LA Clippers beat Spurs 105-86 on bittersweet day

It was a bittersweet Thursday for the Clippers. They made a trade that brought forward Jeff Green from the Memphis Grizzlies for Lance Stephenson and a protected first-round draft pick in either 2019 or 2020, or a second-round pick in 2022.

But Clippers coach Doc Rivers wasn’t able to talk about the trade before his team took on the San Antonio Spurs because he, son Austin Rivers and Chris Paul had not yet retued from attending the funeral of Ingrid Williams, wife of Oklahoma City assistant coach Monty Williams. Ingrid Williams died Feb. 10, a day after she was in a car accident, leaving behind her and Monty’s five children.

The Clippers still had a game to play, however, and they defeated the Spurs 105-86 before a sellout crowd of 19,410 at Staples Center. On paper, it’s the biggest win of the season for the Clippers, who entered the game a collective 0-4 against Golden State, San Antonio and Oklahoma City — the three teams ahead of the Clippers in the Weste Conference.

But Doc Rivers wasn’t about to boast.

“Well, it’s nice to beat anyone,” he said. “Obviously, beating San Antonio is nice. Both teams were short-handed, both teams played like they were just on All-Star break. But it was nice to win. I thought defensively we were really good with really small matchups, so I was happy with that.”

The Clippers shot 50 percent overall, 48 percent (12 of 25) from 3-point range. The Spurs shot 42.2 percent, just 23.5 percent (4 of 17) from beyond the arc.

“No excuses,” said Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge, who scored 10 points on just 3-of-12 shooting. “We just had one of those nights where guys did not play as good as they should have. They (the Clippers) definitely competed at a very high level and we never found our offensive rhythm.”

The Clippers led 62-42 with 5:35 left in the third quarter, only to see the Spurs cut that to five (72-67) with 10:26 left to play. But when Paul made a layup with 3 1/2 minutes to go for a 96-79 lead, the Spurs (45-9) were done.

San Antonio had won six in a row.

The Clippers (36-18) were led by Paul, who scored 28 points and doled out 12 assists. Jamal Crawford scored 19, J.J. Redick 17, Paul Pierce had 12 points and DeAndre Jordan scored nine points, pulled down 17 rebounds, made three steals and blocked three shots.

Crawford was stoked about the victory.

“We just believe we can win,” he said. “When we get our guys back, we’ll be ever better.”

Tony Parker led San Antonio with 14 points, and David West had 12.

The Clippers were without Blake Griffin (hand), Austin Rivers (hand), Pablo Prigioni (illness) and the newly acquired Green. The Spurs were sans Kawhi Leonard (calf) and Manu Ginobili (groin).

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Griffin was at the game in a suit. Assistant equipment manager Matias Testi, who was punched by Griffin on Jan. 23 in Toronto, was on hand as well.

The Clippers are now 19-5 without Griffin.

Again, this could have been a real happy time for the Clippers. It wasn’t.

“It was a tough day,” Doc Rivers said of the trip to Oklahoma City. “I think a lot of us got our strength from Monty, really. It was probably the best speech I’ve ever heard, especially in the circumstances that he was going through, and still has to go through; it’s not over for him.”

The Clippers’ contingent to the funeral was joined by one from San Antonio. It included forwards Tim Duncan and West, and coach Gregg Popovich. All were on the same airplane.

Austin Rivers played for Williams for two-plus seasons when Williams was head coach at New Orleans. The younger Rivers was downcast as he spoke to reporters inside the team locker room about an hour before the game.

“It was tough,” he said. “You just see something like that happen to such a good guy. You know, Monty ... no one deserves anything like that, let alone someone like that. Or a family like that, most importantly. Ingrid was one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, just from my days in New Orleans.

“Just to see that happen to the family, the kids are so young. But Monty was amazing today. His speech was incredible. And he was probably one of the strongest ones in there, honestly. So it was a great service.”

As for Green, he figures to be available Saturday when the Clippers host Golden State.

“I envision using him in a lot of ways,” Doc Rivers said. “It allows us to switch a lot more in some of the pick-and-roll schemes. He can play the 3, he can play the 4.”

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