The LA Clippers were dominant in the final minutes of the game, erasing a 10-point deficit and defeating the red-hot Boston Celtics, 107-104.
Wednesday night’s game between the LA Clippers and Boston Celtics turned out to be one of the best games of the regular season so far, but it didn’t always feel like must-see basketball.
For a majority of regulation time, this game was ugly. Neither team was getting a lot done on offense, there were turnovers on back-to-back-to-back possessions and there was an overall sloppy feel. Had you told me that both teams were playing on the second night of a back-to-back, I would have believed you.
LA had a season-high 23 turnovers. Boston committed 17 of their own, also a record in mediocrity. Up until the fourth quarter, that’s the kind of game this was. Just brutal to sit through.
With 3:16 to go in the fourth quarter, the Clippers were down by six points. Not a huge lead by any means, but at the rate LA was scoring in this game, it felt like they had a mountain to climb. Momentum was heavily favoring the Celtics at that point, too. The Clippers were close, but Boston kept making shots to keep themselves out of reach. LA needed something to happen that would capture that momentum and make us all believe that they were the team that would win this game.
Everything changed when Kawhi Leonard put Daniel Theis on a poster.
OH ME, OH MY, KAWHI. @kawhileonard | #ClipperNation pic.twitter.com/2hulJvsRsN
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) November 21, 2019
Theis got high, but Leonard got higher — and he put the Clippers right back in a contest that seemed out of reach mere minutes earlier. From that moment on, the Clippers would outscore the Celtics 23-14, though it would take overtime for LA to put Boston away.
Every player had a hand in LA’s win. Lou Williams came up big in the fourth quarter, scoring 13 of his 27 points in the final 12 minutes. Sweet Lou was also responsible for scoring the Clippers’ final five points in regulation, which included a three-pointer that gave LA a 95-94 lead with 31 ticks left on the clock.
The Clippers moved to 10-5 with the win and currently sit behind the Houston Rockets, their next opponent, with the fourth-best record in the Western Conference.
For more in-depth takeaways from Wednesday’s performance, continue to the next slide.