LOS ANGELES — The Clippers’ Clydesdale pulled them through a midgame slog Sunday, as they hopped on the back of their star with the twice-certified championship pedigree and asked him to carry them to a seventh consecutive victory and the second in three days against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
L.A. needed every drop in the bucket of Kawhi Leonard’s game-high 34 points to again fend off their pesky visitors, buckling down to win, 108-100.
Leonard ensured the Clippers (13-4) would take a seven-game winning streak as they embark on a six-game East Coast road trip that starts Tuesday in Atlanta.
“He’s been phenomenal for us, and tonight we had to ride him,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “Kawhi had it going, so we played through him a lot, especially in that second half. And he created points for himself and he created points for our team as well, so we had to ride him pretty hard just so he could continue to keep the lead and play through him a lot.”
As was the case in the first meeting of their two-game miniseries at Staples Center, the Clippers bolted ahead, outscoring Oklahoma City 36-19 in the first quarter, when they led by as much as 17 points.
But the Thunder again proved a tough out, chipping away after the Clippers started clanging more shots than they were making, shooting 26 for 66 (31.8%) over the course of the final three quarters.
OKC got within five points in the third quarter and then within six points with a late 11-0 run that made it 102-96 with 1:56 left, but Leonard drove for a dunk to break that spell, putting his foot down and putting the Clippers up, 104-96 with 42 ticks to go.
He fashioned similar resolve in the third period, giving the Clippers 11 much-needed points, including a timely five-point spree that pushed the Clippers’ lead to 77-67 and then a third-period buzzer-beater from 17 feet that made it 85-73 entering the final frame.
Leonard shot 14 for 24, including going 5 for 8 for 14 points in the first quarter, and he finished the game one point shy of his season high (he delivered those 35 points in another matinee victory over the Chicago Bulls on Jan. 10, the start of the Clippers’ current winning streak).
He added eight assists and nine rebounds — his last one, off a Reggie Jackson miss with 17.5 seconds left and the Clippers clinging to a seven-point lead, proving as clutch as any of his field goals.
“When he’s in a zone like that, yeah, you probably treat him like a pitcher,” Jackson said. “You don’t want to be the guy who’s throwing him off rhythm, so not too much to say. For us, we love to get daps in at least and get the spirit going. We really believe in it, so you give a dap here and there, but you try not to over-touch him, you just want him to stay hot, try to close the game out early.”
For his part, Jackson came on big in relief when knee soreness pulled Patrick Beverley from the game at halftime, sidelining him along with Marcus Morris Sr. (illness).
Despite not playing at all in the first 24 minutes, Jackson hit his first two shots and scored 10 of his 14 points in the third quarter, when the Clippers desperately needed it, as the rest of them not nicknamed Kiaw accounted for only eight points.
Bothered by hamstring tightness, Paul George made a go of it Sunday, but he shot just 4 for 13 and 2 for 8 from deep en route to a season-low 11 points, five rebounds and four assists.
As a team, the Clippers struggled to knock down shots. They’d entered their two-game set with Thunder shooting an NBA-best 44.1% from 3-point range, but on Sunday, they went just 14 of 46 (30.4%) from behind the arc — that, after going 10 for 33 (30.3%) against OKC on Friday.
But still, they found a way. That was important, Lue said.
“We had a lot of open shots, I mean, a lot of open shots,” he said. “We were moving the basketball, we was getting open shots and we just didn’t make it, and it was good to see that we wasn’t making shots, but we continued defending and was able to hold them off with our defense … It’s good to see us keep competing when we wasn’t making shots.”
The Clippers’ big men didn’t miss much: Serge Ibaka (17 points, 6 rebounds) and Ivica Zubac (10 points, 11 rebounds) continued to push around OKC down low, where they missed Al Horford (who’s away from the team after welcoming a baby daughter recently). The 7-footers combined to shoot 22 for 26 in two games against the Thunder, combining for 50 points and 36 rebounds in the pair of victories.
OKC, which lost its third consecutive game, was led by former Clippers fan favorite Shai Gilgeous Alexander (23 points) and George Hill (22).
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January 25, 2021 at 06:33AM
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Kawhi Leonard, Clippers fend off Oklahoma City again - OCRegister
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