The LA Clippers dropped their third game of the season to the Milwaukee Bucks Wednesday night but looked impressive without Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
It’s difficult to determine the value of moral victories, especially since they don’t show up in the win column. But the LA Clippers earned one Wednesday night, and despite the result, fans should feel good about what this team can accomplish once it’s at full strength.
Once news broke that Kawhi Leonard would be load managing during Wednesday’s meeting between the Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks, fans and analysts alike penciled this one in as a loss for the home team. The thought was that without their best player on the floor, the Clippers would struggle to contain reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. And while that turned out to be true, the Clippers made the Bucks work hard for their win from start to finish.
The Clippers, as we’ve seen them do so many times already this season, started this one off slowly. It took LA over four minutes of game time to score, and by then, Milwaukee already had a nine-point advantage.
From there, things started to tilt the Clippers’ way. After trailing 9-0, LA went on a 19-10 run to tie things up at 19 late in the first quarter. Both sides traded buckets for the rest of the frame, but it came to a close with the Clippers up 30-28.
Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams were dominant through the first 12 minutes, a theme that stuck throughout the night. After the first, Harrell had a team-high eight points and Williams had already dished out five assists in less than 10 minutes.
The Bucks came alive in the second quarter, which was ultimately the deciding factor of the game. Milwaukee rattled off 42 points to bring them up to 70 at the half, while the Clippers put up just 29 and went into the break with 59.
The third and fourth quarters played like the first — dominated early by the Bucks, but finished well by the Clippers to keep things close.
LA’s night looked over midway through the fourth, when Antetokounmpo made his fourth three-pointer of the game to put the Bucks up 115-103. But the Clippers — like we saw throughout the 2018-2019 season — refused to go down without a fight.
Landry Shamet caught fire down the stretch, connecting on four three-pointers in less than four minutes. One such three made it a 126-124 game with 23 seconds left, but with both teams out of timeouts, the Bucks were able to run the clock out and shoot a few more free throws in the process.
In all, it was far from a bad game for the LA Clippers. The Bucks are one of the league’s elite teams, and if they can push them like this without their two stars, there’s no telling what the Clippers could do with them.
Let’s take a look at more in-depth takeaways from LA’s defeat.