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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Michael Sykes

The Clippers and Kings absolutely gave NBA fans the best game of the year in a double-OT instant classic

Kings (Organization) NBA Clippers Clipper Kawhi Leonard DeAaron Fox Ben Golliver Malik Monk Russell Westbrook

You’re going to go a long time before you find a better basketball game this season than the one the Kings and Clippers played on Friday night.

This was absolutely the best basketball game of the year and it will probably remain that throughout the rest of the season — playoffs included. It’s absolutely nuts how wild this game got.

The Kings won outright, 176-175. And, yes, that score is wild. But it doesn’t even begin to paint the picture of how crazy this game got.

I know most of you missed this because, well, you have a life. The game didn’t end until about 1:30 a.m. on the East Coast. Y’all had Saturday plans, obviously.

But yerboi watched the whole thing to hold it down for you. Let’s just come through a few stats to show you exactly how wild this thing got.

The Kings actually staged 3 separate comebacks

Somehow, the Kings were down in all three periods they played — regulation, overtime and double overtime. They even fell down by double-digits at one point in regulation.

Y’all. That’s crazy. But it’s even crazier when you realize Kawhi Leonard was hitting stuff like this.

Just unreal.

There were also 3 40-point scorers

The Kings won because they had two of them. De’Aaron Fox dropped 42 points and made play after play in the clutch. Malik Monk had 45 points…off of the bench. Need I say more?

Kawhi poured in 44 himself. Paul George was also 6 points away from 40.

Yes, the defense was certainly lacking in this game.

This was the second-highest scoring NBA game ever

The only game better was a triple-OT outing between the Nuggets and Pistons in December.

These two squads combined for 351 points and tied the record for most 3-point makes in a game in league history. Just unreal stuff.

Oh, and Russell Westbrook also made his debut as a Clipper. I forgot to add that. The Kings didn’t care, though.

Whew.

And, just so you have it...

Here’s every bucket made in the clutch that made this game so special.

De’Aaron Fox is definitely taking home that clutch player of the year award.

 

Fans thought this was the game of the year

And, honestly, it’s hard to argue against it.

Light the beam, though. The Kings are so fun, man.

More of this, please, NBA.

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