The San Antonio Spurs headed to the crypto.com Arena Saturday night to take on the Los Angeles Clippers in the fourth contest of a five-game West Coach road trip.
But the vacation away from Alamo City still lacked the fun, as the Spurs fell 119-97 to the Clippers in surprising fashion to drop their fourth straight game and ninth of their last 10.
The Spurs (6-11) scored the second fewest goals of the season and never took a lead while the Clippers (10-7) led as many as 30. Los Angeles scored 21 of 39 of the three points. Line and launch 54.3 percent from the ground. San Antonio couldn’t keep up with the long-range party, going only 7 of 26 from deep.
The Spurs were led by quarterback Jacob Boltel, who again produced another impressive performance by scoring 20 points along with eight rebounds and three assists. Keldon Johnson (11 points), Doug McDermott (13 points) and Trey Jones (six points, 10 assists) made additional contributions for a stagnant and ineffective offense.
The Clippers had six players reach double figures, led off the bench by Norman Powell with 26 points. Paul George (21 points), Reggie Jackson (20 points) and former Spore Kawhi Leonard (11 points) — who didn’t play in the teams’ first meeting on November 4 — added steady offensive production.
Clippers guard John Wall also finished with just five points, but sparked the offense on almost every touch, as he had 15 assists off the bench.
The Spurs tensed from the get-go, as George had 18 first-quarter points to give Los Angeles a 40-22 lead after 12 minutes.
Wall provided more assists (10) in the first 16 minutes than Tottenham ever recorded as a group (nine). Johnson managed to cut it to single digits at 49-40 midway through the second quarter after nailing a single from deep, but that was the closest San Antonio got the rest of the way.
Los Angeles had five seconds in the third quarter, but it destroyed the Spurs’ chances of a comeback. San Antonio played the catch early in the fourth quarter before being benched entirely by head coach Gregg Popovich.
The Spurs will remain in Los Angeles for the final game of the road trip, as they take on the Los Angeles Lakers (4-10) at the crypto.com Arena on Sunday. Tip is set off 8:30pm CT.
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