NBA – Paul George and Clippers staged a late rally to beat Spurs 108-105

Paul George brought his clutch game to the fore at the most critical stage in the game as the Los Angeles Clippers staged a late rally to beat the San Antonio Spurs 108-105 at Staples Center.

kwahi-demar-nbaGeorge made a poor start to the game, making just two of his first seven shots, but the former Indiana Pacers superstar buried four of his last six shots, and the Clippers erased a 15-point second-quarter deficit to win the game. With that result, the Clippers also won the season series 3-1 against Spurs.

Trailing by five points with less than three minutes remaining, the Clippers put on a 9-0 run to take control of the game. During that run, George and Leonard, who had 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists, scored or assisted on every point.

Patrick Beverley had 12 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds, while Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams made telling contributions from the bench, scoring 14 and 12 points respectively.paul-george-demar-derozan-nba

For Gregg Popovich and his men, it was a big opportunity lost. Not that this result will be catastrophic in the big scheme of things, which for Spurs is to make the playoffs, but the main point is that Spurs have dropped too many games from winning positions, losing to teams, with a relatively thin roster, they would have beaten in their dream just a few seasons ago.

But the momentum is a big thing in sports, and in fact, confidence can propel an individual or a team into punching above their weights. And Spurs would have loved to go into their daunting schedule with a signature result under their belt. To put it into context, Popovich’s men will be playing the next six road games against the teams sitting above them in the standings, and five against teams with more than 30 wins. But instead, the 2014 NBA champions will have to exorcise the ghosts of their recent failure once again, and one more time.

DeMar DeRozan exploded for 21 points in the first half alone but faded as the match went on. The former Toronto Raptors star could manage only five points in the next three quarters. LaMarcus Aldridge had a game-high 27 points.

The only positive for Spurs is that they ran Clippers close at Staples Center, and though they face the Los Angeles Lakers in their next game, similar performance should see them get the positive result against most of the team. The reason being, not every team has Paul George and Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James and Anthony Davis.