INGLEWOOD, Calif.- – — The Clippers come up short in overtime 117-113 against the defending champion Boston Celtics on Wednesday night.
Derrick Jones Jr. scored a career-high 29 points leading the Clippers as they gave the Celtics all they can handle until the very end.
Los Angeles had three players score 24 or more points in the game. Kevin Porter Jr. added 26 points and Amir Coffey chipped in 24.
“They’ve been great. You know, with KPJ [Kevin Porter Jr.] taking on a different role, from, you know, being in Houston where he was a star, he was the guy, you know, and coming here and just trying to do what we asked him to do, trying to fit in, trying to run a team and playing the backup, playing our position,” coach Tyronn Lue said.
“You know DJ [Derrick Jones Jr.] has been great, you know all year career highs in everything and every category. And you know, when you play hard, you can compete, you know that’s what happens.
The Clippers (24-19) were missing seven players including James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Norman Powell and Ivica Zubac. The Celtics were down a couple starters as well.
It was a back and forth game that the shorthanded Clippers surprisingly led 84-81 going into the fourth quarter.
Offensively the Clippers went cold in the fourth quarter allowing the Celtics to at one point take a seven point lead in the fourth.
With 12.1 second remaining Coffey drove in for a dunk and then Jones stole the ball from Jaylen Brown and scored with 4.2 seconds remaining to tie the game at 103-103 and force overtime.
Boston made four threes in overtime to help them secure the win. They had three players score at least 20 points on the night.
The Clippers gave a valiant effort without most of their top guys but just didn’t have enough.
Obviously, I’m proud of the group that we have. We went out there and fought, and gave it everything that we had, but we fell short,” Jones Jr. said of the Clippers performance.
They are back in action tonight as they face off with the lowly Washington Wizards at home in the Intuit Dome.
