Shorthanded Clippers rally but can’t keep pace with star-studded Suns

This Clippers season has been so disjointed, its roster so fragmented by injuries and COVID-related absences, that spotting meaningful trends has felt arduous even for those within the franchise, like piecing together shredded strips of a once-whole paper to see the bigger picture.

But there amid the night-to-night changes to the team’s injury report, the injury to leading scorer Paul George and the 16 different starting lineups, point guard Reggie Jackson said earlier this week that he’d spotted a consistency of intent and effort. The team could cycle through as many 10-day contracts as it needed, he said Wednesday, but he predicted a don’t-quit mantra would somehow persist.

It was all there again Thursday — a comeback from 19 down in the first half to just five with six minutes to play at Footprint Center sending murmurs of frustration throughout an arena that had seen a shorthanded Clippers roster become difficult to finish off only six months earlier, in the Western Conference finals.

Phoenix shot just 19% in the third quarter, held to 19 points, allowing the Clippers a way back into game they had appeared to lose grasp of in the second quarter, which Phoenix opened with a 17-2 run to lead comfortably at halftime.

But eventually the difference in one of the West’s elite contenders and a team holding onto its playoff life emerged in a 106-89 Phoenix win.

The Clippers still have fight. But Phoenix still has Chris Paul.

One of basketball’s best closers scored five points, with five assists and four rebounds without committing a turnover in 10 fourth-quarter minutes to bury the Clippers comeback hopes and plunge their record below .500, at 19-20.

Paul finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists to close out what the Suns’ role players had started. With center Deandre Ayton out, Cam Johnson scored 24 points and Jalen Smith added 19 points and 14 rebounds.

Paul’s assists to Johnson and Smith for cutting dunks on consecutive possessions pushed the lead to 11 with 3:37 to play, effectively ending the Clippers chances, with coach Tyronn Lue playing his starters for the final minutes. The night was a troubling dance — with the Clippers unable to fully dig themselves out of the hole they’d created in the second quarter.

Their deficit was cut to 12 but was back to 17 two minutes later in the third. Later in the quarter the margin was again just 12 courtesy of a Marcus Morris Sr. three-pointer — and 60 seconds later, momentum slipped through their grasp again, trailing by 16. When Morris made another three with 2:45 to go in the third to trim Phoenix’s lead to nine, 73-64, Brandon Boston Jr. then made a jumper on the other end to continue a 12-2 run. The Suns scored four points in the last four minutes of the third.

Morris scored a team-high 26 for the Clippers, who turned a blowout into a suspenseful second half by holding Phoenix to just four-of-20 outside shooting after halftime, including 1-of-11 in the third quarter. Their comeback was supercharged by lineups including Justise Winslow at center and Amir Coffey at forward, two options who otherwise wouldn’t have such a prominent role of the team was at full strength. Coffey had eight points and Winslow had four rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals.

Nicolas Batum scored one point with seven rebounds in his first game since a sprained ankle cost him five games. The forward is on a pitch count, playing only 18 minutes, until further notice and he missed his first three shots, but his return enabled something so rarely seen this season — his pairing with forward Morris.

Those two were a staple of some of the Clippers’ most effective postseason lineups but injuries and COVID-related absences had limited them to just 15 minutes together this season. Using them together is something Lue wants to build on as the season continues — should their availability allow it.