If there's one thing that the LA Clippers are going to do, it's put up a fight. The team entered Thursday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves without Kawhi Leonard, Darius Garland, John Collins, and Bradley Beal.

Despite all of that, the Clippers kept the game highly competitive until the final buzzer, where they only put up 88 points overall. Leading the way for LA was Derrick Jones Jr., who actually scored 18 points himself. No player on the Clippers put up 20 points against the Timberwolves on Thursday.

After the game, Jones spoke to the Clippers media about his thoughts on the game. Despite the loss, he was still happy with the team's overall defense that held Minnesota to 94 points.

 “Defense, on the offensive end, we were locked in, and we were just moving around, was trying to keep emotions and all offensive, trying to make them have to read every aspect of our offense, and not just having them go in all on players," Jones said.

However, the biggest issue with playing that hard is the fact that it starts tiring players out, which is exactly what happened to the Clippers on Thursday night.

"Sitting there, but it's tough, it's tough to play like that before 48 minutes. I mean, we've had time even in this game, but we just we're all just stagnant, just watch it, so do stuff to just be around all game. We just got to try and get it done there. Do it as much as we can," Jones added.

Unfortunately for LA, Thursday night's loss was their third straight loss in a row. It's also back-to-back losses of failing to execute in the fourth quarter while having the lead. Possession after possession, the Clippers just looked completely stagnant in the fourth against both the Timberwolves and the Orlando Magic.

The Clippers likely could have played Kawhi Leonard and John Collins against the Timberwolves on Thursday, but their March schedule is about to get absolutely brutal. Coming up ahead for the Clippers may not be difficult opponents, but one of the most harsh schedules in the NBA.

LA will be dealing with two different sets of playing five games in seven nights within only 19 days. They'll also have three different sets of playing three games in four nights. Not only that, but they'll also have four different back-to-backs.

All of this will be only within the month of March. Granted, they'll only be playing seven or so competitive games within that span, but with a schedule like that, the Clippers are bound to lose games they should probably win.

With that in mind, it's pretty easy to see why they withheld Kawhi Leonard from playing on Thursday, as he's been dealing with a sore ankle.