The Los Angeles Clippers have a clear plan when they face the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday: focus on stopping the damage caused by San Antonio’s star center, Victor Wembanyama, who continues to impress in the NBA.
The Clippers arrive in San Antonio for the second game of a back-to-back after a 116-113 win in New Orleans on Monday. James Harden hit four crucial free throws in the last 18 seconds to secure the win, with Los Angeles overcoming a 14-point deficit late in the second quarter.
Norman Powell led the team with 35 points, while Harden finished with 27, helping the Clippers win five of their last six games.
Tuesday’s game is the middle of a three-game road trip for Los Angeles, which ends in Oklahoma City on Thursday.
The Clippers won the first meeting with the Spurs this season, 113-104, at home on November 4, with Powell scoring 23 points.
Harden is well aware of the challenge Wembanyama presents. In their last game, Wembanyama put up 24 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, and blocked nine shots.
“Beast — on both ends,” Harden said about the second-year French star. “And his shot looks way more confident, he’s shooting it with confidence.
Defensively, he’s active, blocking shots. He’s doing it all. Guys like us are leaving and guys like Wemby are coming in. We thought we’ve never seen certain players before, and then Wemby comes in. Like, come on.”
The Spurs are returning home after a four-game road trip that ended with a 112-110 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday.
They lost three of the four games on the trip by a total of 10 points, falling to Philadelphia by five, the Knicks by three, and beating the Brooklyn Nets by nine.
“I think we felt what road NBA basketball looks like against good teams,” said San Antonio acting coach Mitch Johnson. “There are some takeaways that we should feel really good about, and some takeaways that’ll give us much to do, to get back to work when we get back home.”
Wembanyama led the Spurs with 34 points in Minneapolis, marking his eighth game of the season with 30 or more points. It was also the ninth straight game and 21st time in 27 games this season that Wembanyama led the team in scoring.
The Spurs nearly pulled off a comeback against Minnesota, rallying from a 16-point third-quarter deficit to take a 101-98 lead with 6:35 left, but they couldn’t close the game out.
“Our late-game execution is an area of (needed) improvement for us,” said Harrison Barnes, who scored 24 points on Sunday. “We put ourselves in position. We battled for 44, 46 minutes, to give ourselves a chance to win, and then just finishing out games is something that we can get better at.”
Tuesday’s game is one of only two home games for the Spurs in the next two weeks. After a back-to-back with Denver on Friday and Saturday, San Antonio will head out on a road trip to Chicago, Milwaukee, and then Los Angeles for two games against the Lakers.
