Reserves step up to help Clippers hold off Kings.

Reserves step up to help Clippers hold off Kings.
The number of healthy contributors available to play has always been among the most important statistics in the NBA — see: last season’s playoffs — but Wednesday in Sacramento underscored why it has become the dominant metric of the moment.
In a matchup that was remarkably no outlier as COVID-19 outbreaks sweep across the league, forcing postponements and dozens of emergency signings to pad out ravaged rosters, Sacramento was without seven players because of health and safety protocols and the Clippers were down four usual members of their rotation, with two in protocols, as well.
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The latest absences belonged to starting guard Reggie Jackson (protocols) and guard Luke Kennard (hip), who had made 52% of his three-pointers in December.
But two days removed from a double-digit loss that left the Clippers criticizing what one starter termed an “embarrassing” lack of urgency, the short-handed nature of their roster belied what they did have: the kind of energy and physicality that had been absent just days earlier.