Kawhi Leonard starts and the Clippers rally to defeat the Miami Heat

On January 14, 2025By Littum

Clippers players wore T-shirts with the words “LA STRONG” emblazoned on them, and Clippers spokesman Eric Smith gave a pregame speech offering encouragement to those affected by the devastating fires that ravaged Los Angeles.

“The smoke will clear and they will come back and rebuild because this is LA and today we all stand together — one team, one Los Angeles,” Smith told the Intuit Dome crowd.

The Clippers then played their first game since Wednesday, looking sluggish and trailing by 13 points in the first half.

But the Clippers surged in the third quarter and took control behind a strong defense and the play of James Harden and Norman Powell to pull a 109-98 win over Miami.

After four days off from basketball, the Clippers reflected on how LA deals with a disaster.

“It was hard just understanding what everybody’s going through,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said, “the whole city and just everybody rallying behind each other, just trying to do what they can to help support friends, families, neighbors. It’s a tough time. So we’re just here to support, try to lift people up playing basketball, see if we can bring people together. , watch the match and do something different and try to take take your mind off it. But these are tough times right now.”

Powell finished with 29 points and six rebounds, and Harden had 26 points and 11 assists. The Clippers also got a dominant performance from center Ivica Zubac, who had a 20-20 game with 21 points and 20 rebounds. It was his second career game with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds.

“It’s hard to do, but it’s something I’ve set a goal for myself: ‘I want to be 20-20,'” Zubac said. “…I’m glad I was able to do it.”

Harden had 13 of his 26 points in the third quarter, including a floater to beat the buzzer that gave the Clippers an 11-point lead they never surrendered. Powell had 11 of his 29 points in the third. He was 12 for 17 from the field and five for eight from three point range.

After the game, Powell spoke about the challenges of playing basketball in a city dealing with tragedy.

“They lose everything and you’re focused on basketball,” Powell said. “It’s a hard thing to focus on like it’s normal. You’re in this town where there’s tragedies and fires going on. But like I said, we got a job at hand, they got us off to play, so you have to focus on that.”

The Clippers (21-17) scored 36 points in the third on 55.5% shooting from the field. But they were even more impressive on defense, holding the Heat to 20 points on 38.1% shooting.

“I thought the zone (Miami played) slowed us down, stagnated us,” Lue said. “We didn’t make quick decisions early in the game. And then we got a little stagnant, and I thought in the second half we did a much better job of executing against a zone. … We just didn’t look good in it first half offensively. In the second half we figured it out.”

Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard controls the ball in front of Miami Heat guard Jaime Jaquez Jr.

For Kawhi Leonard, it was just his third game back after missing the first 34 games of the season with right knee inflammation. Leonard played in two games and then missed Wednesday’s game against Denver to return home to Los Angeles to care for his family after the wildfires broke out Tuesday night.

Leonard has a home in Pacific Palisades.

“Just trying to get the family in order and make sure everybody’s in place and everybody’s safe,” Leonard said of how the last week has been for him.

Leonard played 20 minutes, 44 seconds, scoring six points on three-for-nine shooting, including missing all of his three-point attempts. Under the one-minute restriction, he did not play in the fourth quarter.

“I try to do my job to help the team win,” Leonard said. “That’s all I do. And yes, I feel good. As long as I feel good on the field, I’m able to move quickly, get to my spots and that’s all I’m looking for .”

Miami All-Star center Bam Adebayo (back contusion) did not play for Miami (20-18).