Five observations from the Clippers' 108-92 win over the Thunder

LOS ANGELES — The Clippers defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder, 108-92, on Friday night a Staples Center to move to 1-1.

Here are five takeaways from the game:

Clamp City gets its first W

Paul George is the best wing scorer the Clippers have faced this season — by far.

And Clamp City passed its first perimeter test. George finished with 20 points on just 7-for-27 shooting to go along with four assists and three turnovers.

“I think as a group, we tried to make everything hard on him,” said Clippers guard Avery Bradley said. “He’s a very good offensive player and my goal was just to make him work every single possession.”

Tobias Harris defended George on the game’s first possession before the Clippers quickly switched Bradley onto him. Bradley essentially lived in George’s jersey, pressuring him beyond the 3-point arc as he attempted to run pick-and-roll actions and slithering around off-ball screens as George tried to get open.

George broke free in the third quarter, refusing to settle for jumpers. He scored 13 points and guided the Thunder to a six-point lead heading into the final frame. But then Mbah a Moute took the baton from Bradley and got his shot at George in the fourth — and limited him to just three points on 1-of-6 shooting.

“I thought Avery did a great job on him just giving him tougher looks than he may have been used to and I thought Luc did a great job at the end in the fourth quarter of getting into his body and sticking with him,” Harris said. “I thought we did a good job of that tonight.”

The Thunder were obviously shorthanded without Russell Westbrook, and George did himself no favors with poor shot selection most of the night. But score this as a win for LA’s perimeter defense.

Harris finishes what Gallinari started

After jumping out to 16-0 and 24-7 leads early in the first quarter, the Clippers’ offense stagnated for the rest of the first half and the game appeared to be slipping away from them as the Thunder flirted with a near-double-digit lead for most of the third.

But every time the Thunder would start to pick up momentum and score consecutive baskets, Danilo Gallinari responded to keep the Clippers within striking distance. Gallinari scored 10 of his game-high 26 points in the third, all seemingly at vitals moments of the frame.

“The guy who saved the game for us in a lot of ways was Gal,” said Clippers coach Doc Rivers. “In that third-quarter stretch, we were struggling. We were struggling for points, and Gal just took the game over for about four minutes. And that kept us in the game.”

The most interesting rotation decision of the night was Rivers taking out Harris at the 6:48 mark of the third and bringing him back nearly five minutes later, at the 2:11 mark, to run with a second-unit lineup of Bradley, Boban Marjanovic, Lou Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Rivers typically keeps his starters and bench lineups separate, but he deliberately staggered Harris’ minutes to give the second unit another scoring option.

Mbah a Moute replaced Bradley to start the fourth, but the significance of the lineup was playing Harris at the 4 — something he hadn’t done much of yet this season because of the Clippers’ frontcourt jam for minutes. At power forward, Harris routinely broke Patrick Patterson and Jerami Grant off the dribble, scoring 14 points — he scored just 12 through the first three quarters — and helping the Clippers close the game out unlike in Wednesday night’s loss.

“I just felt like that second unit needed another scorer and I also wanted him to be at the four,” Rivers said. “I thought it was very important to get him at the four. With the guys that they had on the floor. I thought Tobias’ speed, I thought he could take advantage of that and I thought he did that.”

Rivers has discussed the nightly challenge opponents will face trying to matchup against the Clippers’ mobile, versatile frontcourt and this game was a perfect example of how good the team can be when Gallinari and Harris are both clicking.

Closing by committee

The Clippers clammed up in their season-opening loss to Denver, scoring just three points over a four-and-a-half minute stretch in the final five minutes that sealed their fate.

LA was presented with a similar scenario Friday night. They had blown their double-digit first-half lead and were trailing by six heading into the fourth. George was cooking and looked like he had found his rhythm. The Clippers, outside of Gallinari, were all struggling.

Rivers inserted Mbah a Moute for Bradley, playing him alongside Marjanovic, Harris, Williams and Gilgeous-Alexander. With Mbah a Moute, Gilgeous-Alexander and Harris, the Clippers could easily switch on the perimeter, and funnel Thunder players toward the paint, where the largest man in the NBA was waiting for them.

“The defense was great, and we actually got the ball after we played defense,” Rivers said. “As good as the defense was, the defensive rebounding was better — and our spacing and execution down the stretch, that’s all we did yesterday. It was terrific.”

The Clippers outscored the Thunder 37-15 in the fourth quarter, including closing the game on an 18-2 run over the final 6:29. Rivers stuck with the unit for the entire quarter, atoning for his mistake in the opener of splitting up a lineup that had momentum. Harris (14 points), Marjanoivc (10) and Williams (8) combined for 32 of the team’s 37 points, and the Clippers found a closing lineup that worked finally, if only for one night.

Rebounding continues to be a concern

Heading into Friday night’s game, the Clippers said their primary focus against the Thunder was crashing the glass and limiting OKC’s offensive rebounding.

“Everybody is important tonight because Oklahoma is a great rebounding team — particularly offensive rebounding,” Rivers said pregame. “I think they’ve been No. 1 in the league the last three years. It’s not just one guy. They all go. They’re very effective at it.”

Gallinari even suggested that the Clippers would probably lose if they were out-rebounded.

“It’s going to be the difference in the game,” Gallinari said at shootaround. “If we rebound, we give ourselves a chance to win. If we don’t, it’s going to be tough.”

And yet the Clippers still won despite being out-rebounded 52-47 and giving up 15 offensive rebounds, including six to Steven Adams, who finished with 17 points and 18 rebounds. When it mattered the most in the fourth quarter, the Clippers out-rebounded the Thunder, 12-10, and limited them to just 6 of 23 shooting.

“We were able to make shots and rebound the basketball,” Harris of the fourth quarter. “Once we got rid of second-chance shots for them, that really helped us.”

Oklahoma City, especially with a healthy Westbrook, is probably the best rebounding team in the league, so it’s unfair to hold the Clippers to their standard. But the Clippers were also out-rebounded 56-47 by the Nuggets — including allowing 14 offensive rebounds — and it bears some monitoring. For as good as they can be individually defensively if they can’t contain the glass, it’s all for naught.

Backcourt blues

Through two games, Patrick Beverley and Bradley have helped hold their opposing starting counterparts of George, Dennis Schroder, Jamal Murray and Gary Harris to 18-of-70 shooting (25.7 percent). Their defensive impact cannot be overstated. Clamp City — at least in the backcourt — has been legitimate so far.

But for all they’ve been able to accomplish defensively, Bradley and Beverley have both been minuses offensively. The duo has combined to shoot 6 of 31 from the floor, including 2 for 15 from downtown.

“Unless they have forgotten how to shoot I’m not that concerned by it,” Rivers said. “You can’t forget neither one of them played last year so you’ve just got to let it go. I watch them shoot in practice and they make everything, so eventually they’ll make them in a game.”

It’s a two-game sample size, so it’s too early to sound any alarms, but it is worth noting if it might make sense at some point to insert Gilgeous-Alexander into the starting lineup for one of the two and to pair the other one with Lou Williams on the bench for an offense-defense tandem.

(Top photo of Avery Bradley on Paul George: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)