The show began Wednesday night with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer standing with fans on the East side of his palace called Intuit Dome in an area known as “The Wall.” Ballmer did a frenetic dance with those fans inside his $2-billion venue before he took the microphone.
“Welcome home, Clippers Nation,” Ballmer bellowed.
Indeed, this is the Clippers’ new home after spending 25 years at Staples Center/Crypto.com Arena, sharing it with the Lakers and the NHL’s Kings.
It was the Clippers’ first regular-season game in Inglewood and it came without their biggest star, Kawhi Leonard, who missed the game because of recurring inflammation in his right knee. They were also missing their second-best player in Paul George, who bolted to the Philadelphia 76ers over the summer.
So, it was up to Clippers coach Tyronn Lue, star James Harden and a defense they have boasted about all preseason to be what mattered the most.
The curtain came down on the Clippers for good after they were unable to deliver in the clutch, dropping a 116-113 game in overtime to the Suns.
Harden had 29 points, but he was just 10-for-28 from the field, and ended the game missing an important free throw and had eight turnovers.
Harden missed the second of two free throws with 4.8 seconds left, leaving the Clippers down by one point in the extra five minutes of play.
After Jusuf Nurkic made two free throws for a three-point Suns lead, Harden couldn’t handle an inbounds pass from Amir Coffey, leading to another turnover and the end of the game.
The game against the Suns in their own building was called a “huge day for Clippers basketball” by Lue.
“I’m very happy for our fans, happy for our players, happy for the organization,” Lue said. “And you see the arena speaks for itself. There’s none better in the world.”
When Lue was asked for an update on Leonard, he said it was the same as last week when the Clippers said the All-Star forward was going to be out indefinitely but had been “progressing.”
“He’s feeling pretty good, getting better,” Lue said. “Just got to check all the boxes, but he is progressing and he’s feeling pretty good.”
Leonard was a force for the Clippers last season, playing in 68 games, the most over his five years with the Clippers. He averaged a team-high 23.7 points per game and 6.1 rebounds. He shot 52.5% from the floor, 41.7% from three-point range.
That’s what the Clippers are missing.
“With Kawhi being out, you lose the top defender, you lose the scoring ability — 25, 26 points a night,” Lue said. “You lose a guy that demands a double team on most nights. So, we got to just figure out how to play fast, play free, getting into space but not getting over dribble — I mean dribble happy. So, we are going to miss a lot of his abilities on the floor, but we just got to make up for it collectively.”