INGLEWOOD — After losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves by one point six days ago, Clippers center Ivica Zubac said, “We’re mad. We think we should have won this game. We thought we played well enough to win it. And we can’t wait to see them again.”
It turns out the Clippers could have waited. Maybe another week or month. Or at least until some of their players return to the lineup.
Without Norman Powell and four other rotation players, the Clippers had little to offer in the second game of a back-to-back and were crushed by the Timberwolves, 108-80, on Wednesday night at Intuit Dome. The 28-point loss snapped the Clippers’ nine-game home winning streak.
Powell sat out to rest his left hamstring after scoring 30 points in a victory over Portland on Tuesday.
Terance Mann, who fractured the middle finger on his left hand in Tuesday’s game, will have surgery Thursday and will miss at least three weeks.
Kobe Brown was diagnosed with a herniated disk and will be re-evaluated in two weeks. Kevin Porter Jr., who scored 17 points against the Timberwolves on Nov. 30 before spraining his right ankle, missed his third game and All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard has yet to play this season as he deals with his surgically repaired knee.
With so many players out, Lue said nothing really changes except the faces.
“No matter who’s on the floor every night, we want to play hard, compete on the defensive end,” Lue said. “That’s got to be our staple every night and that’s what our team has given us so far in the first 20 whatever games.
“And so, it’s the next guy in the rotation, next man up, they’re going to come in and do the same thing.”
Only the Clippers lacked the same intensity as they did six nights ago in Minnesota when the game came down to the final minute. This game was lost quickly.
Harden was scoreless in the first half until making two free throws with seven-tenths of a second left. He failed to connect on seven shots, including four from 3-point range. After scoring 23 points on Tuesday, he finished with five points, three rebounds and three assists.
Derrick Jones Jr. finished with 14 points, Zubac had four points and 10 rebounds, and little-used Bones Hyland came off the bench and posted 18 points. Amir Coffey finished with 14 points and four rebounds.
The Clippers shot 28.6% in the first half. And when they weren’t missing shots, they were turning the ball over (13).
Meanwhile, the young Timberwolves were rolling. Julius Randle, who is averaging 21 points, scored all of his 20 points in the first half as Minnesota strolled to a 59-32 halftime lead. Minnesota doubled its lead to 76-37 with 7:07 left in the third quarter.
By the end of that period, Jones was on the bench with a large ice pack on his right thigh, the Clippers trailed by 36 points and G League player Trenyten Flowers was in his first game of the season.
The game didn’t get better for the Clippers as the Timberwolves continued to find the basket while keeping the pressure on their opponent. Minnesota shot 48.2% from the field, including 36.4% from 3-point range.
The Clippers, who shot 34.9% from the field, turned the ball over 23 times which led to 29 points for Minnesota. The Timberwolves also recorded 15 steals.
More to come on this story.