SAN ANTONIO — Having shrugged off another brutal display of first-half offense, the Clippers began to break some of their worst, and most persistent habits, as well, as Saturday’s fourth quarter began.
Committing fewer turnovers, grabbing more rebounds, receiving a significant contribution from Serge Ibaka — all had been rarities this season entering Saturday, let alone occurring on the same night. But when Ibaka ripped away his seventh offensive rebound with 7 minutes, 28 seconds to play inside AT&T Center and tossed up a soft hook shot, the Clippers had a five-point lead, their one-time 16-point deficit feeling like only a memory.
The changes stopped there. Reverting to their typically bleak offensive form, the Clippers scored just two points the rest of the game in losing 101-94 to San Antonio at AT&T Center, a loss that gave the Spurs the tiebreaker in their three-game season series.
The Clippers made three of their last 16 shots in their last nine minutes, with coach Tyronn Lue pinning the drought — the second pronounced scoreless stretch of the night — on a lack of decisiveness.
The Clippers are now 21-23.
Amir Coffey scored 20 points, Marcus Morris Sr. scored 15 and Isaiah Hartenstein scored six in his first game since Dec. 18 because of an ankle injury.
In Hartenstein’s 29 games the Clippers’ bench had a plus-1.1 net rating and an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.37 while shooting 46%. In his 13-game absence the reserves’ plus-minus fell to minus-1.9, and their shooting to 41.4%, though their assist ratio slightly rose. Considering their roster’s upheaval of the past three weeks extended far beyond the absence of Hartenstein, those dips can’t be attributed solely to missing the backup center. Yet there were multiple reasons why the Clippers guaranteed his contract earlier this month, one being that at the time of Hartenstein’s injury the team was 11 points better when he played, per 100 possessions. It was the Clippers’ best net rating amid significant contributors.
Hartenstein had to wait until nine minutes before halftime to return to the court for the first time since Dec. 18. Meanwhile, Spurs guard Lonnie Walker IV came off the bench in the first quarter and torched the Clippers for nine points in four minutes. Even when defenders followed Lue’s stated plan to “shrink the floor” and cut off Murray’s drives into the paint, Walker still took advantage. He took a kick-out pass from a walled-off Murray and splashed a three-pointer to end a 10-0 Clippers run in the first quarter.
Hartenstein made his first three shots and established a quick connection with point guard Eric Bledsoe. The pair was one of the few bright spots offensively, making five of their seven shots in the first half, but with Ibaka playing well in the second half Hartenstein wasn’t used again and he finished with six minutes.
“Pretty good for his first game back,” Lue said.
For the first time in three games the Clippers scored at least 20 points in the first quarter. But even such a modest accomplishment did not happen easily. They failed to score a field goal in the quarter’s final 4:10, and neither team scored for the final 3:17 — combining to miss 12 shots — until a free throw by Nicolas Batum with less than a second remaining broke the streak.
It took four more minutes for the Clippers to score another point. In all, they went nearly nine minutes between field goals, allowing a 16-1 run by San Antonio in the process, and it had everything to do with why they trailed by nine at halftime. It was fitting their final possession of the half ended with a blown fast-break opportunity — the Clippers are tied for dead last in transition scoring efficiency.
Where the Clippers have excelled this season, at limiting opponents to a league-low 17.5 free throws per game, backfired in the third quarter, as the Spurs shot 15 free throws in those 12 minutes alone. They took 27 free throws on the night, making 22, to the Clippers’ eight free-throw attempts.
But just one minute into the fourth quarter, a Bledsoe assist leading to a jumper by Batum erased what had been a 16-point deficit, and one possession later a layup by Brandon Boston Jr. — off their season-high-tying 17th offensive rebound — pushed the Clippers ahead by three. Ibaka was central, with 10 points and 10 rebounds with two blocks. How long he plays a role as large as this, in 18 minutes, is unclear given the return of Hartenstein, who is Zubac’s typical backup.
But as quickly as their offense began clicking, its gears grinded to a halt, scoring only two points in a 4:34 span of the fourth quarter. What had been a five-point lead was a three-point deficit with three minutes to play after back-to-back midrange jumpers by Murray over center Ivica Zubac, the guard nodding as he entered a subsequent timeout. Coming off the first consecutive 30-point performances in his five seasons, he finished with 18 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.
