The Last Seven Points: Lopez and Garland Rally the Clippers Past Shai's 40, 113-112, and Hand OKC a Rare Three-Game Skid

For 45 minutes on Friday night, it looked like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was going to drag a short-handed Oklahoma City team out of its slump by himself. Then the Clippers found one more push.

Los Angeles scored the game's final seven points, erasing a six-point deficit over the last 2:43, and held on for a 113-112 win over the Thunder in NBA Cup play at Intuit Dome, the Associated Press reported. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 40 points, but his 21-foot jumper at the final horn missed, according to VAVEL USA.

Brook Lopez led the Clippers with 26 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and Darius Garland scored 24. Garland's three-point play in the closing minute put Los Angeles ahead for good, The Sporting Tribune reported. The free throw that completed it came with about 50 seconds left, according to VAVEL's play-by-play. Jared McCain added 23 points for Oklahoma City.

The Clippers have spent the first month of the season looking for answers. They opened with a 1-7 record, and Friday's win was their second in three games, the AP noted. They are now 3-8.

This one came down to the two veterans who carried them all night. Lopez and Garland combined for 50 points, and when the game tightened in the final minutes, Los Angeles held Oklahoma City scoreless the rest of the way. On the final possession, Gilgeous-Alexander's 21-foot jumper came up short.

For a team that has heard plenty about its slow start, a late win over a contender like Oklahoma City is the kind of result that can steady a locker room. The Clippers host the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday afternoon.

The Thunder have now dropped three straight, the first three-game losing streak for the franchise in about 950 days, News On 6 reported. They are 8-5 and 0-3 on a four-game West Coast trip, after losing twice in Portland before arriving in Los Angeles.

The injury list explains a lot. Oklahoma City played without starters Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace, the AP reported. Without them, the Thunder lean even harder on Gilgeous-Alexander to create every good look, and on Friday he answered with 40. But a team built on length, defense and depth looks very different when three of its starters are in street clothes, and the Clippers took advantage in the final minutes.

McCain's 23 points were the bright spot behind Gilgeous-Alexander. Oklahoma City built the six-point lead it held late, but it could not get a basket in the final 2:43, and that is where this one was lost.

NBA Cup group games count in the regular-season standings and also decide who advances to the knockout rounds, so a one-point loss in November carries extra weight. A Thunder team that has lost three in a row cannot afford many more slips in group play, and a Clippers team that started 1-7 just gave itself a reason to believe.

I have a soft spot for games like this one. Gilgeous-Alexander did everything a star can do: 40 points, on the road, with three starters out, on the last stop of a hard week. Nobody should read a three-game skid as a sign that the Thunder are in real trouble. When Holmgren, Williams and Wallace return, this team will look like itself again.

But give the Clippers their due. A team that started 1-7 could have folded when it fell behind by six late. Instead, a veteran big man and a determined guard took the game over, and the defense got the last stop it needed. That is the kind of grit that turns a season around, and it is worth celebrating.

The Thunder still have one more game on this trip. The best teams answer a streak like this quickly, and that is what Oklahoma City will be looking to do.