Clippers guard Reggie Jackson beat Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram to a loose ball, although Jackson slid out of bounds on the play Friday night at Crypto.com Arena. The Clippers lost 105-101. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
It was uncomfortable.
It was raucous.
It was 96 decibels of unbridled joy and audible concern.
It was a 16-point first-half Clippers deficit, a 13-point lead just 19 minutes later, a game they played without their leading scorer and the NBA’s most accurate three-point shooter.
It was the only appropriate plot for Friday to follow, a must-win play-in game that distilled 84 Clippers games of short-handed rosters, stunning rallies and down-to-the-end finishes into 48 minutes.
And it was the end, a 105-101 decision claimed forcefully by New Orleans in the final minutes of the play-in tournament. Considering the Clippers’ penchant for wriggling out of impossible holes on their way to 13 comeback victories after trailing by double digits, reality of the end didn’t seem to set in inside Crypto.com Arena as Reggie Jackson and his teammates left the floor, chants of their names still trailing them.
Clippers center Isaiah Hartenstein tries to block a shot by Pelicans guard Devonte’ Graham on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Three days after losing a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter at Minnesota to blow their first opportunity to claim a playoff berth, the Clippers saw their 13-point lead with 10 minutes to play, and the eighth and final playoff berth in the West, slip away as fatigue, missed free throws and poor rebounding took their toll.
“We spent a lot of energy,” forward Nicolas Batum said. “We stopped moving, rebounding, communication.”
Jackson and Marcus Morris Sr. each scored 27 points to lead the Clippers, who were outrebounded by nine and outscored by seven on second-chance points when the small-ball lineups they used the entire second half eventually grew tired. The offensive rebounds they…