LOS ANGELES — The LA Clippers produced their biggest win of the season Saturday night at home, defeating the San Antonio Spurs 119-97. For the last 29:16 of the game, the Clippers were up by double-digits, and the lead reached as many as 30 points.
Against the Spurs, the Clippers reached season highs in assists (32), field goal percentage (54.3) and all 3-point categories (21-of-40, 52.5 percent). It was the highest offensive efficiency performance of the season for the Clippers (124.0), leading head coach Tyronn Lue to say after the game, “This is the blueprint.”
But it’s a Clippers game, so even a needed blowout win doesn’t come without some drama. That’s where we begin the takeaways.
Paul George exited early
George entered Saturday night’s game in a funk. Over a four-game stretch that began the previous Saturday against the Brooklyn Nets, George was held to 19.5 points and 4.3 turnovers per game on only 34.3 percent shooting from the field. He had only 16 points on 5-of-18 shooting in 35:49 against the Detroit Pistons on Thursday. It took one quarter of play on Saturday night for George to completely make that up.
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George scored 18 of LA’s 40 first-quarter points, the most points George scored in any quarter this season. George was aggressive but also didn’t have to complicate his offense. George made a pull-up midrange field goal to break a scoreless tie, then every basket the Clippers made for the rest of the opening quarter was assisted. George made 7 of 10 first-quarter field goals and 4 of 6 first quarter 3s. He even got up for yet another alley-oop dunk after a timeout, the kind where Lue likes to find the weakside lob recipient; George has 14 dunks in 549 minutes this season after only 10 dunks in 1,077 minutes last season:
George spent the first half of the second quarter in the locker room, emerging in time to make his scheduled second stint with 6:15 left to play in the first half. But after hitting one more 3, George sat the final 3:26 of the first half. At halftime, George was ruled out for the game due to right knee soreness, with his night ending with 21 points on 8 of 12 field goals, 5 of 8 3s, two steals and no turnovers in just under 15 minutes of play.
George remained with his teammates on the bench for the second half, and he was in good spirits. He even participated in a T-shirt toss in the fourth quarter. The good news is that any crisis appears to be averted. A source close to George told The Athletic that George does not believe the knee soreness is serious and that George expects to play Monday against the Utah Jazz.
Kawhi Leonard can still jump
This was Leonard’s second game back after a 25-day hiatus and his second start. A 7-0 run by the Spurs in the second quarter torpedoed Leonard’s plus-minus, so Leonard finished even on a night where the other four starters finished with at least a plus-10.
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But Leonard still made a positive impact and showed some progress in his fourth game of the season. Like his return Thursday against the Pistons, Leonard had four assists, with his lone turnover being a third-quarter traveling violation. The starters outscored the Spurs 14-12 in their one stint together.
In the second quarter, Leonard proved he can still be a lob threat, as he turned this rolling lob from John Wall into his first dunk of the season.
“I know, right?” Leonard told The Athletic when told he finally got a lob. “They finally threw it.”
Leonard finished the game with 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field, and he added his second 3 of the season after missing nine of his first 10 attempts. If Leonard plays Monday against the Jazz, it will be his fifth game of the season and third in five days.
Optimus Dime
Wall recently told The Athletic’s Kelly Iko that, “If I’m not having a great scoring night, I’m still getting 10 assists.” On Saturday night, Wall established his supreme ability to get others paid, compiling a game-high and season-high 15 assists in 23:46 off the bench. Of Wall’s 31 15-assist games, this was the fifth one that came with only one turnover, and it was the fewest minutes Wall played in a 15-assist game in his career.
Wall made an immediate impact with his passing, subbing in for Leonard midway through the first quarter and dropping nine first-quarter assists. He got Marcus Morris Sr. the ball on an inbound. He fit in an alley-oop to Reggie Jackson that Jackson laid in through a foul. Wall had the aforementioned alley-oops with both George and Leonard.
Wall kept the alley-oops going later in the game as well, putting a particularly high pass for Terance Mann to come down with in the third quarter:
“I only had five points. But I affected the game in so many other ways, by passing, defending, just pushing pace,” Wall said. “That’s the type of presence I like to be.”
Reggie Jackson back-to-back 20s
Jackson got off to a slow start this season, scoring no more than 18 points in the first 15 games of the season. Leonard’s return has bolstered Jackson, who followed up a season-high 23 points on Thursday against the Pistons with an efficient 20 points on 8 of 11 field goals on Saturday against the Spurs.
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It was Jackson’s first stretch of back-to-back 20-point games since the end of March 2022. The aforementioned and-1 Jackson converted on the pass from Wall was Jackson’s first and-1 of the season (though Jackson did not complete the 3-point play with a successful free throw). Jackson also made a season-high four 3s while matching Leonard with a four-to-one assist-turnover ratio.
Another sign of how fresh Jackson is was when he got up to finish a fast-break dunk with two hands following an advance pass from Nicolas Batum. It was the second dunk of the season for the 12-year veteran.
The Jackson/Wall/Powell lineup sees success
I mentioned earlier this week that the lineup of Jackson, Wall and Norman Powell had not been successful. In 17 minutes prior to Saturday night against the Spurs, the Clippers were outscored 50-26 in the time Jackson, Wall, and Powell shared the floor. That trio fostered an abysmal 66.7 points per 100 possessions while allowing 131.6 points per 100 possessions.
Lue gave that group another spin against the Spurs, and the results were much more appealing this time around. In eight minutes, the Clippers outscored the Spurs 24-16 with Wall, Jackson, and Powell all on the floor together. That group also produced one of the more memorable sequences of ball movement of the season.
Spurs backup center Charles Bassey rebounded a missed 3 by Josh Richardson in the first quarter, but George stole the ball and dived into the stands to save it for Batum. Jackson let Wall run the fast break, and Wall put Richardson on his heels with his signature behind-the-back move. Wall hit a trailing Batum, who reversed the ball back to Jackson, who was spotting up above the arc. George was cooking and was a strong rhythm next pass option to Jackson’s right, but Jackson opted to go left in the near corner for Powell, who had just entered the game. Powell cashed out, the first of a season-best five 3s, to force a Gregg Popovich timeout. The rout was on.
“I think Coach has been on us about making plays and playing for each other, offensively and defensively,” said Powell, who finished with a season-high 26 points, of the trio that includes himself, Jackson and Wall.
“I think we were all clicking on that. Talking, communicating, defensively, the different switches and coverages that we’re in. Trusting one another, trusting the pass, offensively. … And that’s the style of play we got to continue building.”
(Top photo of John Wall: Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images)