Rowan Kavner
DENVER – A 16-0 start to the third quarter to tie the game at 59 wasn’t enough for the Clippers to capture a win Friday night in Denver.
The Clippers led, 74-71, after outscoring the Nuggets by 19 points in the third quarter, but they came just short of closing the deal after a late answer from the Nuggets and a barrage of technical fouls against them in a 109-106 loss.
“Every loss is tough, but yeah, it’s hard when you put yourself in that hole and fight so hard and expend so much energy to get back into it and lose it in the end,” said Blake Griffin.
After going down, 109-103, Chris Paul cut the deficit to four on a bucket with 13 seconds left. The Clippers forced one of the Nuggets’ 21 turnovers on the night and got the ball back, with Griffin hitting one of two free throws.
Griffin then batted the miss on the second free throw back out, and Jamal Crawford, J.J. Redick and Paul each had a chance to tie it with 3-pointers, but none of the long-range shots fell through.
“It’s tough,” said Matt Barnes. “We fought. We played terrible in the first half, fought our hearts out in the third quarter, took the lead, and then the fourth quarter happened. Got to learn from it.”
Barnes was given one of the Clippers’ four different individual technical fouls in the fourth quarter alone. In total, the Clippers were charged seven technical fouls, five individual and two on the team.
Combined with the Nuggets’ techs, six technical fouls were called in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter. The slowed-down pace came in stark contrast to the Clippers’ high-energy, fast-moving third quarter run.
The Clippers trailed, 59-43, at halftime. Four and a half minutes into the third quarter, the game was tied at 59 as the Clippers used a 16-0 run to start the second half. The run began with two dunks from Jordan, which preceded three buckets from Blake Griffin, which preceded 10 straight points from Barnes.
Paul finished with 17 points and 15 assists, while Griffin and Jordan also had double-doubles. Crawford added 20 points off the bench, the Clippers, committed 10 fewer turnovers than the Nuggets and destroyed Denver in the third quarter, but the Clippers still let a win slip away.
The Clippers allowed 38 points in the fourth, with the Nuggets beginning the quarter on a 9-0 run. It was just the third time all season the Clippers lost when scoring at least 100 points, and a lot of that had to do with a 3-for-18 mark from 3-point range.
Three of those misses occurred in the final seconds of the game. Crawford, who had the first chance to tie, said he thought he hit the three when it came off his fingers.
“I thought it was good, honestly,” Crawford said. “I really did. It wasn’t one of those shots where it was like, ‘Oh, it’s off. I watched it the whole way….I wish I could shoot it again.”
NOTES: The home team has now won the last eight games in the series…Spencer Hawes didn’t make the trip (knee)…The Clippers were outscored in every quarter but the third…The Clippers lost despite 14 steals, including three from three different players…Griffin led the Clippers with 32 points, going to the line 18 times…The Clippers return home for a matchup against the Bucks on Saturday
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