The Toronto Raptors defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in a dominating fashion.
The Los Angeles Clippers fall against a shorthanded Toronto Raptors team 123-99. The Raptors held the games largest lead with 32 points early in the fourth quarter following a dominant third quarter.
The Clippers lost this game indefinitely in the third quarter as the Raptors outscored them in the quarter 33-17. Toronto continued to push the pace as Los Angeles could not match in a run of their own.
Toronto was without an injured Kawhi Leonard (right hip). With Leonard out, the Raptors had huge contributions from the bigs in Serge Ibaka, Pascal Siakam, and Jonas Valanciunas.
Siakam and Ibaka’s big nights started early as they led the Raptors with 8 points each in the first quarter. At the half, they combined for 27 points. Ibaka had 14 points to lead all scorers and Siakam followed suit with 13 points.
Ibaka finished with a game-high 25 points, nine rebounds, and two assists. Siakam had 13 points in total, three rebounds, and five assists. Kyle Lowry had just seven points in the first half but finished with 21 points, five rebounds, and seven assists.
Toronto’s 10-2 run late in the first quarter was a preview of what was to come later in the game as they steadily created some separation over Los Angeles. The first quarter finished with the Raptors in the lead 36-23.
As the Raptors were hitting their stride in the second quarter, the bench for the Clippers came in and started to chip away at the Raptors’ lead. At one point, the Clippers were within four points. Following Milos Teodosic’s entrance into the game, the Clippers went on a 19-12 run as Teodosic lifted the bench play as he was 3-4 from three-point range.
Along with Teodosic, Mike Scott and Tyrone Wallace brought some energy for the Clippers. All three players combined for 24 points in the first half overall. Boban Marjanović came off the bench with seven points for the Clippers in the third quarter and produced quality shots in their attempt to crack the Raptors’ large lead.
The Raptors outscored the Clippers 33-17 in the third quarter as they ran away with the lead. Once the Raptors hit the Lawler’s Law of 100 points towards the end of the quarter with a 32-point lead, it was going to be difficult for the Clippers to cut the deficit down and stay in the game with the Raptors.
The Clippers as a whole shot 8-21 of their field goals in comparison to the Raptors with 13-26 of their field goals in the third quarter.
Even in a bad shooting quarter for the Raptors in the fourth, they still held onto their lead. Toronto shot 6-22 from the field while Los Angeles had a 9-19 from the field.
Throughout the game, the Clippers had a stalled defense as they allowed the Raptors so much access in the paint and wide-open shots beyond the arc. Los Angeles allowed Toronto to score 28 fast break points and 54 points in the paint.
Offensively, the Clippers could not contain the ball as the team had 17 turnovers and the Raptors capitalized on those with 24 points. The Clippers did not take advantage of the paint as they settled for shots from beyond the arc. They were just 7-25 from three-point range for 28 percent.
Off the bench, Marjanović led the Clippers in scoring with 18 points on 7-9 field goals along with seven rebounds. Wallace finished with 15 points, four rebounds, and six assists.
Danilo Gallinari and Tobias Harris did not have good shooting games. Gallinari had 11 points on 4-10 field goals, five rebounds, and two assists while Harris had 10 points on 4-10 field goals, three rebounds, and one assist.
This was the worst game that the Clippers have had this season. There were spurts of effort that occurred, but overall this was a bad game as the Raptors played them out of the building.
The Clippers were without Lou Williams, who was out due to a hamstring injury that he suffered in their win over the Suns on Monday.
This was the fourth loss for the Clippers within their last 10 games. Los Angeles now has a 9-3 home record this season and move to 17-10 on the season.
Los Angeles will travel to San Antonio to face off with the Spurs on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. PT.
