On February 8, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, and the Clippers played the Pelicans at home. In this game, the Clippers fell into passivity, completely out of state, and began to chase points in the second quarter, but unfortunately the momentum in the second half was still sluggish, and the point difference was opened again, and the Clippers were once close to 4 points in the final quarter, but Zion and McCollum scored consecutive points to establish the victory. In the end, the Clippers lost to the Pelicans 106-117 at home, ending their four-game winning streak and losing the first place in the West.
In the first quarter of the game, the Clippers started slowly, and the Pelicans continued to score points, McCollum hit a three-point shot, and Jones counterattacked and dunked to take an 11-2 lead. Harden hit two three-pointers in a row to stop the bleeding, Leonard also scored three points, Harden broke through and scored, and responded with an 11-2 offensive wave, and the score came to 13 draws. But then the Clippers missed the accuracy again, the Pelicans continued to counterattack and score points, Ingram continued to score points, Murphy scored three points, Powell broke through to stop the bleeding, but Ingram scored a jumper, and Murphy hit 2 consecutive three-pointers, directly opening the difference, and the Pelicans led 36-19 after the first quarter of the game.
In the second quarter of the game, Powell came up and hit a three-point shot, Wei Shao counterattacked and dunked in the air, the Clippers successfully approached some scores, and Powell scored three more points, and the score came to 29-40. Pelicans made free throws to stabilize the situation, but Harden also scored three points, Jones immediately replied, the Pelicans regained the initiative, George's side still couldn't hit the shot, and his physical condition was not very good, Powell scored in the middle distance, Harden scored three more points in the face of Zion, Leonard hit two free throws, Zubac dunked under the basket, and the Clippers offense gradually entered the state and was able to score points in a row. The Pelicans' offense was somewhat hampered, and the Clippers finally seized the opportunity, and Coffey hit a three-pointer to trail the Pelicans 47-55 at halftime.
The Clippers missed good opportunities one after another and failed to close the gap further, George scored from mid-range, Leonard hit both free throws, and the score came to 54-59. McCollum hit a three-point shot to stabilize the situation, Leonard began to score points, Tyronn Lue sent a five-small lineup in advance, Ingram scored consecutive points to stabilize the situation, and then Zion began to frequently impact the inside, the Clippers failed to resist, only relying on Plumley to score points, Wei Shao missed several shots, and the difference stretched to double digits, and the Clippers trailed the Pelicans 69-79 after the third quarter.
In the final quarter of the game, the Clippers came up to launch a counterattack, Coffey hit a three-point shot, Plumlee dunked inside, but the Pelicans quickly adjusted to stabilize the situation, Plumlee scored 2+1, Harden scored three points, and the score came to 80-84. Zion hit the inside line to score points, Alvarado hit a three-point shot to help the team open the gap again, McCollum hit two three-pointers in a row, the Clippers were inaccurate on the offensive end, George stopped the bleeding from the middle distance, and McCollum scored three more points, and the score reached 105-89. After that, the Clippers also surrendered early, and finally lost 106-117.
This time, the Clippers were in a very sluggish state, Leonard only scored 15 points on 4-of-10 shooting, and George only scored 7 points on 3-of-15 shooting; Harden didn't have a good hand here, with 19 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists on 5-of-6 three-point shooting, but unfortunately he alone was not enough. Losing this game, the Clippers also returned to the Thunder in the first place, falling directly to the fourth place in the West.