Even without Kawhi Leonard since the start of the season, and Paul George, the Clippers are still alive. After the game of the night, they will be able to thank Luke Kennard in particular for his stunning feat, worthy of Tracy McGrady, on the floor of the Wizards.
9 seconds from the end, the Californians are still trailing 115-109, until the former Pistons player catches fire. The left-handed back first started from the city center successfully to maintain the hope of a comeback of madness while Washington counted up to 35 points in advance!
In full doubt, the troops of Wes Unseld Jr. were unable to put the ball back into play, exposing themselves to an equalizer in the last 8 seconds. Luke Kennard did better than that since his successful attempt, uNBAlanced in front of a late Bradley Beal on everything, was crowned with a fault, giving him a 3 + 1 and victory on a plateau (115-116). After a one-sided third quarter (40-27), the Clippers did it again in the last act (40-22) with the Kennard-Coffey tandem in charge (25 and 29 points).
WHAT YOU MUST REMEMBER
– The second biggest “comeback” since 1996-1997. With his free throw, Luke Kennard allowed the Clippers to make one of the most stunning comebacks in history with this 35-point deficit recovered at the last second. It’s simple, since we know the exact course of all the matches, from the 1996/97 season, only one team has done better: Utah, which had swallowed 36 points behind to win against Denver in November 1996!
– Wizards bad luck! It turns out that the teammates of Bradley Beal have already been the turkeys of the farce at the beginning of the month against the executioner DeMar DeRozan, author that evening of his second “buzzer beater” in the space of 24 hours. Since then, the Wizards have lost to the Rockets on a 3-pointer from Kevin Porter Jr. four tenths from the end (114-111) and have also narrowly failed against Brooklyn (119-118) and Toronto (109- 105), each time at home.
– The feat of Luke Kennard. A “clutch” sequence that will remain with these two missiles and this contrast between the euphoria of the Clippers bench and the incredulous faces of the rest of the room!
TOPS/FLOPS
✅ The heart of the Clippers. Luke Kennard’s feat was only made possible by the extraordinary effort produced by the whole team in the second half. More generally, in the difficult context of this season, once again, Tyronn Lue’s troops are showing incredible strength of character. Last night, it was Amir Coffey and his 29 points who showed the way, a “two-way contract” that we would hardly have seen if the Leonard-George duo had not experienced such misadventures. There was Luke Kennard of course, but also Isiah Hartenstein, Eric Bledsoe or even Terance Mann to participate in this resounding 80-49 in the second half.
⛔ Bradley Beal. 23 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists…. 5 lost balls too, but we will necessarily remember only the last action of his match, when he found himself overtaken by Luke Kennard when a simple fault at the right time would have sent the Californian rear on the line of the free throws for two attempts. Instead, the Wizards frontman committed the foul at the worst time and was punished in the worst possible way, seeing victory slip from his grasp.
THE FOLLOWING
Washington (23-25): it’s the Wizards’ turn to hit the road with a three-game road trip that kicks off in Memphis on Saturday.
LA Clippers (24-25): the Californians are expected on the Orlando side this Wednesday.
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