{"id":526189,"date":"2026-03-08T06:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T06:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526189\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T06:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T06:16:09","slug":"clippers-123-120-grizzlies-mar-7-2026-game-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526189\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers 123-120 Grizzlies (Mar 7, 2026) Game Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — \u2014 Kawhi Leonard<\/a> had 28 points, Darius Garland<\/a> scored 11 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter and the Los Angeles Clippers held on for a 123-120 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Bennedict Mathurin<\/a> finished 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Derrick Jones Jr<\/a>. added 16 points as the Clippers won for the fourth time in five games despite hitting only four 3-pointers, a season low. Los Angeles was 4 for 17 from distance.<\/p>\n

Ty Jerome<\/a> led Memphis with 23 points and seven assists. Taylor Hendricks<\/a> scored 18 and Cedric Coward<\/a> 15 as Memphis lost its third straight.<\/p>\n

The game was close throughout, and the Grizzlies held a 118-117 lead with about two minutes left. Leonard and Jordan Miller<\/a> each made a pair of free throws to give Los Angeles a 121-118 edge. Mathurin’s two free throws with 4.4 second left sealed the win as Jerome’s closing 3-point try for Memphis was off the mark.<\/p>\n

The Clippers, who were 15 games under .500 earlier this season, now sit at 31-32. The are in ninth place in the Western Conference, and in the running for a postseason bid.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Grizzlies’ season has been marred by injuries. Six rotation players were on the injured list for Saturday’s game, including guard Ja Morant<\/a>, who missed his 20th game with a left elbow UCL sprain. <\/p>\n

Before the game, Morant said he wanted to remain with the franchise, even referring to a Grizzlies logo tattooed on his back as a sign of his loyalty. <\/p>\n

Memphis got off to a fast start building a 19-point lead against the Clippers, playing on the second night of a back-to-back.<\/p>\n

The advantage was short-lived. The shooting touch left Memphis, which committed 10 turnovers in the second. Leonard scored 15 points and the Clippers trailed by a point at 59-58 at the break.<\/p>\n

Up next <\/p>\n

Clippers: Host the Knicks on Monday.<\/p>\n

Grizzlies: At the Brooklyn Nets<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEMPHIS, Tenn. — \u2014 Kawhi Leonard had 28 points, Darius Garland scored 11 of his 21 points in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-526189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}