Kawhi Leonard’s absence didn’t stop the Clippers from clinching their fifth straight win. The Angelenos accounted for the Pistons 131-124, thus maintaining the best streak in the league at this time and continuing their chase of the Suns for second place in the West. Tyronn Lue’s team has the same victories as Phoenix (37), although he has played three more games.
Marcus Morris was the surprise of the night, leading the Clippers with 33 points and forgetting that the Californians did not have their leading scorer. The forward threw more than 70% effective on both two and three shots, which made him a continuous threat to Detroit and nurtured his offense for many minutes. Paul George, for his part, followed closely with 32 goals, although up to five other members of the squad finished in double digits.
The Clippers suffered to impose their game during many stretches of the game, and in fact spent practically the entire first half and the start of the second behind on the scoreboard. Those from Michigan came to threaten to break the game when they were placed with a 12-point advantage in the third quarter (81-93), but this difference made Lue’s men react, who were little by little finding themselves and finished the collision with a great last quarter. In it, they managed to sign a 37-25 partial, ending definitively with a combative Pistons.
If Casey’s men managed to stand up for so many minutes it was largely thanks to Josh Jackson and Saddiq Bey, who were the best of theirs thanks to scoring 26 and 25 points respectively. However, despite the loss of Jerami Frant, they were far from alone, as the rest of the starting five also finished in double digits in scoring. Among them, the most prominent was Cory Joseph, who with 18 points and 13 assists achieved his first double-double since February 2019.
(Cover photo: Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
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