The Los Angeles Clippers entered the night as the hottest team in the NBA. After starting out the season 3-7 and having pundits call the acquisition of James Harden an abject failure, the team has turned things around over the past few weeks, and hadn’t lost yet in the month of December. But they took on one of the top teams in the Western Conference on Thursday, and had their 9-game win streak snapped by Chet Holmgren and the Oklahoma City Thunder by a score of 134-115.

Clippers Lose For The First Time In December

Shai in the win:

31 PTS

8 REB

4 STL

2 BLK

Snapped the Clippers win streak. https://t.co/H2HY995s1t

— StatMuse (@statmuse) December 22, 2023

The Clippers were shorthanded. Kawhi Leonard had turned some heads by playing in every game thus far this season after being the subject of so much load management talk, but he finally took a night off on Thursday. It showed in the results, though it provided more scoring opportunities for the other stars on Los Angeles’ roster. James Harden led the way with 23 points, while Paul George added 22.

The snapping of the winning streak is certainly a downer, but the Clippers seemed to have figured out a formula for winning after they looked doomed during the month of November. They have gone from 12th in the West all the way into the top-4, though they may fall out of that spot depending on how the rest of Thursday’s games shake out.

Big Game Against The Celtics On The Horizon

Clippers thought they were slick pic.twitter.com/7fP30c7yTJ

— NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) December 22, 2023

They won’t play on Christmas Day, but they’ll have a huge game against the best team in the NBA on Saturday. The Boston Celtics are finishing their California road trip this weekend, and will take on both teams in Los Angeles, starting with the Clippers. The availability of Jayson Tatum for the contest is currently unknown, but the Celtics are dangerous even when Jaylen Brown is the focal point of their attack. There has been no line released yet, but you can expect Boston to be a slight road favorite as the team with the best record in the NBA.

When the Clippers arrive back in Los Angeles tonight, they won’t have to leave the city again for well over a week. They’ll play four games at home before hitting the road for 5 of their subsequent 7 games.