Clippers top short-handed Rockets for 6th straight win

INGLEWOOD — The missing faces were obvious from the tipoff. With the No. 2 seed locked up, the Houston Rockets sat four of their normal starters, leaving power forward Jalen Green as the lone recognizable player in the lineup.

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue wasn’t concerned about which players his team would see on the court in the final home game of the regular season. The Clippers had a job to do, and it didn’t matter who did or didn’t stand in their way.

“We have to be professional no matter who’s in the game. They got a good team, got a young core that’s really good,” Lue said before the game. “(Rockets coach) Ime (Udoka) has done a hell of a job. He’s a great coach and so you can’t underestimate any team you play in this league.

“We got to be ready to go from the jump, have a defensive mindset to start the game and nail it down.”

It took some time, but the Clippers eventually wore down the Rockets’ young corps for a 134-117 victory in the second game of a back-to-back set on Wednesday night, a win that helped them inch closer to their goal of a top-six seed.

At 48-32, the Clippers are tied with the Denver Nuggets for fourth place in the Western Conference with two games left in the regular season, but they dropped one spot to the fifth seed because the head-to-head tiebreaker replaced the four-team tiebreaker that favored the Clippers a night earlier.

Memphis (47-32), which was idle, is alone in sixth for now after Golden State (47-33) lost to San Antonio and dropped to seventh. Minnesota (46-33) is eighth and plays at Memphis on Thursday night.

James Harden scored a game-high 35 points, made all 10 of his free-throw attempts and had 10 assists to pace the Clippers, who have won six in a row and 16 of their past 19 games. Kawhi Leonard contributed 22 points and 10 rebounds and four assists, while center Ivica Zubac posted his first career triple-double with 20 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high 10 assists.

“Having those two guys lead us is good for us,” Lue said of veterans Harden and Leonard. “Like I said, the main thing is those two guys need to just stay healthy and it’s going to be an exciting run, so we’ll see what happens.”

Lue had considered taking Zubac out of the game late but changed his mind and ordered the 7-footer back on the court to see if they could get him the milestone, much to the delight of the Intuit Dome crowd.

“I usually don’t like doing that because of bad karma, but like I said, he had a chance to roll here,” Lue said.

It turned out to be a good move. Zubac found Bogdan Bogdanovic moving to the perimeter, fed him the ball and he buried a 25-footer to get the Croatian center his highlight.

“I told Bogie I’ll get it to you. You got to shoot it no matter what,” Zubac said. “Bogie is a big shot-maker. I told him he was never paying for dinner again, but I’m glad he made that shot.”

After a too-close first quarter, reserve forward Nicolas Batum opened the second by scoring 12 consecutive points to push the Clippers ahead 48-42 at the 8:34 mark. He later left the game because of right groin soreness.

The Rockets’ young corps, however, wouldn’t back down and stayed close for the next three minutes.

Then the Clippers turned up the volume, eager to put distance between them and their opponent, and took a 71-58 halftime lead behind the play of their star trio.

Harden, Leonard and Zubac each scored in double figures by halftime.

The Clippers led by as many as 19 in the third quarter (90-71) but they still couldn’t rest easy. The Rockets went on an 8-0 run to start the fourth and further cut the lead to single digits (117-109) on a 3-pointer by Jeff Green with 6:19 left, but that was as close as they got down the stretch.

The Clippers extended their winning streak despite playing without guard Norman Powell, who sat out because of a sore right shoulder. Amir Coffey (knee) and Ben Simmons (left knee management) also sat out.

The Rockets, who saw their modest three-game winning streak end, decided to sit Dillon Brooks (rest), Alperen Şengün (lower back), Jabari Smith Jr. (left groin), Amen Thompson (rest) and Fred VanVleet (right ankle).

Green kept his season-long streak going, appearing in his 80th game but didn’t play much. He scored five points and had three assists in 15 minutes.

Reed Sheppard led six Rockets in double figures with 20 points.

UP NEXT

The Clippers play at Sacramento on Friday at 7 p.m. before closing the regular season at Golden State on Sunday afternoon (12:30 p.m.).