LOS ANGELES — Historically, the Clippers haven’t done well playing during daytime hours. Matinee games have proven difficult for them in the past, whatever the reason.
So, predictably Sunday’s 12:30 p.m. game at Crypto.com Arena started off disastrously, a lackadaisical performance best left in the dark. They trailed by 16 points five minutes into the contest.
By the time it ended, though, the Clippers had scored 22 consecutive points in a five-minute span that not only lifted them to a 125-114 victory over the Brooklyn Nets but lit up a boisterous afternoon crowd.
With each basket, the crowd roared. With each rebound, they cheered, joining the high-fiving Clippers bench until the final buzzer revealed an eye-opening 11-point victory.
“In that fourth quarter, we were on a whole other level,” said Clippers coach Tyronn Lue.
The early tip-off was compounded by a rare three days off, which left the Clippers (27-14) out of sync and out of touch shooting-wise for the first 36 minutes. Most notable was the lack of scoring early on from Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
But after a quiet first three quarters from Leonard, he went on a spree, scoring 14 of his 21 points off layups, dunks and short tosses in the final quarter as the Clippers (25-14) closed out their third straight victory.
George finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.
Lue said he couldn’t remember many of the details of the game or what flipped the switch for the Clippers in the fourth but pointed to their defensive play in stopping the Nets (17-25).
“We just stayed with it,” Lue said. “We didn’t play our best game. PG and Kawhi struggled tonight from the field. James (Harden) carried the load in the third quarter and Russ was really good off the bench. Norm made a huge 3. It was a total team effort.
“Everyone contributed.”
Russell Westbrook said the Clippers knocked out their malaise by attacking more in the fourth quarter, being aggressive on both sides of the ball.
“Earlier in the game, they were coming at us, and then in the fourth quarter, I thought we were the aggressors,” Westbrook said. “We did a great job of being aggressive offensively and defensively, attacking using our size, getting to the paint, making the right reads. And, as you saw, it changed the whole momentum of the game.”
Lue had hoped the three-day break would serve as a refresher for the veteran team, enabling the team to “get our legs back” and for the players to get treatment for minor ailments that might have lingered after winning 23 of 27 games, including a 9-2 streak.
Instead, it made for a long day against the Nets, who were coming off a convincing victory against the Lakers two days earlier. They used the momentum from that victory to build a 12-point halftime lead, extending it to 18 (104-86) in the fourth quarter.
The Clippers, behind Harden’s strong second-half play, eventually cut the lead to nine, 106-97, when he made three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt by Nets’ Lonnie Walker IV with 7:58 left in the game. Harden had 14 of his team-high 24 points in the latter half to go along with his 10 assists.
Westbrook followed with a steal and a dunk to trim the lead,106-99. He continued to pester the Nets for 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting, nine rebounds and six assists.
For a while the Nets responded to every challenge the Clippers threw at them until the final four minutes, holding onto a 113-101 lead with 6:07 left to play. Suddenly, the Clippers’ offense woke up and went on a 10-1 run to pull within one, 114-113.
The rest of the team kept going. The late stages were a marked difference from the start.
“That was a first of a kind (for me) with a slow start then red hot at the end,” George said. “That was a different game, definitely a different game. Happy to be on the winning side of that one instead of having a start like that and not being able to finish.”
The Nets jumped out to a 16-0 lead, a painful start for a Clippers team looking to further cement their dominance in the league.
Instead, they opened with the energy of quicksand in the first half, going scoreless until Terance Mann buried his first 3-pointer at the 7:28 mark of the first quarter. Mann followed with his second 3 to trim the lead, 16-6. Westbrook brought a much-needed spark to complete an 18-2 run that closed the gap, 18-18.
The Nets didn’t blink and twice used 7-0 runs to open a 42-29 lead in the second and the Clippers trailed 61-49 at the half.
