The Morning After: Spurs vs. Clippers

Box Score | Game Flow | Advanced Stats

Winning in San Antonio has been quite a feat for the Los Angeles Clippers through a streak of 17 straight losses.

That streak was snapped on Saturday night as the Chris Paul-led Clippers used big second and fourth quarter runs to get by the Tony Parker-less San Antonio Spurs. 

Manu Ginobili’s two three-pointers after the Spurs closed the gap on a 13-point fourth quarter deficit with just over five minutes remaining, but Paul and Mo Williams, who combined for 69 points, weren’t done.

The combination of the Spurs missing open shots, and Paul and Williams leading a late surge was too much for the Spurs, especially without their top two point guards.

With the loss, the Spurs drop to 26-13 on the season

In Retrospect

In Jeff Garcia’s Five Things to Watch pregame post, he noted two key stats.

• The Clippers are road warriors if they hit the century mark. The Clips are 9-0 this season on the road when they score 100 or more points.
• Let’s keep it a low-scoring affair tonight. The Clippers are 2-9 this season on the road when scoring under 100 points.

The Spurs couldn’t keep the Clippers under 100 and they were missing some of their own firepower to match the Clippers’ offensive efforts.

Quotable

“It was a great effort. I thought our guys did a great job. The last half of that fourth quarter we had some great open looks from three. We just couldn’t make them.  It’s a bad combination if you’re not hitting those and you’re not hitting your free throws. You really put yourself in a hole and the guys still were there the whole time and then Mo (Williams) hit those two threes in a row.  That was the difference right there.  It was a good effort and I’m proud of them.”
– Spurs coach Gregg Popovich

By the numbers 

51.9 – The Clippers three-point shooting percentage compared to the Spurs’ 40 percent.
5 – Aside from Williams’ 33-point outburst, the rest of the Clippers bench only managed 5 points.
62.5% – The Spurs struggled from the charity strip throughout the game, making only 20 of 32 attempts.

Rookie Watch

Kawhi Leonard finished with 10 points and six rebounds in 20 minutes. Leonard has scored in double figures in five of his last six games. Cory Joseph was recalled from the Toros with backup point guard T.J. Ford out. Joseph played just 39 seconds.