Kawhi Leonard pours in 45 as streaking Clippers dump Jazz
Kawhi Leonard scored 20 of his 45 points in the fourth quarter as the Los Angeles Clippers extended their season-best winning streak to six games with a 118-101 victory over the short-handed Utah Jazz on Thursday at Inglewood, Calif.
James Harden added 20 points, Nicolas Batum scored 14, Kobe Sanders and Derrick Jones Jr. had 10 and John Collins pulled down 11 rebounds as the Clippers improved to 6-0 to open a stretch in which they have seven of eight games at home. Rookie Yanic Konan Niederhauser grabbed 10 rebounds.
Los Angeles was 6-21 on Dec. 18, then doubled that win total in less than two weeks, starting with a victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 20.
Kyle Anderson scored a season-high 22 points and Brice Sensabaugh matched a season high with 20 as the Jazz played without their top four scorers: Keyonte George (illness), Lauri Markkanen (knee), Ace Bailey (hip) and Jusuf Nurkic (toe).
Cody Williams scored 18 points and Isaiah Collier added 16 points and 10 assists for Utah, which is 2-6 since Dec 18.
The Clippers scored the first 16 points and led 31-17 through one quarter after going up by as many as 21 points over the opening 12 minutes.
Utah got back into the game by outscoring Los Angeles 29-19 in the second quarter while pulling within 50-46 with a minute left in the half. The Clippers were up 53-50 at the break.
The Jazz tied the game just over two minutes into the second half and took their first lead at 60-58 with 9:21 remaining in the third on two free throws by Sensabaugh.
Leonard entered with an average of 37.8 points over the previous five games, and he had 20 at the half on Thursday. However, he dialed back his recent aggressiveness by going just 1 of 3 from the floor in nine third-quarter minutes.
Over the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, Leonard took charge by making four 3-pointers, including three over a two-minute stretch to give Los Angeles a 105-94 lead with 5:36 remaining. A Leonard dunk finished off an 11-0 run for a 107-94 lead with 5:36 on the clock.
In the fourth quarter, Leonard went 8 of 14 from the floor and 4 of 8 from 3-point range. He finished 16 of 29 in the game and 6 of 16 from long distance.