It’s tough to find an NBA team currently playing better basketball than the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Clippers enter Tuesday’s clash with the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City as winners in eight of their last nine games — the league’s best run over the last three weeks. It has thrust a team seemingly bound for the NBA Draft lottery back into the playoff picture.
Los Angeles comes off its most dominant win in that stretch, a 126-89 blasting of Brooklyn on Sunday behind 28 points from Kawhi Leonard. Helped by 21 first-half points from Leonard, the Clippers led by as many as 38 points in the second quarter.
Leonard has been the catalyst for success after Los Angeles endured a rough start to the season. The Clippers are 13-2 in his last 15 games in the lineup and have won six straight with the veteran forward on the court. He has appeared in 32 games and averaged a career-high 28.1 points on 49.8% shooting from the field. Leonard has scored at least 20 points in each of his last 24 games.
The win over Brooklyn was Leonard’s second game after missing three games with a knee contusion. He returned to the lineup three days earlier and scored 24 points to power a 112-104 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
“It was good, it was basketball,” Leonard told The Athletic following the win over the Lakers. “Same thing. Go out there and play. When you’re out there, try to make plays, be aggressive.”
Utah is on a much different trajectory as January winds down.
The Jazz are just 3-11 this month with one win in their last seven games. Porous defense has been a persistent culprit as the losses pile up. Utah has allowed opponents to score at least 123 points in each of its last 10 losses, which puts the squad last in the NBA with 127.8 points allowed per game.
Saturday’s 147-116 home loss to Miami offered another low point in those defensive struggles. In addition to surrendering 19 3-pointers as the Heat shot 40.4% from long distance, the Jazz also got hammered by a 64-34 count on the boards. Miami’s 26 offensive rebounds led to 23 second-chance points.
“Just got obliterated on the glass,” Utah coach Will Hardy told the Deseret News after the game. “You lose the glass by 30 and give up 26 offensive rebounds, there’s not really a pathway to winning in that game.”
Jusuf Nurkic continued to be a bright spot for the Jazz as Saturday he became the first player in franchise history to log a triple-double in three consecutive games. He finished with 17 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in 31 minutes against the Heat.
Before his current three-game streak, Nurkic registered one triple-double in his career — on Jan. 16, 2019, when he still played for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Utah and Los Angeles split the previous two games in the season series. The Jazz prevailed 129-108 at home in the season opener for both teams, then the Clippers won 118-101 on New Year’s Day in Inglewood, Calif.
