OCEANSIDE — Despite a 118-102 loss to the Stockton Kings in their regular season finale, the San Diego Clippers still walked away with their main objective accomplished. San Diego clinched a spot in the NBA G League playoffs, marking the franchise\u2019s first postseason appearance since 2021-22 and a key step forward in its first season under the San Diego name.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s nice to be in it,\u201d head coach Paul Hewitt said. \u201cWe got a little help today, obviously, but our guys gave themselves a chance.\u201d He added, \u201cWinning the game yesterday put us in position. That\u2019s all you can ask for at this time of year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game itself mirrored much of the Clippers\u2019 season\u2014competitive, but just out of reach late. \u201cThese guys hung with it,\u201d Hewitt said. \u201cEspecially the guys that have been here the whole year\u2026 they stuck to the script and gave ourselves a chance.\u201d San Diego entered the fourth quarter within striking distance before Stockton used a late run to pull away. For Hewitt, the bigger takeaway was the consistency from a core group that stayed committed through constant roster turnover. \u201cTheir level of commitment is something I certainly appreciate,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the easiest thing in the world when there\u2019s turnover to just go out there and play for yourself, but for the most part our guys didn\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
That group included Jahmyl Telfort, TyTy Washington Jr. and Zach Freemantle, who helped anchor the team throughout the season. \u201cJust having those guys was really helpful the whole season,\u201d Telfort said. \u201cI\u2019ve known Zach for a couple years, and me and TyTy got close too. Playing with them is a blessing for sure.\u201dTelfort also emphasized the team\u2019s mindset heading into the postseason. \u201cJust win,\u201d he said. \u201cDo everything in your power to win the game.\u201d He added, \u201cMaking the playoffs was a goal of ours, and we did. Now it\u2019s just taking it one game at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hewitt echoed that simplicity when asked about the message moving forward. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s much to be said,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a playoff game\u2026 everybody\u2019s 0-0 now.\u201d He also pointed to the opportunity in front of the group, noting, \u201cWe\u2019ve played them well this year. They\u2019re playing great basketball, but so are we when we\u2019re right.\u201d Beyond the court, the moment carried meaning for the organization and the city, having just moved to San Diego and completing their second season at Frontwave Arena. \u201cWe absolutely appreciate the people that come out,\u201d Hewitt said. \u201cThe opportunity to play in this building, we couldn\u2019t ask for more.\u201d He added, \u201cI hope they enjoy this because we appreciate them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, San Diego turns its attention to the postseason, where they\u2019ll face the top-seeded South Bay Lakers in the opening round next week. As the lower seed, the Clippers will head to El Segundo to take on the Lakers on Tuesday, March 31. The game will be played at the UCLA Health Training Center with tip-off at 7pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OCEANSIDE — Despite a 118-102 loss to the Stockton Kings in their regular season finale, the San Diego…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,8840,218715,218714,459,218713,218716,14556,218712,133463,82,218717,218718],"class_list":{"0":"post-568245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-clippers","11":"tag-jahmyl-telfort","12":"tag-league-playoffs","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-paul-hewitt","15":"tag-regular-season-finale","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-san-diego-clippers","18":"tag-south-bay-lakers","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-windy-city-bulls","21":"tag-zach-freemantle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}