LOS ANGELES – The lack of size, the weird matchups, the missed firepower, none of it had stopped the Clippers from winning.
Since Christmas night, when the Clippers needed a basket, they usually got it. When they needed a stop, they made one.
But Saturday night against the Sacramento Kings – a team they’d beaten five straight times – those big plays that had led to the Clippers’ wins? They just couldn’t make enough of them.
The big shots didn’t fall, the needed defensive stands didn’t come, and the Clippers lost for the first time since Dec.