stop, I like to go with it,” Malone explained after Thursday’s game while acknowledging that he put Adelman and his team in a difficult spot with his ejection. “I don’t want them to be able to, on a timeout dead ball, get their best defensive players in the game, and allow them to pull up a play that we may run and go to to try and take us out of it. But you know, that’s the way it broke tonight.”
Thursday’s game was one example of a greater trend that has been developing between the two teams. It’s the second time this season the Clippers have been able to beat the Nuggets when trailing by double digits. In December, the Nuggets led 36-21 at the end of the first quarter. LA rallied back with a 40-21 second quarter to erase Denver’s lead. The Nuggets regained the lead after halftime but the Clippers went on to outscore Denver 32-20 in the fourth quarter to capture a 111-102 win.
“They have a really talented group of people,” Jokic said after Thursday’s game. “They know what to do. They stopped us in a couple of situations. We had the lead in the first half, first quarter. Then they took over the lead, and it seemed like we were always catching (them) behind.”
That December game featured Denver point guard Jamal Murray and Leonard. Both players were inactive Friday due to respective right knee issues. While Denver had success in LA starting former Clippers point guard Reggie Jackson in November, Thursday night was another example of the Clippers’ depth outperforming the Nuggets’. Denver’s bench scored nine points combined, while the Clippers had three reserves who scored at least that many points individually: Powell (11), Russell Westbrook (12) and Amir Coffey (nine). Westbrook’s alley-oop dunk from Powell capped a 10-0 run to start the second quarter, featuring a Clippers lineup of Powell, Westbrook, Coffey, backup center Mason Plumlee and Harden.
“Our bench really came in and changed the game for us,” Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said Thursday night. “We got down early. I like the physicality they came in with, and their energy, just playing on both sides. The energy they brought was good for us.”
The Clippers shot 37.8 percent from the field and missed 26 of 33 3s (21.2 percent) on Thursday night, but were still able to escape the Nuggets on the strength of a 7-6 offensive rebound edge and a 14-7 advantage in opponent turnovers.
“We competed, we played hard, we scrapped,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well, but we just kept coming. We kept coming, kept fighting. And that’s what you want to see, especially going down the stretch of the year. Six games left now, and what our guys did tonight, it was beautiful.”
Harden weighed down the Clippers shooting percentages, missing 17 of a season-high 23 field goal attempts and 11 of his season-high 13 3-point attempts. But Harden’s best scoring quarter was in the second, and it was his 3-pointer that formally erased Denver’s 17-point first-quarter lead while a 3-point play through Gordon gave the Clippers a lead. Harden scored 14 of his 20 points in the second quarter, and it was Harden’s first 20-point game in 29 days.
But Harden’s playmaking and ball control made the biggest difference. His only turnover was on a dropped pass by Powell in the fourth quarter. Harden countered that with eight assists. The Clippers are 13-0 this season when Harden has at least eight assists without more than one turnover, including a win at Charlotte on March 31 when Harden had 10 assists without a turnover. Harden even brought back the alley-oop to a weakside corner cutting Westbrook for the first time since the Clippers were in Detroit in early February:
The Clippers have won four of five games overall, and Thursday’s thriller was the third of those wins that came after the Clippers survived a late possession that could have tied or changed the lead. Like the wins last week in Philadelphia and Orlando, the Clippers had a defensive mindset for most of the game, not just the final plays.
“(We’re) ramping up for the big goal,” Harden said of LA’s improved defense over the last five games.
This fourth-quarter possession on Thursday night was a strong example of the kind of desperation and effort the Clippers have needed to show to win games, especially on nights where shots aren’t falling:
- Harden denies Christian Braun after Gordon terminates his dribble
- Tucker comes off of Porter Jr. to help swarm Jokić under the basket
- Powell rotates to chase Porter Jr. off the 3-point line
- Zubac steps up on Porter Jr. closeout drive to discourage an attempt at the rim
- George flies out to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope along with Powell, resulting in a missed floater
The Clippers are now 48-28 and fourth in the West with a two-game lead over the Dallas Mavericks and a three-game lead over the Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans. Leonard is expected to be day-to-day with knee soreness. Being able to defeat the defending champs to snap a five-game home losing streak, in such a familiar fashion, is a great way for the Clippers to show they are up to that task.
“I think it’s just mindset,” Harden said. “It’s a long season, you know what I mean? As much as you want to win every single game and you want everything to be going smooth, it’s not going to happen like that. I think every team goes through that moment, to where whatever happens and whatever’s going on, and then the fall or whatever happens. So for us, it was just bad timing. But now we got out of it, we got an opportunity. We got six games left to keep ramping up and keep getting better.”
(Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA TODAY Sports)
