OKLAHOMA CITY — Rookie Aleksej Pokusevski scored a career-high 29 points, and the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 117-112 on Sunday night in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Josh Hall, a two-way player who had never scored more than 10 points in an NBA game, had career highs of 25 points and 10 rebounds for Oklahoma City. Moses Brown had a career-best 24 points and grabbed 18 rebounds for the Thunder, who snapped a nine-game losing streak.
Terance Mann scored 19 points, two-way player Jay Scrubb scored 14 and rookie Daniel Oturu added career highs of 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Clippers, who clinched the No 4 seed in the Western Conference. The Clippers sat stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George for the second straight game.
Pokusevski’s 3-pointer with 48.8 seconds left gave the Thunder a 115-112 lead. The Thunder held defensively, then Brown’s putback dunk off a miss by Pokusevski with 5.4 seconds to play put the game away.
TIP-INS
Clippers: C Ivica Zubac played six seconds, then intentionally committed a foul and left the game for good. He is the only Clipper to play every game this season. … Forwards Marcus Morris and Nicolas Batum and guard Rajon Rondo did not play and were not on the injury report. … Center DeMarcus Cousins sat out with a sore left foot.
Thunder: Guard Charlie Brown Jr. was signed to a multiyear deal Saturday. He had previously signed two 10-day contracts. … Pokusevski scored 13 points on 5-for-5 shooting in the first quarter. … Guard Lu Dort sat out with right patellar tendinitis. … Starting forward Darius Bazley did not play. He was not on the injury report.
UP NEXT
Clippers: Will host a playoff series.
Thunder: Season over.
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