It has been a very exciting NBA season as hardly anyone can predict the champions for this season. Leave out the predictions, this time even records are getting broken every now and then. It is not always you get to see a team scoring 175 points and still suffering defeat. That’s exactly what happened with the Los Angeles Clippers on Russell Westbrook’s debut game against the Sacramento Kings.
The Clippers and the Kings were fierce and none of them had any intention of giving up as the game went to second overtime after a period of overtime could not separate them. But ultimately it was heartbreak for the Clippers as the Kings simply edged it by just scoring one more point.
On JJ Redick’s podcast “Old Man and a Three”, Clippers star Paul George shares how it feels to be a part of the team that scored 175 on a night and still lost. He shared that he felt they had the advantage considering they were in full flow and both the teams were not getting stops. George also felt having a fresh energy like Westbrook would give them the edge.
“That was by far, the craziest game. … The first quarter, it was like, ‘Alright, this is easily gonna be a shootout,’ because we weren’t getting stopped, they weren’t getting stops. We have fresh energy having Russ in the lineup, so I knew we were going to be playing at a high pace,” George shared his thoughts.
He revealed that he knew it was going to be a high scoring affair but never in his dreams he would have thought of scoring 153 points in regulation and still ultimately losing the game. “I knew it was gonna be a high-scoring game. But almost 400 points combined by two teams, that’s crazy. We put up 153 (in regulation). You should win that game,” George added.
Kawhi Leonard led the scoring for the Clippers as he scored 44 whereas George managed 34 points alongwith 10 rebounds. Westbrook on his debut was not at his best as he scored 17 points and provided 14 assists. Coming to the Sacramento Kings, their entire starting five scored in double digits but the game high performance came from Malik Monk who put up 45 points from the bench whereas DeAaron Fox scored 42 and also came up with 12 assists guiding their team to a historic win.
The Clippers are currently in seventh position in the Western Conference and given how stacked their team is they should be fighting for the top spots in the West. Their record of 33-31 is very underwhelming considering the players they have brought in to bolster their lineup. Paul George and Kawhi Leonard will be hoping that things improve soon as they are expected to make a deep playoffs run and may surprise a few by event contending for the Championship.
