Clippers edge Kings, inch toward top-6 seed with 7th straight win

SACRAMENTO — The Clippers’ longest win streak of the season has kept them in the thick of a crowded Western Conference playoff race, but the drama is nearly over.

James Harden had a triple-double with 23 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, Kawhi Leonard scored 28 points and the Clippers held off a late flurry in the final two minutes to beat the Sacramento Kings, 101-100, on Friday night for their seventh consecutive win.

Ivica Zubac had another double-double (17 points and 10 rebounds) for the Clippers, and Norman Powell added 16 points.

With one regular-season game left, the Clippers (49-32) are tied with the Denver Nuggets (49-32) for fourth place in the Western Conference, but the Nuggets own the No. 4 seed based on a better conference record. The Clippers finish with a road game against the sixth-place Golden State Warriors (48-33) on Sunday afternoon and would be no worse than the No. 5 seed with a win.

Minnesota (48-33) and Memphis (47-34) round out the group of five teams trying to secure top-six seeds and avoid the Play-In Tournament (seeds 7-10). Minnesota hosts last-place Utah (17-64), Denver plays at Houston (52-29) and Memphis hosts Dallas (39-42) in other season finales on Sunday. Assorted multi-team tiebreakers could come into play to determine the final seeds.

The top three seeds are already locked up: Oklahoma City, Houston and the Lakers, in that order.

The Clippers led comfortably for most of the game Friday until the Kings surged in the fourth quarter and got within 100-98 with 1:04 left. After Sacramento’s Zach Lavine made two free throws with 3.9 seconds left, the Kings stole Harden’s inbounds pass and called a timeout with 2.2 seconds left. But DeMar DeRozan’s contested 3-point try at the buzzer clanged off the backboard.

Harden earned his third triple-double of the season with a pair of offensive rebounds during the frantic finish. The Clippers were unable to score off of Harden’s boards, but with Powell adding another offensive rebound they ate up more than 40 critical seconds.

The time-consuming sequence and a free throw from Harden helped them survive a Kings rally that was fueled by LaVine’s torrid finish. The UCLA product scored 10 of his team-high 26 points in the final 3:39, including knocking down a pair of 3-pointers during their game-ending 12-4 run.

DeRozan scored 16 points and moved past Reggie Miller into 25th place on the NBA’s career scoring list.

Domantas Sabonis had 19 points and 16 rebounds and became the sixth player since the ABA/NBA merger to have 60 or more double-doubles for three consecutive seasons, joining Moses Malone, John Stockton, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and Dwight Howard.

Leonard capped his 20-point first half with a last-second 3-pointer, sending the Clippers into halftime on an 11-3 run. Leonard continued the pivotal spurt immediately after intermission, as the visitors scored the half’s first six points to extend their run to 17-3.

Despite holding the lead throughout the second half, the Clippers never led by more than 10 points.

With the Kings trailing 84-80 in the fourth quarter, interim coach Doug Christie had to be restrained and picked up a technical foul after rookie Devin Carter was called for a defensive foul despite replays showing Harden’s arm hitting Carter in the head.

UP NEXT

The Clippers play at Golden State on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.