Rookie speaks out on the Clippers' resilient spirit.
The Los Angeles Clippers dropped a hard-fought 111-109 game to the Orlando Magic on Sunday night, but the way they competed said a lot more than the final score.
The Clippers had a chance to win at the buzzer when Bennedict Mathurin's three-point attempt fell short as time expired.
It was a tough one to swallow, but the group never stopped competing, and rookie big man Yanic Konan Niederhauser made sure to say so postgame.
"Yeah, we got a bunch of fighters," Konan Niederhauser said. "We compete every day. Every day it's just fight. It's fun to be out there and play hard. So yeah. No, we got a good group of fighters out here."
Those words carried some weight given the circumstances.
The Clippers, now sitting at 27-30 on the season, have had to lean on their depth in ways they probably didn't expect.
The Magic, meanwhile, improved to 31-26 and continued to show why they're one of the tougher outs in the Eastern Conference.
A New Role for Konan Niederhauser
One of the bigger storylines since the deadline has been the emergence of Konan Niederhauser in the middle.
When the Los Angeles Clippers sent Ivica Zubac to the Indiana Pacers on February 5th in a deal that brought back Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, and two first-round picks, it opened the door for the rookie to see real minutes.
Zubac had been one of the better centers in the league, averaging a double-double on the season, but the front office moved him with an eye on the future.
The 30th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft out of Penn State, Konan Niederhauser is averaging 3.8 points and 2.4 rebounds per game on the season, but his role has grown since taking over at center.
Against the Magic on Sunday, he blocked Desmond Bane's shot in the final seconds, a play that kept the door open for the Clippers' last-second attempt.
Fighting Through a Tough Stretch
Since the trade deadline, the Los Angeles Clippers have been one of the more interesting teams to watch.
They moved Zubac and James Harden, but kept Kawhi Leonard, who put up 37 points against the Magic before his ankle slowed him down the stretch.
Roundtable noted the deadline reshape as a full-on fire sale, and this team has had to figure things out quickly ever since.
To their credit, they haven't backed down.
Tyronn Lue was blunt after a recent loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, saying the Clippers are going to fight every night no matter what.
That showed up again Sunday as they pushed a Magic team trending toward the playoffs all the way to the final buzzer.
Mathurin had 21 points, nine rebounds, and five assists off the bench and has been outstanding since the trade, a fact Roundtable has been tracking closely as he settles in.
The Clippers are still chasing a play-in spot with the margin for error thin. But the identity Konan Niederhauser described, competing and fighting every night, has been real since the deadline, and this group keeps showing up.