Clippers mount 2nd-Biggest Comeback in NBA history!!
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The L.A. CLIPPERS’ 35-pt comeback victory over the Wizards was the largest comeback in franchise history, and the 2nd-largest in NBA history. The Clippers defeated the Wizards, 116-115, by scoring 80 pts in the second half with only 8 players: T-Mann, Coffey, Bledsoe, Kennard, Hartenstein, Winslow, Brandon Boston Jr. & Jay Scrubb. Luke had 7 points in the final 9 seconds, incl. a 4-point play with 1.9 seconds on the clock. He finished with 25 Points, including five 3-pointers. Coffey scored a career-high 29 points and Hartenstein scored a season-high 16 points. Epic!!
Odds and history were heavily against the Clippers. NBA teams had a 1-16,239 record trailing by 7 with under 20 left previously. More than 16 thousand teams had failed to achieve what the Clippers did! (Also, besides the 72-39 run to get it to 2, they then ended it on a 9-1 run in the final 19 seconds.)
Trailing by 30 points, the Clippers’ largest deficit at halftime in 137 games, point guard Reggie Jackson stalked the visiting locker room inside Capital One Arena repeating a confidence that was in no way supported by a first half in which they had fallen behind by as many as 35.
In any other NBA locker room, Jackson’s keep-the-faith tone that stretched believability would have been laughed off. But only the Clippers could have found a shred of truth within it. Only 14 days earlier, a roster without either of their injured All-Stars, Kawhi Leonard or Paul George, had authored a 25-point comeback. And just four days earlier, they had overcome a 24-point hole to stun Philadelphia.
“It’s a crazy statement, but, you know, he believed it,” forward Amir Coffey said. “We all did!”
They no longer had to believe when a last-gasp Washington pass slipped off of Montrezl Harrell’s fingers with one second to play, and Coffey grabbed the ensuing inbounds and cradled the ball like a running back as the buzzer sounded.
A 35-point comeback, the largest in franchise history and tied for the NBA’s second-largest since the NBA began keeping play-by-play data (in 1996), was suddenly an indisputable fact, registering in the 116-115 on the scoreboard and the raucous celebration that overtook the court.
Starter Nicolas Batum, who didn’t play in the second half because of a back spasm, removing one of the team’s most versatile defenders, held his head in disbelief. Jackson leaped into Head Coach Tyronn Lue, tweaking the coach’s own back in a moment he barely felt because of adrenaline as he charged off the court, slapping hands with fans and team security guards. His furrowed eyebrows betrayed the emotion of a coach who knows, somehow, that his team is most comfortable only once it has contorted itself in the tightest knots.
They are the only team in the last 25 seasons with three comebacks of at least 24 points in a single season. And they did it in two weeks.
With the Clippers trailing by six points with 11 seconds to play, Luke Kennard made a 35-foot three-pointer, then Washington inexplicably turned the ball over on a five-second inbounds violation. Their next mistake was even more stunning — failing to foul Clippers reserve Justise Winslow, a 52% free-throw shooter, when he caught the ball on the ensuing possession. He had enough time to flip the ball to Kennard, who sank a three-pointer that ripped through the net as he was fouled. He made the go-ahead free-throw with 1.9 seconds left.
The Clippers led for all of 1.9 seconds. The last 1.9 seconds.
WATCH the 35-Pt COMEBACK below:
Coffey, whose 29 points are a career-high, called it “probably the craziest game I’ve ever been a part of.”
Kennard rubbed his eyes sitting down for an interview.
“Why do we keep doing that to ourselves? I don’t know,” said Kennard, who busted out of a slump since returning from the NBA’s health and safety protocols by scoring 25 points, with eight rebounds and six assists. “I don’t want to do it anymore, though. Man, that was crazy.”