Kawhi Leonard leads Clippers to a dominant win over the Pelicans amid playoff push

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Clippers center Ivica Zubac looks to pass while under pressure from Pelicans forward Kelly Olynyk and center Yves Missi on Wednesday at the Intuit Dome. (William Liang / Associated Press)

The teams the Clippers are chasing for a top-six spot in the Western Conference standings keep winning and that means the Clippers have to continue their pursuit of wins until the final seedings are decided.

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His team understands “what’s at stake” and “what’s at risk,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said, and that has kept his group on high alert as it seeks to avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament by earning a top-six seed.

As it stands, even after the Clippers defeated the depleted New Orleans Pelicans 114-98 on Wednesday night at the Inuit Dome, the Clippers remain a play-in team.

The Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies all have identical 44-32 records, all of them a half-game behind the fifth-seeded Golden State Warriors. If the season ended today, the Timberwolves would get the No. 6 seed, the Clippers the No. 7 seed and the Grizzlies the No. 8 seed based on current tiebreakers.

With six regular-season games left, Lue said the Clippers want to play their best basketball, hunt for a top-six position and stay healthy.

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“Health is important,” Lue said. “But like you said, trying to get the top-six seed is very important as well, because you don’t want to go into the play-in game because in one or two games anything can happen. So that’s been our focus and our mindset and I give our guys credit. They’ve been doing a good job with that.”

The Clippers earned Wednesday’s win with a balanced attack, six players scoring in double figures. The team got strong performances from Kawhi Leonard and James Harden to lead the way.

Leonard was efficient, scoring 28 points, shooting 11 for 18 from the field and three for five from three-point range.

Read more: Kawhi Leonard and Norman Powell lead Clippers to win over Magic

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Harden had a double-double with 21 points and 10 assists. After going one for five from three-point range, Harden has made 404 three-pointers as a…

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Publish date : 2025-04-03 05:03:00

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