Clippers, Kawhi Leonard beats Nets in 59-point win, biggest blowout of NBA season

On By Littum

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – LA Clippers power forward Kawhi Leonard had his breakout game Wednesday night at home against the Brooklyn Nets, scoring a season-high 23 points in just under 24 minutes to lead the Clippers to a 126-67 victory.

The Clippers’ 59-point victory marked the largest in the franchise’s 55-year history and the largest in the 597 games played in the NBA this season. It was also the worst loss in the 58-year history of the Nets, a franchise that entered the NBA in 1976 and started in 1967 in the ABA.

Leonard, who missed the first 34 games of the season to strengthen his surgically repaired right knee, played in just his fourth game. This was the first time Leonard led the Clippers in scoring since March 29, 2024, in a road win against the Orlando Magic.

The Nets were on zero days’ rest after a 132-114 road win the night before against the Portland Trail Blazers, who had 42 points and 22 assists combined from veterans Ben Simmons, Cameron Johnson and D’Angelo Russell. All three veterans missed the Clippers game; Simmons due to dealing with lower back injuries, Johnson due to an ankle sprain and Russell due to a combination of left hamstring tightness and a right shin contusion.

The Clippers, starting a lineup of Leonard, James Harden, Ivica Zubac, Norman Powell and Derrick Jones Jr., were tied at just 21 through a quarter of play against the Nets. But after Leonard started the second half with a bench lineup that featured Kris Dunn, Nicolas Batum, Amir Coffey and Terance Mann, LA took full advantage of the shorthanded Nets.

“They were missing a couple of their starters,” Leonard said of the Nets. “When guys come in and you don’t really know the offense or the defense, it can get like that. Especially when we’re trying to improve and just be as good as we can be. So it’s understandable.”

The Clippers took their first double-digit lead after Leonard got in the paint to give LA a 39-28 lead with 6:36 left in the first half, part of a 20-4 run that held the Nets without a field goal for more than six minutes. With 1:59 left in the first half, Coffey finished a dunk off a reverse pass from Harden to give the Clippers a 56-35 lead. At halftime, the Clippers were up 58-35, the second-most points the Clippers have allowed in a half this season. Leonard, who had his minutes restricted from the 20 minutes he played in his first three games of the season, had a season-high 12 points in the first half.

“He was really good,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said of Leonard, who will be held out of the Clippers’ road game Thursday in Portland. “His pace, his strength. How he got to his spots, you know, I thought was really good.

“So just keep piling on these days, feel good, trust it, believe in it. And like I said, he put in the work to get to this point. So tonight was a good run, really going hard and really test it out and feel good. So I thought he did it tonight and he looked pretty good.”

The third quarter was Leonard’s best, as he scored 11 points on 4-of-4 field goals in his final 9:39 of play. The Clippers — who were blown out a week ago when they visited a Denver Nuggets team that played the second night of a back-to-back without league MVP Nikola Jokić while Leonard left the team to care for his family amid the Los Angeles wildfires — didn’t play with their food to begin the second half. LA opened the third quarter on a 19-1 run and took a 66-35 lead with 10:43 left in the period after a Powell 3-pointer and a 75-35 lead with 9:30 left in the period after a technical foul on the first-year Nets -coach Jordi Fernandez. Leonard drew a 3-point foul from Nets reserve forward Jalen Wilson with 6:09 left in the third quarter, and Leonard made all three free throws to give the Clippers an 88-38 lead.

“I didn’t have to say anything,” Leonard said of his teammates’ focus. “Tonight, everyone was still engaged. There’s always a few where you’re not as focused. But it was nothing to say. The lead kept going up all night.”

LA led 102-51 through three quarters and the starters did not play in the fourth quarter. But the Clippers’ third string did the rest, with two-way signing Kai Jones finishing off an alley-oop from Bones Hyland to give LA a 113-53 lead with 8:11 left to play. Hyland later made a 3 with 5:27 left to give the Clippers a 121-57 lead, their biggest of the game.

“I think everybody contributed and played well,” said Harden, who passed former Clipper and Basketball Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins for 15th on the all-time scoring list. “You have to have guys to have confidence in every game, that’s very important.”

While the Clippers advance to Portland seeking their first win on zero days’ rest since Nov. 18, the Nets continue a six-game road trip Friday night when they visit the Los Angeles Lakers. It will be an opportunity for the Nets, who have lost 17 of their last 22 games, to bounce back from an embarrassing showing.

“When you see a loss like this, a lot of things went wrong,” Fernandez said after his team missed 23 of 28 3s. Brooklyn also had 22 turnovers while shooting 30.1 percent from the field.

“It is clear that the energy and competitive spirit were not there. It’s plain and simple,” Fernandez continued. “But right now the only thing I can do is support the guys. It’s never a good experience to go through this, but when we analyze the whole season, none of our guys work for this and they’ve been competing the whole time .So all I can do is support them, of course, and then show up the next day and try to get better. If it’s nights like these that make us even a little bit better, take I do. It’s not funny, but it is just how you have to see it.”

The two teams will meet again in Brooklyn on March 28. Lue empathized with Fernandez’s plight, but was also happy to see his own team control a game they needed to win.

“It was good for us to get our guys out and come out in the third quarter with a professional mindset,” Lue said. “We know Jordi didn’t have his guys tonight. So we had to take full advantage of that because they play hard. They scrap, they compete. So we just had to have a professional mindset coming out of the third quarter and we did. So our guys are able to get some rest into tomorrow for a back-to-back so we’ll be ready for tomorrow night.”

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(Photo: Kiyoshi Mio / Imagn Images)