{"id":511546,"date":"2026-01-02T10:03:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511546\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T10:03:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:03:45","slug":"kawhi-leonards-45-points-with-bloodied-nose-lead-clippers-to-6th-straight-win-118-101-over-jazz-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511546\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard&#8217;s 45 points with bloodied nose lead Clippers to 6th straight win, 118-101 over Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Kawhi Leonard scored 45 points, James Harden added 20 and the Los Angeles Clippers recovered from blowing a 21-point lead to beat the Utah Jazz 118-101 on Thursday night, extending their winning streak to a season-best six games.<\/p>\n<p>Leonard was the only Clippers starter on the floor for much of the fourth quarter. He singlehandedly matched Utah&#8217;s points in the period (20), with blood on his nose from what appeared to be a scratch.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles hit seven straight 3-pointers, with Leonard making four, to pull away. Nicolas Batum finished with 14 points and went 4 of 6 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n<p>The Jazz rallied despite being without three starters. They were led by reserve Kyle Anderson with 22 points \u2014 his first 20-point game in nearly three years \u2014 and Brice Sensabaugh with 20. Anderson&#8217;s eight rebounds were a season high. Cody Williams had 18 points, while Isaiah Collier added 16 points and 10 assists.<\/p>\n<p>The game was tied six times in the third period, when Utah took its first lead.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The Clippers outscored Utah 28-7 to start the game. The Jazz missed their first six shots and had one rebound in the first six minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Utah outscored the Clippers 33-22 in the second \u2014 when Leonard scored LA&#8217;s first nine points \u2014 to trail 53-50 at halftime.<\/p>\n<p>Utah played without Keyonte George (illness), Lauri Markkanen (knee) and Jusuf Nurkic (toe). The Jazz have dropped six of eight.<\/p>\n<p>The Jazz had 58 points in the paint and their bench outscored the Clippers&#8217; reserves 51-40.<\/p>\n<p>Up next<\/p>\n<p>Jazz: Visit the Golden State Warriors on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Clippers: Host the Boston Celtics on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP NBA: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Beth Harris, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Kawhi Leonard scored 45 points, James Harden added 20 and the Los Angeles Clippers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[7,75,10511,1082,164,957,560,423,5088,529,955,2870,976,251,135,6,1522,5592,422,427,3972],"class_list":{"0":"post-511546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-jazz","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-brice-sensabaugh","11":"tag-cody-williams","12":"tag-golden-state-warriors","13":"tag-isaiah-collier","14":"tag-james-harden","15":"tag-jazz","16":"tag-jusuf-nurkic","17":"tag-kawhi-leonard","18":"tag-keyonte-george","19":"tag-kyle-anderson","20":"tag-lauri-markkanen","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-nicolas-batum","25":"tag-the-jazz","26":"tag-utah","27":"tag-utah-jazz","28":"tag-utahjazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115824938827195532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}