Game Rewind: Pacers 109, Clippers 115

On the second night of a back-to-back and missing their starting point guard, the Pacers struggled with turnovers all game, falling 115-109 to the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night.

Despite shooting the ball well (51.7 percent), Indiana's 20 turnovers as a team provided the Clippers (42-30) with ample chances to score as L.A. managed to close out the game in the fourth quarter despite a furious Pacers (44-28) run.

"I thought the effort was their but the sharpness was not," said Pacers head coach Nate McMillan. "You can't have 20 turnovers this time a year and expect to win a game."

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Even with the double-digit deficit, the Pacers managed to claw back into the game in the fourth quarter when Doug McDermott, who scored 17 points off the bench, dropped in a floater to bring the score to a 96-91 Clippers lead with 7:31 remaining.

Minutes later, it was Bojan Bogdanovic helping the Pacers pull closer, as he drove the lane and finished high off the glass to bring Indiana within four.

With the the game in striking distance, rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander helped push the Clippers ahead, getting tough layups to fall on consecutive possessions to balloon L.A.'s lead to eight.

But just as they had all night, the Pacers continued to dig deep. Domantas Sabonis — who racked up 13 points and 16 boards — converted an and-one and Tyreke Evans scored on a drive to get it to a one-possession game.

However, when the Pacers needed a stop the most, they were unable to get one as Patrick Beverley drove down the middle for a floating layup to push ahead 114-109 with 10.7 seconds remaining.

From there, the Clippers were able to close out the six-point win as the Pacers lost their third straight game of a four-game road swing.

"We just have to put together a 48-minute game," opined Wesley Matthews. "Obviously, we've been in all of these games, we've had leads in most of them. We just have to put together a 48-minute game. Can't beat ourselves. Turnovers, loose balls, we have to win the hustle game."

Without Darren Collison (right quad contusion) in the starting lineup, Indiana's offense struggled to find its footing. The Pacers started the game just 8-of-23 from the field and trailed 25-16 by the end of the first quarter.

To start the second, Indiana's bench unit starting clicking as Sabonis delivered a dime to McDermott for a one-handed slam, helping lift the Pacers to a 14-8 edge to begin the quarter.

In the final minutes of the half, the Pacers got back-to-back threes from Thaddeus Young and Cory Joseph to bring the score to just a two-point Clippers lead. To close the second quarter, however, Danilo Gallinari canned a 3-pointer for the Clippers, giving Los Angeles a 55-49 lead at the break.

Indiana opened the second half on a strong note, getting five straight points from Bojan Bogdanoivc. But every Pacers run in the third was met with an answer by the red-hot Clippers, who forced a timeout when rookie Landry Shamet drained a 3-pointer to put L.A. ahead 72-63 with 6:20 remaining in the third.

The Clippers closed the quarter strong from there, using a 13-4 run to end the frame as L.A. entered the fourth leading 89-75.

While the Clips quickly extended their lead to begin the final quarter of play, a 7-0 run from the Pacers that included a 3-pointer from Bogdanoivc helped force an L.A. timeout with 8:58 remaining and the Pacers down eight.

Indiana was able to get the deficit to three points, but in crunchtime, the Clippers had the edge. A Lou Williams jumper with 40.8 seconds left and a Beverley floater with 10 seconds deflated the comeback bid and sent the Pacers to their third straight defeat.

"Just go out there and stay the course, put together a 48-minute game," said Thaddeus Young when asked how the team can avoid extending its losing streak. "Just make sure that we execute and pay attention to detail."

Indiana's 20 turnovers marked the seventh time the Pacers have had 20 or more giveaways in a game this season.

Tyreke Evans' 19 points were his most since he scored 19 during a win over Dallas on January 19th.

Domantas Sabonis' 16 rebounds tied his career high, which he's now reached on five occasions this season.

"We're going to play hard, we're going to compete and it's just a matter of winning the dirty game. Offensive rebounds, hustle stats, getting on the floor, deflections, taking care of the ball. Once we start winning that battle, these wins will start coming." -Wesley Matthews

"They made big shots, and we didn't make enough shots, so we just have to take some of the good that we did in this game. The bad thing was that we had 20 plus turnovers, and that translated to [the Clippers] having 20 points off of our turnovers. It's hard to win games that way. We just have to do a better job of making sure we execute and making sure we take care of business." -Thaddeus Young

"(The Pacers) are a hard-playing team. We know they've been on a really good roll as of late, so we wanted to go out there and start if off from the beginning. We hit a little bit of a dry spell, but we corrected some things that we did wrong and we just went from there." -Montrezl Harrell

Tuesday night's game was just the third time this season that the Pacers shot 50 percent or better from the field and lost the game. They are now 22-3 in such games.

The Pacers conclude their west-coast swing with a trip to see Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors on Thursday, March 21 at 10:30 PM ET.

After a four-game road trip, the Pacers will return home to host Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Sunday, March 24 at 5:00 PM ET. Find Tickets »