Kawhi Leonard and Paul George approached midfield ahead of Sunday night’s start at the Crypto.com arena, one stalwart, the other about to speak. Clippers stars were asked to address the crowd before the team’s first game, and George was brief when Leonard nodded.
As seen throughout Sunday, the Clippers struggled to keep up with the Phoenix in their 112–95 loss, and in Game 2, the Clippers had to answer a few questions before dreaming of a championship.
Although Reggie Jackson started his third game in a row, John Wall opened the third quarter with a starting spot and Wall almost equaled Jackson in minutes.
Paul George finished with 40 points without Kawhi Leonard and John Wall, and the Clippers delayed their late climax in a victory over the Sacramento Kings.
How do the Clippers balance using their starting center Ivica Zubac with the frequency of replacing him with a smaller squad? Using traditional big pucks throughout the game, Phoenix choked the Clippers for first-half rebounds to take a 20-point lead, with their starter Deandre Ayton once successfully snatching the ball from Jackson.
Perhaps most importantly, is this an example of getting tired quickly, or are the Clippers not heeding coach Tyrone Liu’s off-season instructions that despite all their talent, they won’t give their best if they don’t give it their all?
“You can’t start the game like that, especially if you want to start with a defensive mentality,” Liu said. “There is no excuse for us playing back to back. Everyone plays back to back. We must become better.
John Wall says he feels good physically and plays well, “except for Shaq’s free throws.”
The Clippers lost in a poor first half, and Phoenix quickly rejected all comeback attempts in the second half, with Devin Booker leading by 35 points and 16 chances.
In the same way, George criticized the defense – he said that the defense with the ball sucks, and the defense without the ball sucks.
Leonard played his second game of the season, in which he played 21 minutes and had 11 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists, 7 points close to the free throw line. One night after George scored 40 in 39 minutes to beat Sacramento, he played 34 minutes and scored 16 points.
Jackson didn’t score, missed five times in 24 minutes and had two assists. Wall began warming up on the baseline early in the second half, with Wall taking over as the number one ball handler along with George and Leonard. One night, Wall’s most notable contribution during the Sacramento Armistice was a sideline advisor he provided to Norman Powell when the starting quarterback was 3-for-18 early in the season, Liu said before kick-off.
“Norm wasn’t happy with himself, but [Wall] was talking to Norm and just saying, ‘Keep playing, keep playing,’” Liu said before the game started.
“If you shoot correctly and aggressively, everything is fine. You’re not going to miss every shot.”
“You know, Michael Jordan and I don’t do every shot, you know?” Lou Powell said. “And we are the best two in the world, so you have to go on, you know?”
Powell went 4 of 9, heeding Liu’s advice to stay aggressive, which sometimes worked – laying down and missing Leonard’s easy dunk transition in the third quarter – sometimes not – trying to get the ball out. Handed over to Zubak for strangulation.
Lou didn’t have to tell Wall to keep pushing. The Clippers were down 11-0 and didn’t score in the first three minutes of the game, and when Wall entered the court in the first eight minutes, Booker beat the Clippers 14-10, pushing the Suns’ lead even further. .
The Clippers’ depth allows them to take Kawhi Leonard off the bench and play dozens of lineup combinations while focusing on building title contenders.
The wall provided the missing queue. His first pass was the perfect pass to George for a dunk. His first break was a full-court rush, Wall was trying to get the ball to his waist and, despite the setback, was brave. Wall was not perfect, he made 1 of 5 free throws, but he had 17 points on 7 of 12 shots.
Leonard played 7 minutes in the third quarter, continuing the pattern of his first game on the bench, where he made substitutions in three parts of about 7 minutes each – half to the end of the first half, then the third. half. Close minutes.
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Andrew Grave is a Clippers beat writer for the Los Angeles Times. He joined The New York Times after covering American football and track and field at the University of Oregon. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon and grew up on the Oregon coast.
Post time: Oct-25-2022