Ivica Zubac scored 24 points and grabbed 20 rebounds and James Harden added 21 points and 12 assists as the Los Angeles Clippers continued their strong close to the regular season with a 122-117 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday in Inglewood, Calif.
Norman Powell scored 25 points, Bogdan Bogdanovic added 19 and Derrick Jones Jr. had 18 for the Clippers, who were playing without Kawhi Leonard because of injury management on the first night of a back-to-back set. Los Angeles is 15-3 since March 5.
Zubac logged his fourth 20-20 game of the season, and he added five assists. The Clippers (47-32) are in fourth place in the Western Conference via a four-team tiebreaker, with three regular-season games remaining. The Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies are also all 47-32.
Harrison Barnes scored 24 points and Stephon Castle added 19 points and eight assists for the Spurs (32-47), who lost for the eighth time in nine games and already have been eliminated from postseason contention. Keldon Johnson scored 12 points.
Not only is San Antonio without Victor Wembanyama (shoulder) and De’Aaron Fox (finger) for the remainder of the season, but Jeremy Sochan (back) missed his fifth consecutive game.
Without Leonard, who has averaged 26.2 points over his past 12 games, the Clippers were disjointed on offense in the first half and trailed by as many as five points in the second quarter before taking a 54-52 lead into halftime.
San Antonio shot 54.1 percent from the floor in the first half against Los Angeles’ strong defense.
The Clippers took charge in the third quarter, outscoring the Spurs 37-26 in the period to take a 91-78 lead. Jones had 10 points in the third alone for Los Angeles.
The Spurs scored seven points in the final 27.6 seconds of the game.
The victory gave the Clippers a 29-11 record in their new arena this season even though they started 0-4 in the building. The Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers are the only NBA teams with at least 30 home victories.
Los Angeles plays its final home game of the regular season Wednesday against the Houston Rockets.
–Field Level Media
