INGLEWOOD — The Clippers came into Saturday night’s game with forward John Collins back in the lineup, a four-game winning streak and a rematch with superstar Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs looming in 48 hours.
With all that, they still had to contend with the Sacramento Kings and zeroing in on the last-place team in the Western Conference proved harder than expected.
Harder than it should have been.
Despite a strong fourth-quarter effort, the Clippers couldn’t overcome the Kings and lost, 118-109, at the Intuit Dome, ending their modest win streak and a chance to stack another victory.
“They played better than we did,” Coach Tyronn Lue said. “I thought offensively, they really took it to us, and we were playing on our heels, and the one through five early on switching hurt us a little bit.
“So, they played great. They played better than we did, and we never really caught a good rhythm offensively. And then defensively we had to junk it up a little bit to try to get back in the game, but it was too late.”
The loss wasn’t the only bad news the Clippers got Saturday.
Star forward Kawhi Leonard suffered a sprained left ankle early in the fourth quarter and left the game. Leonard was injured with 9:27 left when he was guarding DeRozan and landed awkwardly before backpedaling a few steps and tumbling to the court. He popped up quickly, but limped noticeably to the Clippers’ bench before heading to the locker room. His availability for Monday’s game and beyond was undetermined.
Before he turned his ankle, Leonard suffered a cut above his left eye. Still, he returned to the game and finished with 31 points on 13-of-23 shooting for his 45th consecutive game with at least 20 points, the longest single-season streak in franchise history, eclipsing the mark set by Bob McAdoo. Leonard’s milestone couldn’t make up for a rough night for the rest of the team.
The short-handed Kings (17-57) played like a team with nothing to lose, having already been eliminated from playoff contention. They shot 58.5% from the field, 44.4% from 3-point range (12 for 27), and outrebounded the Clippers 52-40, spoiling Leonard’s record-breaking performance.
The Clippers (34-33) didn’t play the first three quarters with the same kind of intensity that marked their previous seven games. They regained their focus in the fourth, cutting an 18-point deficit to 99-91 with a 16-4 run capped by a three-point play by Bennedict Mathurin (24 points, six rebounds) with 6:57 remaining.
Backup center Isaiah Jackson then grabbed a rebound and dunked off a pass from Darius Garland to further trim the lead to 99-93.
After Kings star DeMar DeRozan scored, Garland added a layup followed by another three-point play by Mathurin to get the hosts within 101-98.
Mathurin kept going. His pull-up jumper cut the margin to 103-101 with 4:15 remaining, but Russell Westbrook buried a 3-pointer in response and Sacramento outscored the Clippers 15-9 the rest of the way to secure the win.
Garland, who finished with 25 points on 5-of-10 shooting from 3-point range to go with seven assists after missing one game because of toe management, said the team was sluggish in the second game of a back-to-back set.
“Yeah, didn’t come out with that fire like we usually do,” Garland said. “Defensively, the team wasn’t really putting pressure on the ball or being physical like we usually are. We started doing it in the second half, but it was too late.”
The Kings pounded the Clippers inside and controlled the boards behind a balanced attack.
DeRozan had a team-high 27 points and seven assists and Westbrook had 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists for his 209th career triple-double. Precious Achiuwa had 25 points and 13 rebounds, and Maxime Raynaud added 23 points on 11-of-12 shooting for the Kings, who have won three of their past four games.
“I thought we were flat and I thought we got outplayed as well,” Lue said. “I mean, both – it’s a bad combination, but they play really well. Precious, he was great. Coming over his energy, being able to switch, running the floor, getting easy dunks, making threes.
“They definitely outplayed us.”
Jordan Miller said the Clippers needed to “throw the first punch and not give them hope.”
Only the Clippers came out flat, never landed that first punch and hope quickly turned to despair. The Kings, who were missing seven players, including starters Zack LaVine (finger) and Domantas Sabonis (knee), used an 11-4 run to grab a 26-20 lead with 2:48 left in the first quarter.
Despite clawing their way back, the Clippers trailed 33-31 heading into the second quarter, where the game got away, leading to a 68-54 deficit.
The Kings built their halftime lead strong second quarters from DeRozan and Achiuwa, who combined for 17 points in the period, and Westbrook, who added seven points, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer, after being held scoreless in the first 12 minutes.
As if things couldn’t get worse in the first half, Leonard suffered a gash above his left eye in a collision with DeRozan with 6:27 remaining in the second. Leonard left the court briefly before returning with a bandage over his eye.
But he wasn’t himself. In the final 3:38 of the half, Leonard missed three of four free throws, overshot a 3-pointer, missed a layup and committed his third turnover.
The Kings made it a 20-point game – their largest lead of the night – at 90-70 on Daeqwon Plowden’s 3-pointer with 2:19 left in the third quarter.
Collins scored 10 points and had three rebounds in his return game.
