Clippers beat Kings to end 3-game slide

With hustle and immoderate item plays, a formed of bare understudies brought the vigor connected Wednesday night, helping the Clippers clasp disconnected the Sacramento Kings to drawback a three-game losing streak with a much-needed 105-89 triumph astatine Golden 1 Center successful Sacramento.

The Clippers volition caput into the Christmas vacation with a victory, spurred by a season-high 29 fast-break points, a 43-40 vantage connected the boards and a large crippled from Eric Bledsoe, who started successful spot of Reggie Jackson (who was placed into COVID-19 wellness and information protocols earlier successful the day).

Bledsoe finished with 19 points connected 8-for-15 shooting, 8 rebounds and 7 assists.

Serge Ibaka added a season-high 17 points connected 7-for-9 shooting and rookies Brandon Boston Jr. (eight points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists), Keon Johnson (four points, 3 rebounds and a surge of antiaircraft activity) and two-way helping Amir Coffey (eight points, six rebounds) helped the cause.

In his 2nd crippled backmost aft missing 5 with a sprained close elbow, All-Star Paul George added 17 points, six assists and 5 steals – including going 3 for 7 from 3-point range, successful the process moving past Chauncey Billups for sole possession of 18th spot connected the NBA’s all-time 3-point tract extremity database with his 1,831st vocation 3.

It was the Clippers’ archetypal triumph successful 3 tries against the Kings truthful acold this play – L.A. mislaid astatine Sacramento for the archetypal clip successful 15 visits successful the teams’ erstwhile gathering connected Dec. 4.

Some of the Kings’ starring protagonists from those victories weren’t disposable to instrumentality the signifier connected Wednesday, erstwhile they had 7 players and Head manager Alvin Gentry successful the COVID-19 steadfast and information protocols (included among them: prima constituent defender De’Aaron Fox, rookie antiaircraft pest Davion Mitchell and Terence Davis, whose champion games this play came against the Clippers, connected whom he’d dropped 28 and 23 points.)

The Clippers person their ain increasing contingent successful the protocols, with Jackson joining Marcus Morris Sr. arsenic the Clippers missing clip due to the fact that of a COVID-19 diagnosis.

And past determination were the much run-of-the-mill injuries to relationship for: sizzling sharpshooter Luke Kennard missed his archetypal crippled of the season, sidelined by hep soreness, and reserve halfway Isaiah Hartenstein missed his 2nd consecutive crippled with a sprained ankle. Star guardant Kawhi Leonard (ACL) and rookie defender Jason Preston (foot) stay retired indefinitely.

Without each of them, Tyronn Lue commemorated the one-year day of his caput coaching debut with the Clippers by rolling retired his 11th starting lineup this season, and his eighth successful the past 11 games.

The Kings wiped retired overmuch of the Clippers’ short-lived 19-point pb with an 11-0 tally that sliced it to 67-59 with 4:03 near successful the 3rd quarter. By the clip the 4th ended, the Clippers’ pb was conscionable 74-68.

Keon Johnson’s beauteous reverse layup, Serge Ibaka’s mini Dream shingle and Amir Coffey’s sidestepping complaint to the hoop pushed the pb backmost into treble digits astatine 84-73 with 9:14 left.

And the Clippers won the rebounding battle, adjacent holding their ain connected the violative boards – wherever they were edged conscionable 7-6.

The Clippers had been outrebounded 67-43 successful their nonaccomplishment to San Antonio connected Monday, erstwhile the Spurs took a whopping 114 shots. No squad had recorded truthful galore rebounds against the Clippers successful a regularisation crippled since 1989, and nary 1 had enactment up truthful galore shots successful a non-overtime matter against them since 1991.

So, adjacent short-handed, rebounding was going to beryllium a constituent of accent for the Clippers against the Kings.

With that successful mind, Lue said helium gave the level to adjunct manager Brian Shaw to bash “his small box-out drill again,” successful bid to effort to get the Clippers focused connected rebounding execution.

“Just talking astir hitting first, we gotta beryllium archetypal to hit,” Lue said. “Especially rebounding the basketball, and a batch of times, it’s not our bigs, due to the fact that they’re trying to support the paint. If they’re going for blocked shots, past our guards gotta bash a amended occupation of cracking backmost and hitting those bigs and coming backmost for engaged rebounds and each nighttime agelong we did a mediocre occupation of hitting archetypal connected the glass.”

Getting backmost connected way against the Kings seemed similar a tenable possibility; doubly this season, the Kings allowed a league-high 68 rebounds (to Memphis and Utah), and entering Wednesday, their opponents were averaging 46.7 rebounds per game, sixth-most successful the NBA.

The Clippers’ opponents were averaging adjacent more, however: 47.2, fourth-most successful the league.

It’s been a telltale occupation for Lue’s team, which is giving up a league-worst 50.3 rebounds per crippled successful losses.

Tyrese Haliburton had his 4th consecutive double-double with 22 points and a career-high 13 assists for Sacramento. Former USC standout Chimezie Metu added 11 points and 10 rebounds.

The Clippers person a three-day interruption – their longest truthful acold this play – earlier they big Denver and Brooklyn successful consecutive games connected Sunday and Monday astatine what volition past beryllium known arsenic Crypto.com Arena.

More to travel connected this story.