The LA Clippers came into Friday night's clash against the San Antonio Spurs having won three games in a row and were looking for a big win against the second seed in the Western Conference. With another game on Saturday night against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Clippers needed a big win.
Unfortunately, just the opposite happened.
The Clippers dominated the Spurs in the first half and led 69–49 at halftime. They took their largest lead, 75–50, with a little over nine minutes left in the game and LA looked to be headed for an easy second half.
But San Antonio came roaring back behind Julian Champagnie, Victor Wembanyama and De'Aaron Fox. Champagnie recorded 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor in the third quarter, cutting the Clippers' 25-point lead to 11 entering the fourth quarter.
The Spurs then started the fourth quarter with an 18-5 run and took a 99-97 lead over the Clippers. Both teams exchanged buckets until the final seconds, when the Clippers had a costly turnover inbounding the ball with 14.9 seconds remaining.
Nevertheless, Julien Champaign missed two free throws for a three-point lead, giving the Clippers a chance to win, only for San Antonio to secure an offensive rebound and send Stephen Cassel to the free throw line to put the Clippers up by three points.
Cassel made the first free throw to put the Spurs up by two, but missed the second free throw, giving the Clippers their last chance to go the length of the court to tie at the buzzer or win. Well, that's what would have happened had they been able to grab a defensive rebound. Cassel came up with the loose ball rebound and scored at the rim to give the Spurs a four-point lead with 1.4 seconds remaining.
The Clippers lost to the Spurs 116–112, a game in which their key players played heavy minutes – Kawhi Leonard at 37, Brook Lopez at 34, Derrick Jones Jr. at 34 – in the first night of a back-to-back set with the visiting Giants.
Clippers in Friday's game Perfect 108-0 record Leading by 20 or more points at halftime. In doing so, L.A. lost its first game in franchise history, according to Clippers radio host Adam Osland.
The Clippers were 108–0 when up by 20 at halftime.
Were
- Adam Oslund (@followAdamA) 7 March 2026
Additionally, ESPN's Michael Wright reported that the Clippers' 25-point lead was the largest increased lead in franchise history in the play-by-play era.
Return of 25 points. This was the Clippers' largest lead in the play-by-play era.
- Michael C. Wright (@mikecwright) 7 March 2026
The 25-point lead is tied for the largest lead of the season with the Rockets blowing a 25-point lead against the Pelicans on December 18, 2025. Strangely, the largest blown lead was last season, 26 points, when the Clippers came back from being down 26 points to defeat the San Antonio Spurs.
In fact, the top two biggest comeback/burst leads each year since the 2020-21 season have involved either the LA Clippers or San Antonio Spurs.
Been digging around and found some interesting stats...
The Clippers took a 25-point lead against the Spurs last night, which is equivalent to the largest lead of this 2025-26 regular season.
Last season, the Spurs blew a 26-point lead against the Clippers, which was tied...
-Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) 7 March 2026
The Clippers will have a chance to erase the sour taste left from this game in less than 24 hours when they take on the Memphis Grizzlies at 5pm PST. Meanwhile, the Spurs will take Saturday off before returning to action against the Houston Rockets on Sunday night at 5 p.m. PST.
