LA Clippers season comes to an end losing to New Orleans in the Play in Game- April 2022
The LA Clippers season came to an abrupt end they lost to the New Orleans Pelicans at the crypto.com Arena in the play in game. This is after the Clippers blew a 10 point lead in the fourth quarter versus Minnesota earlier in the week in the first play in game. With star forward Paul George having to sit out due to health protocol of Covid and key reserve Luke Kennard injured the Clippers play the tough game but came up short in the end.
They were getting beat in the first half with Brandon Ingram doing most of the damage for New Orleans in the first quarter. The pelicans had a 10 point lead at halftime and then coach Tylo went small with his lineup in the Clippers that scored New Orleans by 20 in third quarter actually going up by 14 at one point. The fourth quarter was back-and-forth but in the end, New Orleans made some key plays with CJ McCollum hitting some big shots along with Trey Murphy 111 heading for three-pointers. Both teams struggled for the free throw line in the Clippers got out rebounded quite a few times with New Orleans bigger lineup. It was an up-and-down season for the home LA team with top star Kawhi Leonard having to miss the whole season. They made a midseason trade getting Norman Powell, who was a key contributor when healthy but Paul George also missed many games with his injury and the team never get over the hump. The biggest blow was top player Kawhi Leonard missing the whole season with a knee injure sustained in the playoffs last year. Coach Ty Lue juggled lineups and did a great job getting them in a position where they were despite all the injuries and multiple lineups.
There’s a lot of positive thoughts for the future if everybody can stay healthy. Their lineup is deep but they never truly got the total consistency from everybody every night. The only key free agents for next year are backup center Hartenstein and reserve forward Covington (both good role players) so they hope to bring them back.
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