INGLEWOOD, Calif. – For the first time since opening night, the Clippers walked off the Intuit Dome floor on Sunday with a win, beating the New Orleans Pelicans 139-123 and putting an end to a seven-game losing streak that had dragged on for more than two weeks.
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It was also the first time in a while that a fourth quarter went their way, as the Clippers opened the final period on a 15-6 run to go up 117-101 and pushed the lead to as many as 20 after back-to-back games in which they let double-digit fourth-quarter leads get away.
“It was good to get over the hump,” Darius Garland said after the game. “Get that monkey off our back.”
The Clippers led by as many as 13 in the second quarter and took a 67-60 lead into halftime, but New Orleans opened the third on an 18-10 run and went up 78-77, which looked a lot like the stretches that had sunk them against Toronto and Miami.
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Ty Lue said he challenged the group in the timeout to stay with it, and Kobe Sanders hit a three with 2:23 left in the third that put the Clippers ahead 94-93 for good.
“They’re going to make a run,” Lue said. “It’s a game of runs.”
The bigger change was how they handled the ball, with the Clippers committing a season-low 11 turnovers after coming into the night averaging an NBA-worst 20.1 per game, while also handing out 34 assists and shooting a season-best 54.8% from the field.
“Just sharing the basketball, attacking and making the right play,” Lue said of the 34 assists.
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New Orleans got 26 points from Trey Murphy III, 25 from Jeremiah Fears and 25 from Zion Williamson, who went 9-of-9 from the field, but the Clippers had enough answers on the other end to keep the Pelicans at arm’s length the rest of the way.
Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
Nov 8, 2026; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Clippers guard Darius Garland (10) goes to the basket against New Orleans Pelicans forward/center Karlo Matkovic (17) during the first quarter at Intuit Dome.
Garland finished with 24 points and 10 assists, and he looked as comfortable as he has all season, getting rid of the ball early and attacking before the defense could load up on him.
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“Having 10 assists was huge for us, too,” Lue said.
Brook Lopez added 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting, but the bench was what won this one, scoring 59 points with Gradey Dick putting up a season-high 15 on 6-of-7 shooting and Keaton Wagler adding 15 on 4-of-5 shooting with three threes in just 18 minutes.
Baba Miller gave them 12 points, five rebounds and four assists off the bench with Isaiah Jackson out with a groin injury, and Garland pointed straight at that group when he was asked how the Clippers broke the game open late.
“That was the second unit,” Garland said, before naming Sanders, Wagler, Miller, Dick and Max Strus.
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Lue was asked whether Dick has surprised him since coming over from Toronto, and he said he has not.
“He’s a lottery pick, so we knew he was talented, and sometimes it’s about the right fit,” Lue said.
I’m not going to pretend one win over a Pelicans team playing the first game of a road trip changes where the Clippers are at 2-7, but this one looked different in a way that should give them something real to build on.
The turnovers have been the story of this start, and when the Clippers took care of the ball they looked like a team that can score with anybody, which makes the last few weeks even harder to swallow given how many of those losses came down to a handful of possessions.
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What I liked most was the response after New Orleans took the lead in the third, because in the last two games that same moment turned into a collapse, and this time the group kept its composure and the bench took over.
The rotation is about to get crowded too, with Brandon Ingram close to making his Clippers debut after heel surgery, and Garland said getting bodies back should take some of the attention off him.
“I don’t think I’ll be getting doubled as much,” Garland said.
The real test comes right away, because the Clippers are still winless on the road this season and head to Phoenix to face the Suns on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
