INGLEWOOD, Calif. – – \u2014 Kawhi Leonard scores 29 points in three quarters to help the Los Angeles Clippers blowout the Indiana Pacers 130-107 in guard Darius Garland\u2019s home opener on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Leonard had it going from the tipoff, scoring 12 points in the first quarter alone. The 14-year pro shot 10-18 from the field including knocking down three of seven threes. He didn\u2019t miss at the charity stripe going six for six.<\/p>\n
With the win, the Clippers now sit a game behind the Golden State Warriors for the eighth seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n
This night saw point guard Garland playing his first game in front of the Clippers\u2019 home crowd. He finished with 12 points, eight assists and four rebounds in 24 minutes played.<\/p>\n
The former Cleveland Cavalier came off the bench for the second straight game for Los Angeles. His playmaking and ability to get to his spots on the floor has been a positive addition for the Clippers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he did good. We have to get the ball in his hands more,\u201d coach Tyronn Lue said of Garland\u2019s play. \u201cWe have to get him up to speed with his rhythm and timing but overall I thought he was pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forward Benedict Mathurin put together yet another solid performance adding 23 points off the bench in the win for the Clippers. Los Angeles\u2019 bench outscored Indiana\u2019s bench 58-34.<\/p>\n
“My teammates have embraced me a lot. I wouldn’t trade that for anything,\u201d Mathurin said. \u201cI\u2019m super happy that I’m in LA and can show people who I am.”<\/p>\n
Mathurin was playing his former team as he along with Isaiah Jackson, a 2026 1st Rd Pick (protected 1-4 and 10-30), a 2029 1st Rd Pick (unprotected) and one 2nd Rd Pick was traded for center Ivica Zubac \u00a0and forward Kobe Brown on February 5th.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Former Clipper Zubac received a standing ovation from Clipper Nation as the Clippers\u2019 played a tribute video in his return. He didn\u2019t suit up in tonight\u2019s game as he deals with an ankle injury.<\/p>\n
Brook Lopez has replaced Zubac in the starting lineup since the trade and chipped in 17 points in tonight\u2019s win.<\/p>\n
In a game the Clippers dominated most of the night, the only negative occurred when talented rookie center Yanic Konan Niederh\u00e4user went down with a serious ankle injury in the second quarter. The team will share further updates tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles has now won three straight games and will look to continue to move up the standings as they head on the road for back-to-back matchups against the San Antonio Spurs and Memphis Grizzlies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. – – \u2014 Kawhi Leonard scores 29 points in three quarters to help the Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,363,559,791,532,529,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,67,4536,10948],"class_list":{"0":"post-643020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bennedict-mathurin","10":"tag-clippers","11":"tag-darius-garland","12":"tag-ivica-zubac","13":"tag-kawhi-leonard","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-clippers","16":"tag-laclippers","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-losangelesclippers","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-tst-los-angeles","24":"tag-yanic-konan-niederhauser"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116181986385244627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643020","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=643020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}