INGLEWOOD — The NBA postseason doesn’t start for another three weeks, but Tuesday night’s game between the Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers had a pseudo-playoff feel at Intuit Dome.
“A pre-Play-In game vibe,” veteran forward Nicolas Batum said before tipoff. “This game is huge because this team is really right behind us.”
Coach Tyronn Lue agreed, calling the matchup “a big game for us. We understand the situation and where they’re at in the standings.”
The message didn’t seem to reach enough of the Clippers (39-37). They seemed to lack any feel for what was at stake in a 114-104 loss to the Blazers that left them clinging to a half-game lead over Portland (39-38) for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.
The game held significant postseason ramifications for both sides. Each team is assured of spots in the four-team Western Conference Play-In Tournament (seeds 7-10), but the eighth-place Clippers could have extended their lead on the ninth-place Blazers and clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker with a win. The Blazers are eager to avoid landing in the single-elimination game between the ninth- and 10th-place teams (with the winner then facing the 7-vs.-8 loser for the final spot in a first-round series).
The Clippers still have a shot at strengthening their position with six regular-season games remaining, including a rematch against Portland on April 10 in Oregon when they get another chance to secure the tiebreaker.
But they couldn’t make it happen Tuesday as Portland posted its first victory in the season series after dropping the first two. The urgency wasn’t there for the Clippers.
Kawhi Leonard had a quiet 23 points for this 52nd consecutive 20-point game with eight rebounds and three assists. Darius Garland added 20 points and four assists, while Brook Lopez finished with 18 points and seven rebounds.
John Collins added 17 points and six rebounds and Jordan Miller 16 points.
After a subdued first half, the Clippers picked up their pace and trimmed an 18-point deficit to nine in the third quarter on a 3-pointer by Lopez at the 6:45 mark. They closed to within 76-68 on a finger roll layup by Garland with 3:44 left in the quarter, but the hosts couldn’t sustain their momentum and trailed by 91-74 heading into the fourth quarter after Scoot Henderson hit a step-back 3-pointer at the buzzer to cap a 16-5 Blazers run. Portland stretched its lead to 19 points before coasting to a 10-point win.
Jrue Holiday led the Blazers with 30 points on 10-of-21 shooting (7 for 15 from 3-point range) to go with six rebounds. Deni Avdija added 28 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
Portland had 18 offensive rebounds and 32 second-chance points. The Blazers went into the game leading the NBA in second-chance points (18.2 per game) and are second in offensive rebounds (14.1 per game).
The Clippers, who were riding a five-game winning streak, came out with little fight and trailed 62-46 at halftime.
They looked lost on defense and stifled on offense in the first half.
Lopez was the team’s leading scorer with 13 first-half points, while Bennedict Mathurin and Derrick Jones Jr. both had trouble finding the basket and were scoreless in the first half against Portland’s stingy defense, taking a combined four shots, while Leonard scored just eight on 3-of-8 shooting.
Mathurin finished with four points and two rebounds and Jones had one free throw.
The game was close early with neither team gaining much of an advantage. Portland got going in the second quarter, outscoring the Clippers 28-15 behind 19 second-chance points and the shooting of Avdija and Toumani Camara, who each had 15 points.
The Blazers shot 47.9% in the first half compared to the Clippers’ 44.7%.
More to come on this story.