LOS ANGELES — Reggie Jackson and Luke Kennard scored nine fourth-quarter points apiece – including Jackson’s game-winner with 2.2 seconds left with the crowd chanting his name in anticipation – to help the Clippers fend off the Orlando Magic 106-104 on Saturday at Staples Center.
Jackson shot 11 for 21 and finished with a team-high 25 points, complementing Luke Kennard’s 23 on 8-for-16 shooting, including a career-high seven 3-pointers on 11 attempts from behind the arc.
After seven consecutive points from “Regggggieee,” as public address announcer Eric Smith sang during the splurge, Jackson airballed a shot and looked gassed, at least until Kennard and his teammates – and a supportive afternoon crowd of 17,156 – offered a boost.
After Cole Anthony made two free throws, Jackson bounded downcourt and delivered a pass to Kennard stationed behind the arc, teed up to make his career-high seventh 3. It pushed the Clippers’ lead to 103-98 with 59 seconds left.
Terrance Ross made two more free throws as Orlando feasted at the line, finishing 22 of 24 from the stripe while the Clippers went just 4 of 6.
Ross – who dropped 51 points on the Clippers in 2014 as a member of the Toronto Raptors – finished with 12 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter. Anthony scored a team-high 23 points, including the 3-pointer that tied the game at 104 with 23.6 to play.
This season, the Magic (5-22 overall) now have a 2-14 record since Nov. 10 and are 0-4 on their five-game Western Conference road swing.
With the victory, the Clippers (15-12) have won 17 of their past 20 games against the Magic dating to the 2011-12 season.
After playing seven games in 11 days, the Clippers enjoyed two days without a game before hosting the Magic.
But with Paul George (sprained elbow) and Nicolas Batum (sprained ankle) unavailable, some of the Clippers who got run against the Magic would have been fresh anyway: Justise Winslow saw his first meaningful action in a while and 20-year-old rookie Brandon Boston Jr. came in having played just 146 minutes in his first 13 NBA games.
After Boston’s 27-point outburst in the Clippers’ victory over Boston on Wednesday, the Magic’s scouting report certainly included him.
Winslow though? Perhaps not.
Nonetheless, Lue said recently that the former Duke standout had earned playing time, which came Saturday when he played his first substantive minutes since the Clippers’ win over Dallas on Nov. 2.
“He has done everything right, he works every single day, is in the gym, even off days, blackout days, he is in the gym, he is engaged in the shootarounds, what coverages, so he is going to get his opportunity,” Lue said. “There is nothing he has done wrong. It is just kind of like the makeup of our team right now, what we need on the floor and spacing the floor with shooting and things like that.
“He has been great, a true professional, and we got to try to find a way to get him on the floor at some point.”
The Clippers outscored Orlando by nine points in the eight minutes Winslow was on the court in the second quarter, when the hosts outscored the Magic 26-14, holding them to 4-of-18 shooting (and 1 for 10 from deep).
After having trailed 22-13 out of the gate, the Clippers went into halftime leading 49-44.
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Orlando used a 13-4, three-and-a-half minute run to erase an eight-point deficit and tie the game at 57 with 7:07 to play in the third.
Winslow logged 15 minutes, finished with nine points on 4-for-9 shooting, gathered five rebounds, assisted on a couple of baskets and proved a positive influence throughout, drawing a charge on Chuma Okeke with 7:42 to play and the Clippers up just 88-86 before knocking down a corner 3 a little more than a minute later to extend that tenuous advantage to 91-88.