The Clippers dropped their second straight and the offense was to blame.
The Los Angeles Clippers could not get out of their own way on Monday night.
San Antonio came into Intuit Dome and walked away with a 119-115 victory, handing the Clippers their second straight loss to the Spurs in the last 11 days and dropping them back to .500 at 34-34 on the season.
After the game, Darius Garland did not sugarcoat what went wrong in Los Angeles.
"Defensive intensity just died," Garland said. "Uh ball got stagnant, turnovers."
The Kawhi Problem
It is a familiar script for the Clippers this season.
When Kawhi Leonard is not on the floor, the offense starts to fall apart, and that is exactly what the Clippers dealt with again on Monday.
When Kawhi is in the lineup, the offense has a different look and feel to it because of what he does as both a scorer and a gravity player.
He is averaging 28.3 points per game this season and has been the driving force behind the team's remarkable turnaround from a 6-21 start.
But when he sits, the ball stops moving and the energy drops, and that is exactly what happened Monday.
Leonard missed the game with a left ankle injury, and the Clippers felt his absence almost immediately.
San Antonio built a 24-point lead in the third quarter as the offense went cold and the defense could not get any stops.
Without Kawhi on the floor to demand attention from the defense, the spacing shrinks and the rest of the roster has to create for itself instead of feeding off his gravity.
Garland Did His Part
The frustrating part for the Clippers is that Garland actually played well.
He finished with 25 points and 10 assists, doing everything he could to keep the offense afloat while also trying to get his teammates involved.
Jordan Miller added 22 points off the bench and Bennedict Mathurin chipped in 16, so it was not like there was a shortage of scoring.
The problem was not production in the end, though.
The problem was how they got there.
The Clippers spent most of the night playing from behind because the first few quarters lacked the urgency and ball movement that had carried them during their recent win streak.
They made a furious late push and cut the lead to four with 38 seconds left after Garland scored seven of the team's final nine points, but by then it was too late.
What Comes Next
San Antonio improved to 50-18 with the win and has now beaten the Clippers twice in the last two weeks by a combined seven points.
The first matchup on March 6 saw the Spurs erase a 25-point deficit to steal a 116-112 road win, and this time they were the ones protecting a big lead down the stretch.
For the Clippers, the loss is a reminder that this team has a ceiling when Kawhi is not on the court.
Garland has been a strong addition since arriving from Cleveland at the trade deadline, but he cannot replicate the two-way impact that Leonard provides.
The Clippers now head to New Orleans on Wednesday to start a three-game road trip, and they need Leonard back soon if they want to hold onto their spot in the play-in picture.