Clippers

“Don't be satisfied,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone reminded his team before allowing them to savor the win after the game. “Life and basketball, you have to ...

Gordon attacked his matchup as well, bulldozing his way to 13 points and seven rebounds in the first half. Murray began with 13 points in the first quarter, playing the type of aggressive basketball his coach had urged. That substitution pattern wasn’t necessary in the first half of Thursday’s game as the Nuggets ran roughshod through the Clippers’ defense. They dropped 36 points in the third quarter, as Porter joined the scoring binge and Jokic toyed with Los Angeles’ defense. Denver’s bench scored 60 points in the blowout, including 15 points and 12 rebounds from Vlatko Cancar. In a season full of statement wins, perhaps Thursday’s rout was the loudest.

DENVER — The LA Clippers have played their share of “burn the tape” games under head coach Tyronn Lue. Perhaps the most notable was Lue's first loss as the ...

Leonard clocked his fewest minutes in a game (18:17) since his final season with the The Clippers aren’t much better against the four teams occupying Play-In territory (2-5 against the teams ranked seventh through 10th in the West). They were playing a Nuggets squad against which the Clippers have shown a troubling inability to defend, while the Clippers have been unable to take advantage of a Denver defense that struggles to protect the paint, especially at the rim. [Nikola Jokić](https://theathletic.com/nba/player/nikola-jokic-bCjsyLGuQMrMSWNr/). The Clippers won the game in dramatic fashion. Leonard, who missed Monday’s home loss to the [Heat](https://theathletic.com/nba/team/heat/) due to what he called flu-like symptoms that kept him in bed, scored only six points on 2 of 7 shots. After all, Lue benched his starters on the front end of a back-to-back last January at Washington with the Clippers down by 35 points. But Lue also determined his Clippers “didn’t have it tonight” while targeting next Friday’s home game against the Nuggets as an opportunity to measure up to the current top seed in the West again. [LA Clippers](https://theathletic.com/nba/team/clippers/) have played their share of “burn the tape” games under head coach Tyronn Lue. At one point in the first half, Denver went on a 19-0 run, holding the Clippers without a point for 5:15. The Clippers had beaten the [Nuggets](https://theathletic.com/nba/team/nuggets/) on Christmas, a matchup set because the Nuggets overcame a 3-1 deficit in the 2020 Western Conference semifinals in the Florida bubble. [Paul George](https://theathletic.com/nba/player/paul-george-kIIUTtsJtSpaZfu1/) played through right hamstring soreness and missed all but one of his nine shots, with no free-throw attempts and no field goal attempts within 15 feet.

Paul George and Kawhi Leonard sat out the Los Angeles Clippers' game Friday night in Minnesota to manage their health following a loss Thursday in Denver.

Clippers: Reggie Jackson – Luke Kennard – Paul George – Marcus Morris – Ivica Zubac · Timberwolves: D'Angelo Russell – Anthony Edwards – Kyle Anderson – Jaden ...

Show Up: Even if the Clippers lose this game (it’s the second game of a back to back on the road against a talented opponent), they had better actually show up ready to play. They have lost four in a row, losing all the momentum they’d gained in mid-late December, and have fallen back into the pack in the crowded Western Conference. The Clippers were humiliated last night in Denver on national television, falling behind as much as 38 in the first half and benching all their starters in the second half.

Jamal Murray sparked Denver early by scoring 13 of his 18 points in the first quarter, and the Nuggets led by as many as 43 in cruising to a 122-91 win over ...

"It was me just trying to reach out to a player and show him support," Malone said. Neither played in the second half and they were a combined 3 of 16 from the field. Tonight was a tough game for us." Porter is trying to make strides on the defensive end. was picked as Denver's defensive player of the game. Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and the rest of the Clippers had an off night shooting as they dropped their fourth straight game. "Sets a standard for us." In a nationally televised game, Denver was pushing the pace and showing why the team is tied with Memphis for the top spot in the Western Conference. We're in first place in the Western Conference. It wasn't even Nikola Jokic doing most of the damage, either. I'm not that guy," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. The Nuggets picked the perfect time to turn in one of their best performances of the season.

The slumping Los Angeles Clippers head to the Great North State for the second of a back-to-back as they take on the surging Minnesota Timberwolves in what ...

