Despite dominating the entire first half, the Clippers got too comfortable in their lead on Friday, allowing the San Antonio Spurs to rally a second half comeback that ended in a 116-112 loss.
The Clippers were on their A-game in the beginning. Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard had 14 points in the first half, hitting open jumpers and controlling the speed of the game. Center Brook Lopez dominated inside the paint. He snagged 17 points for the Clippers in the first half alone. With a prevalent Clippers roster, the Spurs were picked apart.
The Spurs were barely hanging on. They lacked any rhythm in their offense and couldn’t find a groove between their players. Many open shots that needed to be hit were missed. San Antonio had 13 turnovers, with 16 points conceded off of those 13.
But that all changed in the second half as the Spurs came back and tore LA apart.
Spurs forward Julian Champagnie helped propel this San Antonio team back into the game. He had 20 points and nine rebounds, while guard De’Aaron Fox sank 19 with nine rebounds.
The Spurs trailed 75-50 in the third quarter, building back the momentum slowly against the Clippers, but they exploded in an 18-5 point run in the fourth to finally take a lead.
Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama had a game. He had 27 points, ten rebounds and four blocks during the game. His biggest play came in the form of a huge block against Kris Dunn’s reverse layup attempt. The ball was then recovered by San Antonio and ended with a fast break alley-oop dunk by Carter Bryant. Right after, Devin Vassell sunk a 3-pointer for the Spurs to go ahead 99-97.
Leonard missed a late fourth quarter three and Wembanyama took it to the other end for an open dunk, which brought the Spurs ahead 113-112 with 16 seconds left. The Clippers turned over a ball in the last seconds when forward Nicolas Batum’s foot crossed the white line when inbounding.
Spurs guard Stephon Castle finished off the crazy comeback win by rebounding his own missed free throw and hitting a layup with one second remaining.
San Antonio moved to 46-17, winning 14 of 15 of the last games and is second in the Western Conference. LA fell to 30-32.
The Clippers now sit ninth in the Western Conference. The goal for the rest of their season is fighting to secure a spot in the NBA playoffs. That means blowing leads and close losses won’t cut it anymore.