PHOENIX – – — The Clippers who trailed majority of the night nearly made a fourth quarter comeback but just didn’t have enough late as the los to the Phoenix Suns 111-109 on Monday night.
The Suns held onto 103-90 lead with 5:06 left after Durant’s 3-pointer, but the Clippers went on a 10-0 run, cutting the deficit to 107-106 on Norman Powell’s short jumper with 40 seconds remaining.
Phoenix’s Grayson Allen and Bradley Beal made four free throws late to give the Suns a 111-107 advantage, which was enough to close out the game.
Los Angeles has to fight all night to comeback from several times to make the game competitive.
“Our physicality was better. I thought in the first half we let them move around too freely. Physicality picked up in the second half,” Powell said. “We were able to rebound the ball a little bit better in the second half and then counter attack in transition. Get some early ones but they pretty much controlled the game. So just keep fighting back and then try to steal it at the end, but we put ourselves in position at the end of the game, but we fell short.”
Ivica Zubac had a team-high 25 points and 16 rebounds for the Clippers. James Harden followed up his 40-point against the Bucks with 24 points and 10 assists, while Powell scored 23 points.
Devin Booker scored 26 points, Kevin Durant added 24 to lead the surging Suns
“They were getting into the paint which made our defense collapse, and they were able to spray out for threes, drive it again, get to the basket. Then when you’re in scramble mode like that, it’s hard to rebound a basketball,” coach Tyronn Lue said. “The three guys they have on thefloor and (Devin) Booker was a problem tonight in the pick and roll, made a few pull up threes, getting downhill.They put our defense in a little duress.”
Los Angeles have now loss five of their last six road games.
The Clippers will look to bounce back on Wednesday night when they face-off against the San Antonio Spurs.
