Agua Caliente Clippers blown out by Santa Cruz Warriors in G League bubble

The Agua Caliente Clippers’ season-long run of alternating wins and losses was snapped Monday, after they lost 129-90 to the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League bubble in Orlando.

The loss is the Clippers’ second in a row, after dropping Sunday’s close game against the Lakeland Magic, and leaves Agua Caliente with a 3-5 record for the season. But a 39-point loss from this game is probably going to sting a bit more for Paul Hewitt’s group.

The Clippers started the game with James Palmer, Jr., J.J. Avila, Emanuel Terry, Jahmi’us Ramsey, and Tyrone Wallace. Warriors veteran Jeremy Lin and rookie Nico Mannion were out for this game with injuries.

Midway through the 1st quarter, the Clippers started to rack up a good lead, with Ramsey — the Sacramento Kings rookie — and Wallace starting out hot. But Santa Cruz came back and came within a point with just over a minute to play in the opening quarter. After burying a trey late, the Clippers led 34-30 through the first frame.

The 2nd quarter started in the reverse way, with the teams close early, before the Warriors started to build a lead midway through. But this time, they just kept building the lead, absolutely rolling over the Clippers as the first half finished with Santa Cruz leading 68-51. The Warriors outscored Agua Caliente 38-17 in the 2nd quarter.

While the Clippers tried to rally in the 3rd quarter, they couldn’t really get back in the game and Santa Cruz pulled away, getting to a 21-point lead with a little under 3:00 left in the quarter. They ended it with a 98-73 lead, absolutely blowing away the Clippers.

But wait, there was 12 minutes left to go. Unfortunately, nothing really changed, as the Warriors just rolled and the Clippers could not stop the buckets from going in.

Five Clippers players notched double-digits in points against the Warriors, paced by Ramsey’s 17, but the team shot a woeful 37 percent from the field and even worse 26 percent from 3-point range. Like their NBA counterpart, once the Warriors found a rhythm in the 2nd quarter they shot early and often, and their 45 percent mark on 3-pointers effectively was the difference in the game between the teams.

Agua Caliente will get Tuesday off and then will take on the Long Island Nets Wednesday. You can watch that game, which is scheduled to tip off at 4:30 pm PT, on ESPN+.