{"id":509520,"date":"2026-01-01T09:02:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/509520\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T09:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:02:39","slug":"what-we-learned-as-nique-clifford-lone-bright-spot-in-kings-loss-to-clippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/509520\/","title":{"rendered":"What we learned as Nique Clifford lone bright spot in Kings’ loss to Clippers"},"content":{"rendered":"

What we learned as Nique Clifford lone bright spot in Kings’ loss to Clippers<\/a> originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area<\/a><\/p>\n

INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2014 The Kings seemingly had a chance to earn their ninth win of the 2025-26 NBA season on Tuesday night against a Los Angeles Clippers team that entered with 10.<\/p>\n

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That was not the case \u2014 at all.<\/p>\n

Two days after losing 125-101 to LeBron James and the Lakers on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena, the Kings were thrashed 131-90 by Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers just 20 minutes away at Intuit Dome.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles continued its midseason resurgence and four-game winning streak to cap off Sacramento\u2019s demoralizing stay in the City of Angels.<\/p>\n

The Kings battled early, but trailed 34-20 after the first quarter and 73-40 at halftime. Sacramento, which shot an uncompetitive 34 of 83 to Los Angeles\u2019 46 of 90, never held a lead.<\/p>\n

Rookie guard Nique Clifford led the Kings with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting with a trio of 3-pointers, two assists and one rebound. Fellow rookie Maxime Raynaud and Russell Westbrook followed with 12 points apiece.<\/p>\n

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Here are three takeaways from the Kings\u2019 41-point, blowout loss.<\/p>\n

Keegan Murray\u2019s Return<\/p>\n

Keegan Murray looked healthy after missing the Kings\u2019 last two games with a calf injury suffered in Sacramento\u2019s 136-127 loss to the Detroit Pistons seven days ago at Golden 1 Center.<\/p>\n

Despite posting 11 points on a subpar 4-of-13 shooting, Murray more importantly played a team-high 20 first-half minutes and 30 total minutes without visible limitations mobility-wise.<\/p>\n

He got up for one dunk, one block and two rebounds. Notably, he often \u2014 and relatively comfortably \u2014 guarded Leonard, Los Angeles\u2019 top offensive threat.<\/p>\n

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Kings coach Doug Christie surely wasn\u2019t satisfied with Sacramento\u2019s two-game stretch in Hollywood. But returning home for New Year\u2019s Day with a healthy Murray must be somewhat pleasing.<\/p>\n

Hometown Woes<\/p>\n

It always is special when DeMar DeRozan and Russell Westbrook<\/a>, a pair of Los Angeles natives, have the opportunity to play back home in front of family and friends.<\/p>\n

Tuesday night, however, did not feature either of the NBA icons\u2019 best performances.<\/p>\n

Westbrook, a former Clipper, quietly finished with 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting with four assists and three rebounds.<\/p>\n

And DeRozan, the Kings\u2019 current leading scorer with Zach LaVine<\/a> and Domantas Sabonis sidelined<\/a> with injuries, posted a quiet eight points on 2-of-8 shooting with seven boards and three assists.<\/p>\n

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The Kings needed more out of everybody against the Clippers. Though they could\u2019ve used a boost from their hometown heroes \u2014 especially against other big-time local products such as James Harden and Leonard.<\/p>\n

Kawhi Keeps Cookin\u2019<\/p>\n

Leonard recently has been on a mission, and unfortunately for the Kings, dominating Sacramento was the 6-foot-7 forward\u2019s latest task.<\/p>\n

The reigning Western Conference Player of the Week sleepwalked his way into an efficient 33 points in 33 minutes with five assists and five rebounds.<\/p>\n

Leonard, of course, was coming off a career-high 55-point game in Los Angeles\u2019 112-99 win over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s been playing at an incredible level,\u201d Christie said of Leonard pregame. \u201cI had watched some games earlier, and he hadn\u2019t been playing at that level. And I\u2019m looking, it was like 40 [points], then 55, and I was like, \u2018Right before you play us.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t any superstars that any team wants to face. But at the moment, Leonard is one of the league\u2019s scariest scorers, and the schedule aligned in a way that did the Kings zero favors.<\/p>\n

Download and follow The Deuce & Mo Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What we learned as Nique Clifford lone bright spot in Kings’ loss to Clippers originally appeared on NBC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,3213,188,4672,3215,560,529,3210,4034,192,4032,300,185,251,135,4033,4031,3538,6,854,254,986,3207,3212],"class_list":{"0":"post-509520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-clippers","10":"tag-demar-derozan","11":"tag-detroit-pistons","12":"tag-domantas-sabonis","13":"tag-doug-christie","14":"tag-james-harden","15":"tag-kawhi-leonard","16":"tag-keegan-murray","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-clippers","19":"tag-laclippers","20":"tag-lakers","21":"tag-lebron-james","22":"tag-los-angeles","23":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","24":"tag-losangeles","25":"tag-losangelesclippers","26":"tag-maxime-raynaud","27":"tag-nba","28":"tag-nique-clifford","29":"tag-russell-westbrook","30":"tag-sacramento","31":"tag-the-kings","32":"tag-zach-lavine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115819036345137715","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}