Sunday night, the Los Angeles Clippers were defeated at home by the Sacramento Kings 98-97. Oddly enough, the Clippers even added on to their lead and had an 18-point advantage with 5 minutes and 16 seconds remaining thanks to a Paul Pierce jumper.
However, Pierce’s jumper at the 5-minute mark would be the Clippers last field goal of the game as they went scoreless from the field the rest of the way. On the opposite spectrum of things, the Kings caught fire and ended the game on a 20-3 run. This is thanks in large part to shooting guard Buddy Hield who scored 11 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter to help the Kings comeback efforts.
After a Willie Cauley-Stein layup with 1.8 seconds remaining that gave the Kings the lead, Chris Paul missed his shot attempt at the buzzer and the Kings comeback was complete. After the game, Paul showed his frustrations with the Clippers late game collapse.
Following from Brad Turner of The LA Times.
“It’s a bad loss. It’s probably the worst one in the regular season in my career, probably,” said Paul, who had 17 points and nine assists. “Yeah, that’s tough. That was a bad one. That’s a bad loss. Yeah.”
Although Paul missed what would have been the game winner, he reiterated that he has confidence in himself to take that shot every time.
“I caught it and was ready to shoot,” Paul said. “It felt good. I haven’t seen it again. But I’ll take that shot any day of the week.”
After a dominate performing over the Utah Jazz, the Clippers took a step back in the wrong direction with their collapse against the Kings. Hopefully, they can quickly turn things around in their next matchup against the Washington Wizards.
