By no surprise, the injury-plagued LA Clippers (Beverley, Griffin, Johnson, Williams, and Gallinari all out) fell short against the Spurs in San Antonio.
The final score was 109 to 91, Spurs up. The game was particularly uneventful, as both teams succeeded on offense fairly well. The Clippers shot 44% while the Spurs were 48.8% from the field. The Clippers found the most scoring success when they fed their bigs. DeAndre Jordan finished with 13 points, Montrezl Harrell with 11, and Willie Reed with 10. Austin Rivers made his return from concussion precautions with a 12 point, 3 rebound, 3 assist game in nearly 33 minutes. The bad part of Rivers’ stat line is the field goal percentage, 26.7% success on 15 shots (4 buckets). Lou Williams’ absence was felt heavily, as the Clippers lacked energy and passion throughout the game.
The Spurs found most of their success, well, basically anywhere on the court. Kawhi Leonard played his limited 15:40 for 7 points,4 rebounds, and an assist. It’s good to see the San Antonio All-Star back on the court after his Zaza Pachulia-inflicted injury in the playoffs. It would be better to see him back on the court if he wasn’t in the Western Conference. We knew that LaMarcus Aldridge would require attention on defense, but he wasn’t stopped, scoring 19 points and grabbing 8 boards. Tony Parker had an impressive outing as well, racking up 16 points and 7 assists in under 23 minutes.
The one positive from this bout was watching Milos Teodosic run our offense. While he did not do anything miraculous (8 points, 5 assists, 2 steals), he is going to be starting at the point guard position while Patrick Beverley is out, so he needs all the playmaking time he can handle. Perhaps Teodosic could start to see as many minutes per game as Rivers does (30+) as his return to action continues. The Clips need guidance, and Teodosic could provide it for them.