Last week: Beat Phoenix 120-99, lost to Houston 122-117, won at San Antonio 134-109
This week: Sunday at Oklahoma City, Wednesday at Lakers, Saturday vs. Utah
Sandwiched between two blowout wins for the LA Clippers this week is the proverbial one that got away, a loss to the Rockets in which the Clippers couldn’t hold onto a 17-point lead. Still, LA is a top-10 team in both offensive (111.7, seventh) and defensive (105.2, eighth) ratings and is also in the top five in offensive rebounding rate at 27.9 percent.
Kawhi Leonard was able to play in all three games for the Clippers this week and put up 23.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.0 steals in 30.3 minutes per game, hitting 55.1 percent overall and making 4-of-10 from 3-point range. He also had his best performance as a visitor to San Antonio Saturday with 26 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and four steals.
Last week: Won at Dallas 109-103, beat Detroit 114-93
This week: Sunday vs. Charlotte, Wednesday at Toronto, Friday vs. Cleveland, Saturday vs. Toronto
The Boston Celtics didn’t have a busy week, but it was a productive one as they bounced back from back-to-back losses at Indiana and to the 76ers on Dec. 11-12 with wins at Dallas and over the Pistons. The Celtics are staying afloat even with significant injury problems, including Marcus Smart missing the last five games with an eye infection.
Jaylen Brown had a strong couple of games, going for 26 points and nine rebounds in the win at Dallas before matching that total with 26 points, five assists and three steals against the Pistons. For the two games, he was 17-for-31 overall (54.8 percent) and his 6-of-15 from 3-point range.