Amir Coffey had career highs of 32 points and 13 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Clippers routed the depleted Oklahoma City Thunder 138-88 on Sunday night to end the regular season on a five-game winning streak.
The Clippers finished 42-40, a major accomplishment after playing the entire season without injured superstar Kawhi Leonard — and with Paul George only returning recently after missing 43 games with an elbow injury.
“We did a good job of playing the right way on both sides of the basketball,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “The bench was really strong, 34 assists, moving bodies, that’s what we wanted to see going into the play-in game.”
Luke Kennard added 20 points, Brandon Boston Jr. scored 18 and Ivica Zubac had 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Clippers, whose winning margin was the largest in franchise history. All nine of their players scored and the team made 18 3-pointers.
“Just the win is good enough for me,” Lue said. “It’s not like we were trying to show up OKC. The guys just played really good.”
Zavier Simpson and Georgios Kalaitzakis scored 17 points each for Oklahoma City. Jaylen Hoard had 14 points and 15 rebounds.
“To come to the Thunder and play the last four games, it was a great opportunity,” Kalaitzakis said. “I’m thankful for the organization for giving me this opportunity and got to keep going and get better and keep working hard and developing my game.”
Los Angeles got the rout going early, hitting five straight 3-pointers to lead by 16 while shooting 62% in the first quarter.
The Clippers outscored the Thunder 18-5 midway through the second to go up by 29. The Thunder closed to 66-51 at halftime on a 3-pointer by Vit Krejci.
The crowd mocked Kalaitzakis after he stole the ball from Zubac at midcourt and missed a wide-open dunk in the third, when the Thunder were held to 18 points.
The Clippers opened the third with an 18-4 run, including 16 points in a row, and led 95-67 going into the fourth.
They finished off the blowout by scoring 43 points in the fourth, including 15 by Coffey.
TIP-INS
Thunder: Finished 12-29 on the road. ... Shot 9 of 34 from 3-point range. ... Got outrebounded 57-40.
Clippers: Coffey’s seven 3-pointers were also a career high. ... Notched their 11th consecutive winning season, the longest active streak in the league. ... The bench outscored the Thunder reserves 52-8. ... Zubac went over 3,000 career points. ... Won season series, 2-1.
UP NEXT
Thunder: Head home for the summer, having finished the season with a 24-58 record.
Clippers: At Minnesota on Tuesday in the play-in tournament. The winner gets the No. 7 seed and a first-round playoff series with the Memphis Grizzlies. (AP)
(Photo credits to: AP)