November 27, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Wizards forward Corey Kispert (24) takes a picture against La Clippers James Harden (1) during the second quarter at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Reggie Hildred-Imagn Pictures The Los Angeles Clippers hope to have something similar to a completely operational list when hosting Washington Wizards on Thursday evening in Inglewood, Calif.
In the middle of a busy schedule this week, Clipper’s four lacked Wednesday, but still remained competitive in an overtime loss of 117-113 at home to Boston Celtics.
The starters Kawhi Leonard (Rest), James Harden (Ljumsk), Norman Powell (back) and Ivica Zubac (eye) were out, while Nicolas Batum (finger) and Kris Dunn (knee) did not play either. The Clippers still led by five points during the third quarter and received the last four regulation points from the Celtics sales to send the game to OT.
Thursday’s game will be Clipper’s fourth in a span of five days in a schedule Logjam created after they had re -planned earlier this month due to deadly fires in the Los Angeles area.
Leonard, who has only played five matches this season because of the tenderness of the knee, was already expected to miss the time this week and set out in the last two matches, but he will probably return to Wizards. Zubac has also missed the last two games after he became in the eye and may be in danger of missing a third.
Without his top corps, Derrick Jones led Jr. Clippers with 29 points against Celtics, while Kevin Porter Jr. Added 26 and Amir Coffey 24. Mo Bamba and Porter made their second start of the season each.
“Many positive effects for the young guys to get a chance to play and compete as they did,” said Clippers coach Tyronn Lue. “Hate only to see such a loss.”
Clippers could not overcome 23 sales that led to 25 Celtics points.
“It’s hard to beat a really good team when you turn the ball so many times,” Lue said. “… but I liked our struggle, I liked our pace and there are definitely some things we can take from this game.”
The sorcerers have an 11-match losing line and enter Thursday’s game from a loss of 111-88 to Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday. After consecutive 23-point losses, the magicians in the middle of a six-game road trip to the Western Conference team are.
Bilal Coulibaly led the magicians with 17 points against the Lakers, while Jordan Poole and Corey Kispert added 15 each.
“I thought there were good stretches when we had a good ball movement and we did the right thing, the right process,” said Wizards coach Brian Keefe. “Some of them, we didn’t make the shots.
Washington’s 7-foot Rookie Center, Alex Sarr, had a career best five blocked shots on Tuesday in the 38th match of his career.
“His activity was great,” Keefe said. “I thought he really went on when the game went along.”
Poole leads Washington with an average of 21.4 points per match, while Jonas Valanciunas has a team best 8.2 returns, mostly off the bench, and Sarr takes 6.7 returns per match with 11.6 points.
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