Garland Runs the Show as Clippers End Seven-Game Skid With 139-123 Rout of Pelicans

Seven games. Seven losses. One win all season, and that one came on opening night, so long ago it barely counted anymore. The Los Angeles Clippers walked into Intuit Dome on Sunday night carrying the worst record in the Western Conference and a turnover problem so bad it had become the story of their season. Then, for one night at least, they played like the team they were supposed to be.

Darius Garland ran the whole thing. The point guard scored 24 points, dished out 10 assists, and committed just two turnovers in a 139-123 win over the New Orleans Pelicans — the Clippers' first victory since beating Sacramento in the season opener, and their highest-scoring game of the year. It was the kind of composed, controlling performance the Clippers have been waiting for all season, and it came against a Pelicans side that had three players score 25 or more and still lost by sixteen.

The numbers tell you how different this night was. Los Angeles shot a season-high 54.8 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from three. More importantly, the Clippers turned the ball over just 11 times — a season low for a team that came in averaging 20.1 giveaways a night, the worst mark in the league. They finished with 34 assists to New Orleans' 23.

It was not a wire-to-wire cruise. The first quarter ended dead level at 28-28, and the Clippers built a 13-point lead in the second before settling for a 67-60 advantage at the break, Garland already on 14 points. New Orleans came out of halftime swinging, opening the third with an 18-10 run to take the lead, and for a while it looked like the same old script — the Clippers had already blown double-digit fourth-quarter leads in each of their previous two games.

This time they answered. A Kobe Sanders three-pointer with 2:23 left in the third put Los Angeles back in front 94-93, and the Clippers never trailed again. They opened the fourth on a 15-6 run to lead 117-101, stretched it to 124-107 with 4:56 left on three Garland free throws, and cruised home from there.

Brook Lopez added 20 points and seven rebounds on 8-of-11 shooting, Gradey Dick scored a season-high 15, rookie Keaton Wagler matched him with 15 of his own, and Rui Hachimura chipped in 14. The bench, so often a problem this season, held its own — and the Clippers did it without inside presence Isaiah Jackson, who was out after being limited to 13 minutes with an injury in Wednesday's loss to Miami.

New Orleans will wonder how it lost a game in which so much went right individually. Trey Murphy III led the Pelicans with 26 points and seven rebounds, Jeremiah Fears added 25, and Zion Williamson was perfect from the field — 9-of-9 for 25 points — and still ended up on the losing side. The Pelicans committed 17 turnovers, their normally reliable bench fell apart, and Saddiq Bey shot just 3-of-12. It was their second straight defeat, dropping them to 4-6, and there is no soft landing next: they visit Golden State on Monday.

For the Clippers, 2-7 is still 2-7, and one good night does not fix a season. But a team that had forgotten how to win finally remembered — because its point guard took control, its shots fell, and, for once, it held on to the basketball. They visit Phoenix on Tuesday with something they have not had in weeks: a win to build on.