The Los Angeles Clippers hope to have something resembling a fully operational roster when they host the Washington Wizards on Thursday night at Inglewood, Calif.
Amid a busy schedule this week, the Clippers were missing four starters Wednesday yet still remained competitive in a 117-113 overtime loss at home to the Boston Celtics.
Starters Kawhi Leonard (rest), James Harden (groin), Norman Powell (back) and Ivica Zubac (eye) were out, while Nicolas Batum (finger) and Kris Dunn (knee) did not play either. The Clippers still led by five points in the third quarter and scored the final four points of regulation off Celtics turnovers to send the game into OT.
Thursday’s game will be the Clippers’ fourth in a span of five days in a schedule logjam that was created after they had a game rescheduled earlier this month because of deadly wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
Leonard, who has played only five games this season because of knee soreness, already was expected to miss time this week, and sat out the past two games, but he likely will return to face the Wizards. Zubac also has missed the past two games after he was poked in the eye and could be in danger of missing a third.
Without their top scorers, Derrick Jones Jr. led the Clippers with 29 points against the Celtics, while Kevin Porter Jr. added 26 and Amir Coffey 24. Mo Bamba and Porter each made their second starts of the season.
“A lot of positives for the young guys to get a chance to play and compete the way they did,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “Just hate to see a loss like that.”
The Clippers were unable to overcome 23 turnovers that led to 25 Celtics points.
“It’s hard to beat a really good team when you turn the ball over that many times,” Lue said. “… But I liked our fight, I liked our pace, and there are definitely some things we can take from this game.”
The Wizards have an 11-game losing streak and enter Thursday’s game off a 111-88 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday. After consecutive 23-point losses, the Wizards are at the midway point of a six-game road trip against Western Conference teams.
Bilal Coulibaly led the Wizards with 17 points against the Lakers, while Jordan Poole and Corey Kispert added 15 each.
“I thought there were good stretches when we had good ball movement and we did the right thing, the right process,” Wizards coach Brian Keefe said. “Some of them, we didn’t make the shots. … But then we had some mistakes on both ends where we weren’t organized or didn’t execute the game plan. So we were just inconsistent at the end of it.”
Washington’s 7-foot rookie center, Alex Sarr, had a career-best five blocked shots on Tuesday in the 38th game of his career.
“His activity was great,” Keefe said. “I thought he really progressed as the game went along.”
Poole leads Washington with an average of 21.4 points per game, while Jonas Valanciunas has a team-best 8.2 rebounds, mostly off the bench, and Sarr grabs 6.7 rebounds per game with 11.6 points.
–Field Level Media
