On February 13, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued. The Clippers hosted the league's No. 1 Timberwolves, and the Clippers defeated the Timberwolves 100-121 and dropped to third place in the West.
The Clippers also sounded the alarm for the team, the first two quarters were indistinguishable, and even relied on Harden's three-point whistle in the midcourt, the Clippers led the score to 4 points, and at the beginning of the third quarter, the Clippers' offense was directly powered off and directly let the Timberwolves play a wave of 9-0. Next, the Timberwolves have been giving the Clippers problems on the inside, using a twin-tower lineup to frequently attack the Clippers' interior. The Clippers relied on Harden and Leonard's offense to keep up the firepower. In the face of the Timberwolves' defense, Harden and Zubac's pick-and-roll cooperation could not be effective, resulting in the Clippers relying on singles on the offensive end. The Timberwolves offense was more relaxed to attack the interior directly, and the defensive end limited the Clippers' singles and pulled the score away.
The previous succession of big wins has overshadowed the Clippers' problems, and the weakness of the Clippers' interior line has been further amplified. The lack of height in the four guards and the shortage of substitutes at the No. 5 position are potential problems for the Clippers. Plumlee's form after the injury was not good, and he basically had no ability to protect the frame, Theis's lack of height made him lose a lot of rebounds when he came off the bench. In the No. 4 position, Leonard of 203 barely supported it, and the bench was useless.
For the Clippers, Lue could redeploy PJ Tucker into the rotation. Although the 39-year-old old has degraded offensively, his interior defense and rebounding can help the team a lot.