LA Clippers sweep season series with Magic behind Harris’ 28
Tobias Harris scored 28 points, and the LA Clippers defeated the Orlando Magic 106-96 on Sunday night to sweep the season series.
The LA Clippers continued their winning streak on Sunday night, defeating the Orlando Magic by a final of 106-96. Tobias Harris led the way for the Clippers, scoring 28 points and grabbing nine rebounds in 35 minutes of action.
After starting the game 0-for-6 from the floor, Harris went 10-of-15 to close. That was a pattern for LA, which went into the half down 47-45 because of some poor shooting from the starters. Danilo Gallinari and Harris had just 21 combined points at the half, and the next leading scorer was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had a mere six points.
Despite the slow start, the Clippers scored 61 points in the second half, and were ahead by as many as 18 before giving up some easy looks in garbage time.
G-League standout Johnathan Motley also saw more significant run on Sunday night than he had in his debut against the Phoenix Suns, but his minutes were still far from meaningful.
Motley checked in for the final two minutes of the game and scored the first four points of his LA Clippers career against the Orlando reserves, which included a driving eurostep that got fans on their feet. He made carving through the defense look easy, and that’s a good sign for some with Motley’s G-League background. If his skills translate, he could become an important piece of the league’s most dangerous bench.
The win brought the Clippers back up to the West’s fourth seed, and at 23-16, LA is just four games behind the top-seeded Denver Nuggets and two games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the third seed.
Although they’ve played some weaker teams in the last two contests, the Clippers’ defense has started to show up once again after disappearing in December.
On Sunday night, the Clippers held the Magic to just 96 points and 37.1 percent shooting from the floor. That was a big improvement from just two nights before, when the Clippers allowed the Phoenix Suns to shoot 53 percent and score 111 points.
Of course, it’s hard to judge how good a defense is when they’re playing the 26th and 27th ranked offenses, respectfully, and we likely won’t get a sense of how true this “comeback” really is until they play some better teams.
Luckily, that chance should come soon — LA’s next two games will come against the Charlotte Hornets (8th ranked offense) and the Denver Nuggets (17th ranked offense).
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LA’s next game will be played at home against the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday night at 7:30 PM PST.