Short-handed Clippers edged by surging Raptors

LOS ANGELES — The scouting report on the Clippers: They’re always gonna give you a game.

“I know this team plays really hard, they play really hard,” Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse said before his team escaped with a 103-100 victory over the Clippers on Wednesday before a sellout crowd of 19,068 at Crypto.com Arena. “They really compete and that’s good, I’m glad. I hope they do, I hope we do.”

Even with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Norman Powell – about 71 points, on average – all sitting on the bench, injured and invested observers, the Clippers gave a streaking Raptors team all it could handle.

Marcus Morris Sr. finished with 22 points, a season-high seven assists and six rebounds, but he just couldn’t shake Precious Achiuwa, who blocked Morris’ 3-point attempt with 1.3 seconds left that would’ve tied the score had it gone in.

Morris’ last look came after Fred VanVleet twice made the first of two free throws to push Toronto’s lead to 103-100.

The first set of freebies came on a hotly disputed foul on Terance Mann with 15.7 seconds left in the game – and just 4.6 seconds left on the shot clock – as he and VanVleet both chased a ball out of bounds. The second foul came after VanVleet corralled his own miss before Mann to stop the clock with nine ticks remaining.

“We’re confident in Marcus being able to get a shot off and they just got a stop, fortunately for them, unfortunately for us,” said an atypically frustrated Reggie Jackson, who added 23 points and nine assists in the loss.

“Very difficult position we felt we were in, felt like we had a stop. Iffy call on the side, especially after the ball is deflected – 50-50 ball – so it was frustrating. That was just very frustrating, at the end.”

Jackson continued, interrupting a question about two things that stood out about the game thusly, by complaining about the official who made the late call on Mann by name: “Natalie Sago, is that who stands out?”

What about the Clippers’ offensive rebounding deficit and 17-point hole? Jackson offered: “We were doing everything we could, we tried, but their best player made it difficult on us tonight, so Nat is great.”

Pascal Siakam was pretty good too, leading the Raptors with 31 points on 12-for-18 shooting, to go with 12 rebounds. VanVleet added 21 points, including those late free throws.

Off the bench for the Clippers, Mann had 16 points and nine rebounds and Isaiah Hartenstein chipped in with 12 points.

The Raptors (39-30) were playing the final game of a six-game trip, the past five of which they’ve won after hitting the road with motivation aplenty.

Toronto came into Wednesday’s game in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, one game behind the Cleveland Cavaliers. The top six teams in each conference are guaranteed to get into the playoffs. The seventh- through 10th-place finishers fall into the play-in tournament to decide the seventh and eighth seeds.

With the eighth seed and a spot in a play-in tournament all but cemented, the Clippers’ motivation was more philosophical: Getting better, getting ready.

“I think we’re mentally focused and they understand that we have some things that we gotta continue to get better at,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said before tipoff. “Some things we have to add.”

The Clippers experienced the usual issues Wednesday, digging themselves another substantial hole in addition to losing the offensive rebounding battle, most notably in the second half (10-6), and subsequently getting outscored 15-7 in second-chance opportunities after the half.

“I thought (Robert) Covington coming in and just being able to switch a lot of stuff and fire and get in a rotation, take the ball out of Freddie and Siakam’s hands we did a good job with that late,” Lue said.

“But we gave up 10 offensive rebounds in that second half … we just gotta be better with the rebounding.”

The first half, for the most part, lived up to Nurse’s pregame billing. Twelve lead changes and five ties backed him up, and an 11-2 run gave his team a 10-point buffer at the break.

The Raptors’ 11-4 sprint immediately after intermission helped them surge further ahead, building a 65-48 lead with 9:42 to play in the third quarter.

The Clippers’ reputation as comeback artists – said Nurse: “they never give up, right?” – remains intact as the hosts flirted with their 13th double-digit comeback this season.

The Clippers trailed just 78-74 at the end of the third quarter after they closed with a furious 9-0 flurry of their own. They went small and cut the deficit to 83-81 after Mann’s 3-pointer with 8:18 left.

The game of runs teetered back Toronto’s way after that, as they extended the lead to 93-83.

And then it tottered back L.A.’s way, when Lue won a coach’s challenge that erased an offensive foul on Jackson and sent him to the line for an and-one play that made it 95-93 Raptors.

After four quick points by Toronto, Jackson charged back inside and got a tough reverse layup to fall, trimming the lead back to two points – 99-97.

Nicolas Batum buried a 3-pointer – the Clippers’ third attempt on the possession – to get the Clippers closer still at 101-100, after which VanVleet drew a foul, knocked down the first of two free throws and then corralled his own miss before getting fouled again.

He stepped to the line with nine seconds left and again hit the first of two before Batum wrestled the rebound away and the Clippers called timeout with 6.2 seconds remaining to set up the play for Morris.

The Clippers’ fifth loss in seven games – which dropped them back to .500 at 36-36 – was a pit stop in L.A. between a just-completed three-game road trip and a two-game jaunt to Utah and Denver for games on Friday and Tuesday.

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