Insights from the LA Clippers' season-opening defeat to the Phoenix Suns

Close, but no cigar. The Los Angeles Clippers nearly pulled off an improbable come-from-behind victory over the Phoenix Suns but couldn’t pull off all the stops in overtime to fall 116-113. Here are a couple of takeaways from the narrow defeat.

Dominated the shaded lane

Despite lacking the offensive talent they had in previous seasons, the Clippers still found ways to get easy points, especially by getting into the shaded lane and scoring up close. Ivica Zubac made hay by scoring 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Reserves Amir Coffey and Kai Jones even got in on the action, taking advantage of the Suns’ loose interior defense to make several baskets inside.

L.A. was also a plus 9 on the glass (51-42), with James Harden grabbing 12 and Zubac hauling down nine boards.

Despite the loss, Zubac said the team recognized they must play with the kind of intensity they displayed on Wednesday to give themselves a chance.

“We're not the most talented team, but we're going to play hard. If we play defense like this, we're going to give ourselves a chance every night. Margin of error is small, if we have any,” Zu said .

With the Clippers’ razor-thin margin of error, the team can’t afford to miss shots from the charity stripe. Unfortunately, that was the case versus the Suns, as the Clippers went 21-of-30 from that area, with Harden splitting his charities with only 4.1 seconds left in the game to leave his team trailing by one, 114-113.

On the other hand, the Suns were immaculate from the free-throw line in overtime, making all ten of their shots.

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