Clippers erase 25-point deficit, stun Nuggets
The 25-point comeback victory is tied for the Clippers’ 4th-largest – postseason games included – since the 1997-98 season!
LOS ANGELES — After a frustrating first half on Tuesday night, the Clippers found themselves in a 25-point hole against the Denver Nuggets with 7 minutes left in the Third Quarter. And, yes, undermanned as usual.
And wouldn’t you know it, they handled it, winning 87-85 in what Clippers coach Tyronn Lue called a “throwback” victory that he joked “set basketball back 50 years.”
The 25-point comeback victory is tied for the Clippers’ fourth-largest – postseason games included – since the 1997-98 season and was one of only three times this season that a team has recovered from a deficit that large.
“There was no way to plan for such a moment, for seeing what seemed to be impossible become real, and so what took place after Tuesday’s final buzzer was wholly improvised by a team that has survived its share of comebacks, but never from situations so dire as this.”
Reggie Jackson, most notably, was having a certifiably adverse game when he strung together three consecutive buckets to give the Clippers a 76-75 lead with 5:40 left. His fourth straight was a dunk on Jokic – just Jackson’s third slam this season. The dunk cut Denver’s lead to 79-78 and turned Jackson’s woeful 1-for-9 shooting start into pretext for the grand finale, which had the 15,077 fans at the arena chanting his name as they had during the Clippers’ run to the Western Conference finals last season.
The Clippers looked for teammates to hug, for the scoreboard to double-check that the final score of 87-85 was real, for friends and family in the stands to exchange quizzical glances.
When Amir Coffey ran into the tunnel toward his locker room, he stopped to hug point guard Reggie Jackson, who by that point had given his Nikes, his glasses and his headband to fans. Jackson walked to the locker room in his socks, breathing deeply, the franchise’s fourth-largest comeback behind him, the season’s second-half ahead.
Re-live the epic comeback win below: