SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs (14-35) got clobbered by the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night in LA 138-100, falling to 0-4 versus the Clippers this season.
San Antonio was a bit banged up and facing a title contender on the second night of a back-to-back, and it sure looked like it. Kawhi Leonard jumped all over his former team, scoring 27 points and adding 7 assists in the win. Paul George added some highlight-reel plays with 35 points and 7 assists.
Kawhi had a three and an and-1 to fuel a strong scoring run at the end of the first quarter, putting the Clippers up 41-25. The Spurs never got the deficit back to single digits for the rest of the game, which was a blowout all the way through.
Keldon Johnson led the Spurs with 19 points, and four other Spurs scored in double figures. Isaiah Roby got some burn on a night with guys out, and he put up 12 points off the bench with a pair of triples.
Keita Bates-Diop started in place of Jeremy Sochan, who tweaked his quad in the loss to the Lakers the night before, and scored 13 points. Malaki Branham also started with Romeo Langford out, adding 5 points and 3 assists.
One positive sign for the Spurs was a Blake Wesley appearance. The rookie has been recovering from an injury for the past few months, and came off the bench for 16 minutes. He only scored 5 points, but he cut in for a dunk that showed he's still got that explosive leaping ability.
The Clippers shot over 58% from the floor and 47% from three, scoring 26 points off of 14 turnovers by the Spurs. San Antonio's next game will be Saturday against the Suns.
GAME REWIND
The Spurs are coming off a 113-104 loss versus the Lakers.
Keldon Johnson had 25 points and five rebounds to lead the team while Jeremy Sochan added 14 points. Zach Collins finished with 16 points and seven rebounds while Doug McDermott recorded nine points in the loss.
"The guys played their butts off. They were making young-type mistakes but in a two-point game with eight minutes to go, at that point, we couldn't make a shot. They [Lakers] made three, threes in a row and made it an 11-point game," Gregg Popovich said. "At that point, it went back and forth but the effort was there. We're getting better day by day. Just got to keep the faith."
SPURS RECALL BLAKE WESLEY
The Spurs will have rookie guard Blake Wesley on the bench versus the Clippers after being recalled from the Austin Spurs.
INJURY REPORT
LOCKED ON SPURS PREVIEWS SPURS-CLIPPERS
THE UNIFORMS
The Spurs will be in their City Edition jerseys today.
FIVE THINGS TO WATCH
1. The Clippers are on a three-game win streak.
2. Clippers' Paul George leads the team in points (23.2 per game), assists (5.2 per game), steals (1.4 per game), and minutes (33.8 per game).
3. The Clippers' bench averages 42.1 points per game.
4. The Spurs are 1-7 on the second game of a back-to-back.
5. The Spurs are averaging 109.7 points per game through three games versus the Clippers.
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