Clippers beat Thunder to prep for play-in with Timberwolves

Clippers guard Brandon Boston Jr. drives to the basket against the Thunder guard Melvin Frazier Jr.

Staff Writer

April 10, 2022 Updated 9:58 PM PT

This time, they were short-handed by design.

It was the Clippers’ regular-season finale, against an opponent in Oklahoma City with more incentive to improve its draft lottery odds than its win total. It was their second game in as many nights. It came, most importantly, just 48 hours before a playoff berth would be on the line with Tuesday’s play-in tournament matchup in Minnesota.

It was why, then, there were nearly as many Clippers in off-court clothes as uniforms on the sideline, with Norman Powell and starters Paul George, Reggie Jackson and Marcus Morris Sr. resting up during the 138-88 rout of the Thunder ahead of Tuesday’s opportunity to grab the West’s seventh seed and secure a first-round series.

With Amir Coffey scoring a career-high 35 points, the blowout was so pronounced it left the Clippers with a positive point differential of two points for the season after entering the night having been outscored by 48. It meant this season included both the largest margin of victory (50, Sunday) and largest comeback (35, Jan. 25) in franchise history.

The irregular rotations, jumbled lineups and sidelined starters were nothing if not a reminder of the harder nights when their roster was depleted for reasons outside of their control — 385 total games missed this season because of injuries, COVID-related absences or other reasons. That included an entire season without star Kawhi Leonard and 50 games without another All-Star, George.

That the Clippers (42-40) still managed the West’s eighth-best record while clinching an 11th consecutive winning season, the NBA’s longest active streak, was one reason they briefly paused in the season’s final days, before their focus turned toward a postseason push, and considered the improbability of how they had navigated a choppy season in which inconsistency reigned and arrived here, on the verge of a fourth consecutive playoff berth.

Clippers defenders Isaiah Hartenstein, Brandon Boston Jr. and Amir Coffey defend Jaylen Hoard.

“The story is very revealing,” George said Saturday. “A, is T-Lue is a hell of a coach. B, we have a hell of a roster. And C, things would be a lot different if we were healthy. I think this group, we’ve been resilient, we have been tough, we have battled.

“We’re connected. If you look at it, we are probably one of the closest teams in the NBA. I think it shows. Anytime you take myself, Kawhi out of a lineup and you still have a team that is competing, it just says what kind of locker room that is.”

That locker room has included 23 players who appeared in at least one game and 26 different starting lineups. Their most-used lineup logged just 221 minutes — by contrast the league’s most-reliable lineup, from Denver, played nearly 3½ times that many — and included Coffey, who was re-signed to a two-way contract on the last day before training camp and was an afterthought until George’s elbow injury in December thrust him into a larger role.

The lone moment of concern occurred when Luke Kennard, who scored 20 points, reinjured the same right hamstring that cost him a game last week. Coach Tyronn Lue said he didn’t know the injury’s severity. The final minutes were an exhibition for players such as Brandon Boston Jr. and Xavier Moon, called upon heavily when the roster was at its thinnest.

Lue prides himself on his exhaustive preparation, and the game-to-game lineup changes in the winter forced him to improve as a coach.

In January, he and Kennard spent long quarantines away from the team, and in February, Powell played just three games after being acquired before injuring a foot, costing him seven weeks. March featured what Lue called the season’s hardest stretch, a five-game losing streak the Clippers might have broken had they extended key contributors’ minutes, only to pull back to keep Morris and Jackson fresh in case George and Powell were able to return.

Late Saturday, Lue and his staff discussed this season’s long and winding road. Before tipoff Sunday afternoon, he thanked even the four players traded away for helping them navigate the most short-handed days in December and January.

“With everything we’ve been through this season this [play-in] is no different; we’ve just got to approach the game like we approached every single game when we didn’t have a lot of bodies with the injuries, with COVID, and this group has done a fantastic job with that,” Lue said. “Just enjoy the moment. It’s going to be a hostile environment.”

No longer short-handed, they’re not selling their playoff chances short, either.

“We’re ready to go,” Lue said. “Jump it up and see what happens.”