Balanced Clippers cruise past struggling Wizards

24.01.2025 09:26

DailyNews.com

Clippers guard James Harden looks on during the second half of their victory over the Washington Wizards on Thursday night at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood. (AP Photo/William Liang)

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Clippers guard James Harden looks on during the second half of their victory over the Washington Wizards on Thursday night at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood. (AP Photo/William Liang)

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INGLEWOOD — The Clippers will finish this stretch of games Saturday having played six games in nine days. Then it’s another four road games in seven days. At times, the games begin to look the same, although they don’t all play the same.

There can be intense games against the defending NBA champions and blowouts against the worst team in the league.

“We just got to go out and try to win,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “You just know every day’s a tough game and you’ve got to be prepared to play.”

Some games are tougher than others, and then there are games like Wednesday’s 110-93 victory over the struggling Washington Wizards on the second night of a back-to-back at the Intuit Dome.

After pushing the 2024 champion Boston Celtics to overtime the previous night, the Clippers landed on a soft spot in their congested schedule and produced a less-than-stellar performance despite having six players in double figures.

“Not a good game for us. It was just a win,” Lue said. “We didn’t play particularly well. We didn’t execute and were loose with the basketball. We did some good things as well, but it wasn’t one of our best games, I thought.”

Lue pointed to the Clippers’ 18 turnovers against the team with the worst record in the league as evidence.

“Like last night I thought we played better, but it is a win. We’ll take it. We got to start stacking wins, but we got to start executing the right way. And I don’t think we did a good job with that tonight.”

It was, however, the kind of game they needed after playing three games in the previous four days. The Wizards provided little resistance against a healthy Clippers roster.

The Clippers (24-19) played without six of their top eight rotation players against the Celtics, but the starters were back on Thursday, as was reserve Nico Batum, in time to face the Wizards (a league-worst 6-37). Guard Kris Dunn was still out because of a sore knee and Jordan Miller was out because of illness.

The Clippers’ balanced scoring was too much for the Wizards, with six players finishing in double figures. The victory snapped a two-game losing streak.

Leonard continued to ramp up his game, posting 15 points, seven rebounds and one assist in 23 minutes, 47 seconds, which kept within his minutes limit since returning to the lineup on Jan. 4. He missed the first 34 games of the season because of lingering right knee soreness.

“Over (his) last two games, I thought he’s been really good, just attacking a basket, getting to his spots, playing with a pace,” Lue said before the game. “The first few games, he kind of just eased into it, trying to feel it out and see if he can trust his knee. But now, I think mentally he’s really past that point.”

James Harden posted his 79th career triple-double with 17 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists, surpassing Wilt Chamberlain for the eighth place on the NBA’s career list.

“It means a lot, man, just impacting the game in other ways,” Harden said. “Scoring is one thing, but rebounding basketball, facilitating is another thing and just impacting the game. You don’t got to be the best player on the court by just scoring the basketball every single night.

“Obviously, that helps, but there’s other ways to impact games and you’ve been seeing it throughout the course of the history of the NBA. I’m just happy to be a part of one of those on our list.”

Norman Powell added 22 points, and Derrick Jones Jr., who played 44 minutes against the Celtics the previous night, finished with 19 points and eight rebounds. Center Ivica Zubac, who missed two games after being poked in the eye by Lakers center Anthony Davis on Sunday, had 11 points and nine rebounds. Backup center Mo Bama had 13 points, six rebounds and five blocked shots.

With four of the five starters on the bench, the Wizards chipped away at the lead in the third quarter. They outscored the Clippers 23-13 to whittle what had been a 27-point margin to 17 by the end of the quarter (89-72).

“We just got careless and (started) taking bad shots, not letting the game play out,” Lue said. “You can’t dictate who’s going to get the shots if you’re playing basketball the right way. And so, I don’t think we did that the second half or the third all the way through.”

Lue put the starters, except Leonard, back in midway through the fourth quarter after the Wizards trimmed the lead to 95-83. A layup and 3-pointer by Powell restored a 17-point cushion with 6:56 left in the game.

Jordan Poole scored 24 points and had nine assists for the Wizards. Bilal Coulibaly added 15 points and Alex Star 14 points and 10 rebounds.

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Balanced Clippers cruise past struggling Wizards

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