Wizards at Clippers final score: Lou Williams scores game winner to end Washington’s win streak, 113-112

The Wizards lost to the Clippers, 113-112 on Saturday after Lou Williams made a game winning three over Bradley Beal in what was ultimately an entertaining came.

The third quarter was a huge turning moment after Washington gave the Clippers a 62-49 lead at halftime. Beal scored 16 points in that period along andWashington tied the game at one point. If the Wizards didn’t commit six turnovers in that period alone, then they could have led earlier.

Then in the fourth quarter, the Wizards finally regained the lead thanks to strong bench play. With less than 10 seconds left in the game, the Wizards were down 110-109, but Bradley Beal made an and-one layup. But with 1.2 seconds left, Williams made his game-winning three with Beal defending him about as well as you could have hoped.

The last play of this game was bizarre. Bradley Beal made a shot that may or may not have been the game winner for the Wizards. Except that the clock ran too early. Ultimately, the refs put 1.1 seconds back on the clock after noticing the error, but Marcin Gortat wasn’t able to capitalize.

For the Wizards, Otto Porter led with 27 points and 11 rebounds, while Williams led the Clippers with 35 points. Here are the takeaways.

Make Your Free Throws

The Wizards were 15 of 23 from the free throw line and shot just 65.2 percent from there for the game. If they made just two more shots, we’d be in a more celebratory mood right now.

Lou Williams was his Wizard Killing Self

He scored 13 points in the first half and 35 overall on 11 of 20 shooting. This guy will forever be in the Wizards Killer Hall of Fame now that he made this game winner:

If you’re wondering if Williams REALLY has it for the Wizards, it depends on what metric you want to use.

In his career, Williams scored 13 points a game on 41.9 percent shooting and 34.8 percent from three. He played 37 games against the Wizards, more than any other team except for the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets. In all of his games against the Wizards, Williams averaged 13.6 points a game on 45.7 percent shooting and 39.6 percent from three.

From an absolute production sense, Williams scored the most per game (16.9 ppg) against the Philadelphia 76ers who he did play for from 2005-2012. But his efficiency just happens to be much better than average against the Wizards, though he has a 49.3 percent career shooting percentage against the Suns.

In other words, Lou Williams just happens to be more efficient against the Wizards than most other teams. He’s just one of those guys that seems to have D.C.’s number, no matter what.

The bench is now in form

Let’s get a bit more positive now that I got the Williams blurb out of the way.

The narrative around the Wizards bench is that it’s inadequate outside of Kelly Oubre, who was scoreless today. But we’ve started seeing multiple reserves get into a groove. That should pay dividends going forward despite the loss.

Mike Scott shot 9 of 11 from the field today and scored a season high 22 points in 28 minutes of game action while adding 8 rebounds. There’s more to it though. He made 12 consecutive shots dating back to the Blazers game last Tuesday, all but confirming that he’s on a hot streak. Scott has struggled to get consistent playing time all November, but if he continues to put up numbers like this, he could find himself in more “game finishing” lineups as the season is on.

Ian Mahinmi scored a season high 14 points for the second straight game, another belle performance for the Frenchman. He even added 3 assists and wasn’t in foul trouble!

Tomas Satoransky also scored in double figures with 11 points on 5 of 8 shooting. He also added 6 rebounds and 6 assists. The Czech guard has played at least 22 minutes in each of the last seven games and the team was better with him on than off the court. I wish he made his free throws since he’s missed each of his last four attempts, but it’s good to see that he’s coming along.

We could’ve used “Super Beal” in the first half

Beal was not playing like he did over the last couple games as he scored just two points on 1 of 7 in the first half. In the second half, he scored 23 of his 25 points. He was due for a “regression to the mean” at some point, but I wish he would have made a few more buckets early on.

Otto Porter got back from his shooting slump

Porter is a super-efficient wing player, so when he’s shooting just 40 percent from the field, people wonder what’s going on. In the Blazers and Suns games, Porter shot a combined 3 of 17 from the field. He got back to his “Meessemanesque” self today by shooting 62.5 percent from the field, while contributing in virtually every other part of the game. I wish the Wizards won of course, but it’s better seeing the Otto of last October than the Otto we saw the last couple of games heading into today.

There were Redskins fans in attendance in L.A.

It isn’t uncommon to see Redskins, Capitals, Nationals, or D.C. United players at Wizards games. But this happens when there are multiple Washington teams playing at home. But this game was in L.A.

The Redskins will play the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday afternoon at the StubHub Center. Like any other fanbase of a Big Four League team, there certainly were going to be some folks in burgundy and gold in the stands earlier today:

Next Game

The Wizards head to New York City to play the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday.