Depleted Clippers give Celtics all they can handle in OT loss

Today at 01:49 AM

INGLEWOOD — Clippers coach Tyronn Lue sat speechless at the podium for several moments before Wednesday night's game against the Boston Celtics.

With a game like this, without six of your top eight rotation players, what are you looking forward to the most?

A few more seconds went by.

"I don't know," Lue said.

With Kawhi Leonard sitting out his second game in a row and joined by James Harden, Norman Powell, Ivica Zubac and Kris Dunn on the bench, the outlook was bleak for the Clippers. These were the reigning NBA champion Celtics after all, who at 31-13 are the third-best team in the league. The team with the two-pronged punch of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

What Lue couldn't have imagined 90 minutes before tipoff was that the Clippers would be competitive, pushing the Celtics until the final minute before falling in overtime, 117-113, at the Intuit Dome.

Derrick Jones Jr. scored a career-high 29 points, 17 in the first quarter, to lead the Clippers. Kevin Porter Jr. added a season-high 26 and Amir Coffey had 24.

By overtime, the Clippers appeared to have little left as they struggled to score while the Celtics buried back-to-back 3-pointers to begin the extra period and take a 109-103 lead less than a minute into OT.

After a layup by Jones, Jaylen Brown buried another long-range shot for a 112-105 lead.

But the Clippers weren't done.

With 30 seconds left, Coffey completed a three-point play to cut the margin to 115-113 before time ran out on the Clippers' potential upset.

The Celtics' Neemias Queta closed the scoring with a reverse layup with six seconds left.

Jones had tied the score at 103-all with four second left in regulation, then batted away an attempted pass to send the game into overtime.

Nine Clippers stuck with the Celtics throughout the game.

Down 96-91 with less than four minutes left in regulation, Jones trimmed the lead with a floater, but the Celtics answered for a six-point lead.

Jones, whose role has been reduced since Leonard's return earlier this month, was hit in the head by Jaylen Brown on a layup and remained down on the court for several minutes before making both free throws. Coffey made a free throw on a technical foul called on White to pull the Clippers within 101-97.

After Brown made two free throws, Terance Mann kept the Clippers' hopes of an upset alive with a reverse layup to trim the lead to 103-99 with a minute left.

Coffey broke free for a basket with 12 seconds remaining to cut the lead 103-101.

The Clippers had led 89-83 on Coffey's turnaround jumper shortly into the fourth quarter but their lead faded fast as the Celtics got into a rhythm.

White's pull up 3-pointer put Boston ahead 90-89 with 8:40 left much to the delight of the green-clad fans who filled much of the section opposite of The Wall.

Tatum buried his third 3-pointer of the game for a 93-89 lead, followed by a 29-footer from White for the Celtics' biggest lead of the night (96-89).

The game was messy with the teams combining for 41 turnovers (the Clippers turned it over 23 times).

Still the Clippers trailed by just one at halftime (60-59) behind Jones, who got the Clippers' hopes going with his strong first quarter. He finished the night with seven rebounds and three assists. Coffey had 14 of his points in the first quarter as well.

"We have a lot of guys that deserve to play, but you can't play everybody," Lue said. "And our guys have bought in that whoever we need that night to win, that's what we're going to do.

"We want to win tonight and worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow. And that's kind of how we go about things here. So, tonight those guys to get an opportunity to play."

And players such as Bones Hyland (eight points), Jordan Miller (six points) and Kobe Brown (11 rebound, two blocked shots) made the most of their opportunity.

Lue said before Clippers' current stretch of six games in nine nights, his approach would be to take it "game by game." The team would put the players' health and well-being at the forefront and sit them if necessary. This was one of those games.

"We have a lot of guys on the team with some little nagging injuries that we got to try to be careful with," Lue said.

The Clippers have two more home games on Thursday and Saturday before going on the road for four games in eight days on a trip that takes them from Phoenix to San Antonio to Charlotte to Toronto.

Jaylen Brown scored 25 points and Tatum had 24 to pace the Celtics. Derrick White added 20 points and Sam Hauser had 15. The Celtics were vulnerable, having lost six of their past 10 games heading into the first of back-to-back games in Los Angeles. They play at the Lakers on Thursday.

They also had three key players out – Jrue Holiday (shoulder), Al Horford (toe) and Kristaps Porzingis (illness).

More to come on this story.