The story for him Scissors On Wednesday night there was their list of injured players. However, even without four key players, the Clippers had no choice but to press forward against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Intuit Dome.
The problem was that the Timberwolves fell back even harder, leading by up to 41 in a 108-80 victory.
Playing seven games in 11 days hasn’t helped the Clippers overcome their injury problems.
So when Clippers coach Tyronn Lue sat at the podium to talk to the media, he smiled and quickly said this about the 28-point blowout:
“I’m flushing it,” Lue said.
Read more: Norman Powell and James Harden lead Clippers to dominant win over Portland
His team was playing its third game in four nights, and this one was consecutive.
“We just didn’t have much pop,” Lue said. “We miss three of our four rotation guys. (Minnesota) came out and played well.”
Kawhi Leonard He has not yet played this season while his right knee recovers. They joined him on the bench on Wednesday Terance Mann, norman powell, Kevin Porter Jr. and Kobe Brown.
The Clippers said Mann has a broken left middle finger and will undergo surgery Thursday and will be reevaluated in three weeks. Brown has a herniated disc in his back and will be re-evaluated in two weeks.
Porter missed his third straight game with a sprained left ankle and Powell, the Clippers’ leading scorer (23.9 points per game), rested after playing in two straight games, including last night after missing the games. previous six due to a left hamstring injury. injury.
The Clippers have three days off before playing the Houston Rockets at home on Sunday.
“This is a good time for us,” Lue said. “I think playing every day, or every other day for the entire month of November, it was a tough schedule. But our guys fought through it. What, we’re 14-10? Twenty-four games in 43 days. I thought our guys really rose to the challenge every night and this was the only game that I really thought got away from us from start to finish, and that happens.”
From the beginning, the Clippers saw it was going to be a long night.
They were held to 14 points in the first quarter, shooting just 27.3% from the field and 15.4% (two of 13) from three-point range. They scored 32 points in the first half, shooting 28.6% overall and 21.7% on three-pointers.
Meanwhile, the Clippers gave up 33 points in the first quarter. Minnesota shot 54.2% from the field and 46.7% (seven of 15) on three-pointers. Forward Julius Randle scored 16 of his 20 points in the quarter.
“Julius got them going and got off to a good start early,” Lue said. “And we couldn’t score the ball.
“It’s a little difficult when you play from the back, you can’t score and you can’t shoot. … They came out and punched us in the mouth and we weren’t ready to go.”
James Harden missed his first eight attempts, four of them three-pointers. He scored his first points with two free throws late in the second quarter. He made his first field goal with 6 minutes and 21 seconds left in the third, with a three-pointer.
He completed his night by going 1 of 10 from the field and 1 of 6 from three-point range, scoring a season-low five points after averaging 22.3.
Backup point guard Bones Hyland led the Clippers with 18 points.
“We just didn’t play well,” Lue said. “Like I said, that was probably one of the only games of the season where we couldn’t really score, we couldn’t defend and we were a step slow. Then it happens. It will probably happen a few more times before the end of the season. But the question is how you handle it, how you recover from it.”
This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.