INGLEWOOD — The Clippers are allowing the second-fewest points in the NBA.
Norman Powell, James Harden and Ivica Zubac are among the best in the league in points, assists and rebounds. Powell is 12th in the league with 25.7 points a game, while Harden is averaging a third-best 9.2 assists and Zubac is tied for third in rebounding at 12.8 a game.
Yet, despite all the good things, there’s still the matter of turnovers. A lot of turnovers. Like 17.6 a game.
Yet somehow the Clippers have managed to overcome their miscues to pull out a handful of games.
This time wasn’t much different. In the second game of a back-to-back, the Clippers again had to hide their eyes and hope for the best.
And while it wasn’t perfect, they came up with another uncomfortable 105-103 victory against the Toronto Raptors on Saturday at the Intuit Dome.
The Clippers limited their mistakes but needed free throws by Harden and Powell in the final 35 seconds
With the score tied at 102, Powell missed one of two foul shots to push the Clippers ahead by one. Harden was then fouled by Bruno Fernando and made only one of his shots to give the Clippers an uneasy two-point lead with 29 seconds left.
The Raptors, however, sent Powell back to the line for another two free throw attempts, making just one for a 105-102 lead with nine seconds left. Toronto’s Jakob Poeltl missed the first of two free throws for the final score.
After averaging nearly 20 turnovers a game, the Clippers held their turnovers to 14 in picking up their fourth consecutive victory.
“If we just take care of the basketball on a lot of nights, we can win games because we’re getting shots,” Coach Tyronn Lue said. “But if you have 19, 20 turnovers every night, it’s hard to win those games. Your defense has to be elite, which it has been, but we can’t continue to hang your hat on our defense every single night and turn the ball over and let teams get out and get easy points in transition.”
“So, we just keep harping on it, keep showing them, keep talking about it,” he added.
Lue probably needs to keep talking if the Clippers hope to improve their ball handling. After turning the ball over just five times in the first half, they committed another nine in the second half.
Harden came into the game averaging 5.3 turnovers, his highest rate in seven years and did little to trim his number. The 16-year veteran point guard had four, including two back-to-back in the third quarter.
But he more than made up for his mistakes with 24 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. He was joined in double figures by Powell (24 points), Kevin Porter Jr. (15) and Zubac (14), who also had 12 rebounds.
The team continued to have trouble holding onto double-digit leads. The Clippers led, 87-75, with 9:10 remaining in the game. The Raptors slowly cut the lead to 93-91 on a 6-0 run with 4:08 left but in the end, couldn’t overcome the Clippers.
The team will be looking to carry this momentum into next week’s three-game trip to Oklahoma City and Houston (two games). Whether they can or not, the Clippers will have to do it without Kawhi Leonard watching from the bench.
Lue said before the game the two-time Finals MVP will not travel with the team. Leonard has been ruled out indefinitely because of continued inflammation in his right knee.
The Clippers led for much of the first half, allowing the Raptors a brief two-point advantage in the first quarter. They grabbed the lead back and led, 28-22, at the end of the opening quarter.
In the third quarter, the Clippers stretched their lead to 14 (45-31) on four consecutive 3-pointers, two by Porter Jr., sandwiched between one by Nico Batum and one by Amir Coffey. But like so many other games this season, the Clippers couldn’t shut down their opponent and they were left holding a slim 52-47 halftime lead.
“Defensively, we’ve done a good job of maintaining throughout the course of the game,” Lue said. “We just turned the basketball over.”
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The Raptors have been hit with injuries to their core players, such as Scottie Barnes, Kelly Olynk, Bruce Brown and Ja’Kobe Walter, leading to seven losses in their past nine games.
Standout guard Immanuel Quickley returned to the court after an eight-game absence because of a pelvic injury he suffered in Toronto’s season opener. He finished with 21 points and three rebounds.
RJ Barrett, who has been averaging a career-high 25.7 points and 7.0 assists, was limited to 13 points, while Gradey Dick, a second-year player, finished with 15 points.