Clippers, John Wall end four-game trip with win at Washington

Clippers guard John Wall pulls up for a jump shot over Wizards guard Devon Dotson.

Staff Writer

Dec. 10, 2022 Updated 9:20 PM PT

WASHINGTON —

It looked like a wave and sounded like a party as fans here rose from their lower-bowl seats and roared for the visiting point guard Washington once called its own for a decade.

“At guard, 6-foot-2, from Kentucky,” the public-address announcer boomed during the introduction of the Clippers’ starting lineup, and that was enough for John Wall’s winning homecoming to begin Saturday.

Another standing ovation followed minutes later after a 90-second tribute video. Calls of “I love you!” from the stands could be heard. And when the Clippers were off to a disastrous second-quarter start, Wall answered with six consecutive points, the last two swishing on his step-back jumper from 13 feet as he spun toward Section 110 and pointed both index fingers toward the court.

“Still my city!” Wall yelled, an echo of the declaration he’d made five years earlier after sinking a game-winning playoff jumper and leaping atop a scorer’s table.

Clippers guard John Wall raises his hands to acknowledge the crowd as a tribute video plays on a videoboard.

Walking across the court into a timeout, as Wall continued spouting his message to Section 100 as fans stood in their seats, he temporarily “kind of flashed back and forget like, I’m in a different jersey,” he said. “Just being in that moment and electrifying the crowd, that’s what I’ve been doing for a lot of years in my career when I was here.”

Wall wanted this moment. No, he needed it after a hellish last four years that began with leg injuries that diminished his leaguewide stature, the deaths of his mother and grandmother that leveled him personally, a decline that left him effectively out of the league last season, contemplating suicide.

Wall started for the first time this season because Reggie Jackson was given the night off for rest, and before tipoff Wall paused while looking at five seats his mother and family used to sit in.

“Trying to fantasize and be in that moment for a minute,” he said. “It was a lot of chills, trying not to cry, hold back a lot of emotions.

“I felt like just being here is still so surreal to me, still don’t feel right, still feel different, but like I said, I enjoyed every part of this game.”

For the final 17 minutes of a 114-107 win, so did his team that needed a victory after two straight losses to continue a season of inconsistency.

Before tipoff, coach Tyronn Lue had said his foremost focus was whether his team could live up to its elite defensive potential.

Message received: After the Clippers gave up runs of 10-0 to open the game and 8-2 to open the third quarter, Lue “saw the fight that we needed to have” over the final 17 minutes while giving up just 23 points, helping them outscore Washington by 20 in that span.

They played without a center and employed smaller, switchier wings to nullify Kristaps Porzingis, the 7-footer they’d blunted using a similar small-lineup tactic in the 2021 postseason.

“We gradually got better defensively,” said Kawhi Leonard, who had 13 points in his limit of 30 minutes.

Trailing by as many as 13 in the third quarter as Kyle Kuzma, who scored 35, made his first six three-pointers and Porzingis was on his way to 30 points and 15 rebounds, the Clippers (15-13) closed the quarter on a 15-0 run to take their first lead and ignite a comeback.

The 6-foot-9 Nicolas Batum entered the arena feeling good after watching his native France advance to the World Cup semifinals, then proved central to his own team’s win by playing the final 19 minutes, finishing with 12 points and six rebounds. With 25 seconds left and two defenders surrounding him, Leonard passed to Batum, whose three-pointer forged a three-point lead.

Lue opted not to foul ahead by three points, and Leonard cleanly contested a Porzingis three-pointer that misfired with 15 seconds to play. Washington has lost six straight.

Clippers guard John Wall (11) raises his arm in celebration as time expires Dec. 10, 2022, in Washington.

Paul George collected 36 points, and Marcus Morris Sr. played his best basketball this season on each end, with 19 points and multiple defensive stops, calling it a product of having a lighter workload with Leonard and George back flanking him in the lineup.

They were invaluable. But Wall’s night was indelible. He circled the date of this game the day the schedule was released in August.

“That’s one of the best [reunions] I’ve seen,” Morris said.

Wall scored 13 points on 13 shots and after the last buzzer, he went through a receiving line of friends and acquaintances along the sideline. Entering a tunnel to the locker room, with dozens of fans draping their arms over a railing, Wall blew two kisses.

Wall departed having received “his flowers,” Lue said. But not closure.

“I’m still not saying goodbye,” Wall said. “Never know what the future can hold.”