{"id":592820,"date":"2026-02-09T16:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/592820\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T16:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:34:16","slug":"leonards-41-points-lead-clippers-over-timberwolves-knicks-cruise-to-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/592820\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonard\u2019s 41 points lead Clippers over Timberwolves, Knicks cruise to victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kawhi Leonard on Sunday scored 41 points, grabbed eight rebounds and made four steals to lead the Los Angeles Clippers in a lopsided 115-96 victory at Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old forward, a two-time NBA champion, matched the second-best road scoring effort of his career as the Clippers improved to 25-27.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being aggressive. My teammates trust me,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cEvery moment when I touch the ball \u2014 assist, shooting the basketball or getting a rebound \u2014 I\u2019m just trying to help the team win.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Photo: AP<\/p>\n

Leonard made three steals in a row at the start of the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust wanted to come out early in the game and set a tone for us on the defensive end,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cI reached for the ball, I got it and we got off in transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

After dealing away James Harden and Ivica Zubac at the NBA trade deadline, the Clippers played with spark as they awaited the arrival of new players.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a good group,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cGuys are level-headed. They love to play basketball. We\u2019re just going out and competing every night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard delivered 24 points in the first half on the way to his fourth 40-point performance of the season for the Clippers, who closed the second quarter with a 20-6 run for a 54-42 halftime lead and never looked back.<\/p>\n

Days after French big man Rudy Gobert had called out his teammates for \u201cunacceptable\u201d poor effort, the Timberwolves struggled again with their second-fewest points in any game this season.<\/p>\n

Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 23 points, while Julius Randle added 17.<\/p>\n

Kris Dunn of the Clippers was ejected late in the fourth quarter after shoving Randle in the back to spark a shoving match that was broken up by teammates.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Jalen Brunson produced game highs of 31 points and eight assists to spark the New York Knicks over Boston 111-89 for their ninth win in 10 games.<\/p>\n

Brunson hit 12 of 21 shots from the floor and four of eight from three-point range for the visiting Knicks, who improved to 34-19 to match Boston for second in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

Josh Hart added 19 points for New York, while Jose Alvarado had 12 off the bench on his Knicks debut, while Karl-Anthony Towns contributed 11 points.<\/p>\n

Jaylen Brown led Boston with 26 points as the Celtics settled for a season-low in points.<\/p>\n

The Knicks ended the third quarter with a 15-3 run for an 85-68 lead and cruised from there, the Celtics going none-for-10 from three-point range in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s Bam Adebayo scored 22 points and Norman Powell added 21 to lead the Heat in a 132-101 triumph at Washington.<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s Scottie Barnes scored 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, while R.J. Barrett added 20 points to lead the Raptors (32-22) over visiting Indiana 122-104.<\/p>\n

Former Raptors star Pascal Siakam of Cameroon scored 18 points to lead Indiana (13-40), who suffered a fourth consecutive loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard on Sunday scored 41 points, grabbed eight rebounds and made four steals to lead the Los…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806,3974,3973],"class_list":{"0":"post-592820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-knicks","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkknicks","15":"tag-the-taipei-times","16":"tag-3973"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116041644858374067","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592820","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=592820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}