Kawhi Leonard scores 41, leads Clippers past Rockets, to consecutive wins for first time since October

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Forget what Bill Parcells used to say, the LA Clippers are convinced they are better than their record says they are.

Tuesday night, for the second game in a row, they looked like it. Having Kawhi Leonard back healthy helps.

“Just buying into it, what we’re trying to do…” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said when asked what was different in those wins. “Kawhi getting into a healthy state, James (Harden) being healthy… Just stay in the course. We hit a rough patch, and it’s been a rough season, with all the injuries, the ups and downs, losing close games. But just stay the course. And so I give our guys credit.”

Advertisement

Behind 41 from Leonard and 29 from Harden, the Clippers pulled away for a comfortable win over the Rockets, 128-108. This was the first time the Clippers have won back-to-back games since their second and third games of the season, back in October.

That comes at the expense of a Rockets team that is scuffling, having lost five of their last seven games, with the 27th-ranked defense in the NBA over that stretch. The Rockets struggled from 3-point range in this game (9-of-30), but what was more concerning was that they just kept making the kind of sloppy mistakes one expects from a young team — the kind of mistakes the Rockets thought they had outgrown.

The Rockets need to find themselves in the next 48 hours, before a big Christmas Day game across town against the Lakers.

While the Rockets struggled on defense, the Clippers’ defense looked as good as it has all season.

Advertisement

“Outside that first quarter, I thought defensively, we really locked in…” Lue said. “I thought we took care of the basketball, and we did a good job of moving the basketball, making quick decisions.”

“Probably the biggest things that we’ve done is the consistency in our communication — and obviously just the want, the need to play hard,” said John Collins, who shot 3-of-3 on his way to 13 points. “I feel like we’re all at that feeling we have our backs against the wall, and we just want to continue to improve and obviously change the course of the season.”

The start of this game was a fun trip…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/kawhi-leonard-scores-41-leads-072930668.html

Author :

Publish date : 2025-12-24 07:29:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.