However, it is hard to imagine the Clippers can turn things around less than 24 hours after getting shellacked by Denver, and with Minnesota starting to get into a groove lately. While a commanding and dominating performance by Edwards will make this Wolves team that much more dangerous, taking care of the basketball and finding more fluidly throughout the offense is critical. With a stellar 32-point outing in the win versus the Blazers, it marked the tenth consecutive game that the former Georgia product was able to drop at least 23 points in a game. If anything, the Clippers’ defense has been fantastic this year through 39 games, and putting the clamps down on a Minnesota bunch that is a streaky shooting squad could be exactly what the doctor ordered. Things couldn’t have possibly gotten any uglier for the Clippers last night, as they were destroyed by the Nuggets in the Mile High thin air by a score of 122-91. For starters, the Clippers can’t be any more than they were in last night’s horrendous showing on national tv, and after shooting an abysmal 13.5% from three-point range on Thursday, the Clippers should be more than enthusiastic about moving on from that debacle.

Minnesota hosts the Los Angeles Clippers one night after LA was blown out in Denver.

That does nothing for the team on the court tonight, though. Gobert’s struggles against the Clippers five-out lineups have been well documented, but no George or Leonard tonight would obviously make this matchup more viable for Rudy. The Wolves are generally a team that leans into playing big, so the question is how they’ll be able to handle that. This Clippers team was embarrassed in Denver last night, and will surely be looking to right the ship in this one. The complicating factor tonight is that Ty Lue benched the Clippers starters at halftime last night against the Nuggets in Denver, which left George and Leonard each under 20 minutes played. This season has been no different, and while the Minnesota Timberwolves should be prepared for anyone, it makes it a little tougher to know what to expect ahead of time.

The Los Angeles Clippers received a pair of injury updates on Paul George and Kawhi Leonard ahead of their game vs. the Timberwolves.

Leonard is also averaging 6 rebounds and 4 assists per game for the Clippers. The Timberwolves have endured their share of struggles throughout the 2022-2023 campaign. But injury concerns have been a factor for this team over the past couple of years.

Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert shoots between the Clippers' Norman Powell (24) and Moses Brown (9) on Friday night in Minneapolis. The Clippers lost 128-115 ...

That it was even a question stemmed from Lue’s decision to bench his starters at halftime Thursday with the Clippers trailing by 34 points, in part to preserve their rest ahead of the next day’s game in Minnesota. The unexpected blowout and benching Thursday made it a more sudden possibility, but it likely was too short of notice for a team that is especially cautious with health. Lue made point-of-attack defense a preseason priority given what seemed to be the roster’s advantage of having a stockpile of long-armed wings with strong defensive credentials. Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards was held to six field-goal attempts and two assists in the first half. The story has been the same with transition defense, as the Clippers rank sixth overall but second to last since Dec. It was why the Clippers left Denver late Thursday still looking for a stronger “defensive mindset,” in Lue’s words, to start games. A team that dreamed of a deep postseason run will enter the season’s second half in a fight to avoid the play-in tournament. [John Wall](https://www.latimes.com/sports/clippers/story/2022-12-09/los-angeles-clippers-john-wall-heroic-generosity-washington-dc) pinned Taurean Prince in the corner with a closeout, forcing a turnover. The Clippers’ half-court defense is the NBA’s sixth best this season, but it hasn’t come close to that level of efficiency since a five-game trip began Dec. Switching the reserves’ rotations, such as how often multiple guards play with one another, is a tool at his disposal to ignite change, but it wasn’t truly an option during the quick trip to Denver and Minnesota. In the seven games since then entering Friday, the Clippers ranked 29th out of 30 teams by giving up 123 points per 100 possessions — 11.5 points higher than their season average. But the margin for error is getting slimmer by the day.

With Paul George and Kawhi Leonard sitting out the second night of a back-to-back, the shorthanded Clippers fell 128-115 to Minnesota for their fifth ...

"I just thought it was their ability to get into the paint [that] really hurt us," Lue said. Minnesota shot 56.8% from the field and scored 62 points in the paint. Meanwhile, opponents were hitting just 45.8% of their shots against the Clippers. "It's tough when you're shorthanded the way we were tonight,'' Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said after Friday's loss. [Rudy Gobert](https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/3032976/rudy-gobert) and 25 points from [D'Angelo Russell](https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/3136776/d'angelo-russell). [Paul George](https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/4251/paul-george) and [Kawhi Leonard](https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/6450/kawhi-leonard) sat out the [LA Clippers](/nba/team/_/name/lac/la-clippers)' game Friday night in Minnesota to manage their health following a loss Thursday in Denver.