Clippers’ struggles vs. Pelicans could haunt them in playoffs

The New Orleans Pelicans have been a thorn for the Clippers over the last few years, one of the few teams that have mastered ways of beating them.

Friday night’s game carried more significance than usual with the Clippers and Pelicans trending toward a first-round playoff showdown. On some level, the game might have been even more important for a Clippers team that had lost 11 of its last 15 games against New Orleans.

The Clippers were fighting from behind most of the game and couldn’t overcome Zion Williamson and the Pelicans in a 112-104 defeat.

Williamson finished with 34 points, seven rebounds and four assists to give the Pelicans their third win over the Clippers this season.

“We just struggled with containing Zion to a degree,” said Paul George, who had 26 points, six assists and five rebounds. “That’s something we got to figure out.”

The Clippers will have to because they’re on a potential playoff collision course with the Pelicans. The Clippers (42-24), fourth in the Western Conference with 16 games left, still hold a two-game lead over the fifth-place Pelicans (40-26), which would give them home-court advantage in the first round if they square off as the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds. But the Pelicans hold the tiebreaker after winning the season series.

“We’ll welcome any challenge,” George said, “any matchup.”

Williamson found his groove in the third quarter and the Clippers were powerless to stop him. He made all seven of his shots, scoring 16 points seemingly at will during the quarter.

He finished shooting 14 for 21 from the field.

“Tonight it was Zion getting to his spots and making shots,” said Kawhi Leonard, who had 23 points and seven rebounds.

The Clippers tried Leonard on Williamson. That didn’t work.

They tried center Ivica Zubac, reserves P.J. Tucker and Mason Plumlee.

Nothing worked.

But this isn’t new — the Clippers have been overwhelmed by Williamson in each of their three losses to New Orleans.

Williamson has averaged 29 points on 54.8% shooting in the Pelicans’ three wins. In the game the Clippers won, he had just 12 points.

“Zion, I think down the stretch of all three games they’ve won this year, three out of four, he’s dominated us the last six minutes of the third, like we talked about before the game, and the whole fourth,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “So, we got to pay attention to detail and understand what we want to do. I understand that guys want to play and they want to compete and take pride in that, but going down the stretch when we want to double team him, we got to double team him like we said.

“And coming out of a timeout, we got to make sure we give him a different look. He just got too comfortable. They run five-roll. They run it every single time and they destroyed us three out of four games with him doing the same play over and over. And, so, give them credit. When the game is on the line, it’s a close game, he always takes over the game down the stretch.”

Notes

Norman Powell said he injured his lower left leg when he fell during a scrum for a loose ball in the fourth quarter. Powell used crutches to get around in the locker room after the game. “It’s not broken,” said Powell, who scored 15 points. “That’s why I came back into the game.” … Terance Mann returned to the game after he limped to the locker room before halftime. … James Harden sat out his second straight game because of a strained left shoulder. “He’s feeling better. He’s just not there yet,” Lue said. … The Clippers’ next game is Sunday night against the Atlanta Hawks at Crypto.com Arena.