On December 22, Beijing time, the Thunder played at home against the Clippers, and at the end of the game, the Thunder successfully defeated the Clippers 134-115. The Clippers' recent hot form is to play a wave of 9 consecutive wins, in this case, the Clippers are directly to the fourth position in the West, but the Thunder has also played well this season, and now the Thunder is ranked second in the West, and the Thunder has played such a record is also quite golden, you must know that the previous game Thunder successfully defeated the Nuggets, and it is precisely because of the success of defeating the Nuggets that the Thunder came to the second place in the West, and now the meeting between the two is also highly anticipated.
However, Leonard missed the Thunder today due to a hip injury in this game, which is a big impact on the Clippers, you must know that Leonard has been in hot form recently, what outstanding performance he can play in the game, Leonard has scored 31 points, 27 points, 36 points, 28 points, and 30 points in the last 5 games, so it will be difficult for the Clippers to win without Leonard. But this game George is a comeback game, so the Clippers are not without a fight, the Clippers start this game: Harden, Mann, George, Coffey and Zubac, and the Thunder starters: Alexander, Keady, Dort, Jalen Williams and Holmgren.
In the first quarter of the game, the Thunder played a wave of 10-4, and when Zubac and George finally helped the Clippers catch up with the score, Keady hit a three-point shot to respond, Holmgren forced Zubac to score, and Alexander also hit a three-pointer, and the Thunder also led to 9 points. After a timeout, Harden began to hit a three-pointer, and Willis broke through the interior to score, but Alexander responded, so the Thunder also maintained a nine-point lead, but in the final stage, the Thunder set off a counterattack to chase the score, and the Thunder led by six points at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter of the game, the Thunder opened the score again with a wave of 10-3, but in the later game, the Thunder was poor in protecting rebounds, and when Powell helped the Clippers to chase the score, Jewell successfully prevented George, and Dort counterattacked and dunked to score, but unfortunately after the Thunder hit a three-point iron outside, Harden hit a three-pointer outside, rushed to the inside and scored 2+1, and the Clippers chased the score to 9 points. George hit a shot in the final stages, Powell also hit a three-pointer, and Harden successfully blocked Alexander in the final moments, and the Clippers trailed by five points at halftime.
In the third quarter of the game, the Thunder's offensive state was sluggish, on the other hand, the Clippers scored three points **, Harden scored three points in a row to help the Clippers complete the overtake, Holmgren hit three points at the critical moment, although George hit three points to respond, but after the game, the Clippers began to make mistakes, and the Thunder led again to 11 points with a wave of offensive climax, and when the Thunder continued to expand the lead, George scored three points from the outside** , and Wei Shao rushed to the inside to score a layup, so the Clippers bit the score, but unfortunately Dort hit an open three-pointer at the end of the stage, and then the Clippers made a fast-break error, Alexander caused Mann to foul 2 of 2 free throws, and the Thunder led by 17 points at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Clippers could not stop the decline, and after Dort's layup scored, the Thunder was already leading to 20 points, and the Clippers directly chose to give up the game after the pause, so the subsequent games also entered garbage time, and the Clippers suffered a heavy defeat in the end.
In this game, the Thunder is more flowering, Alexander's play is still very uncomfortable for the Clippers, not to mention that in this game, when Dort gets an open opportunity, he can hit three points, and Holmgren is both inside and outside to play an explosive performance, and more importantly, the Clippers finished the game in the third quarter after the offense stalled, and the Thunder successfully seized the opportunity to open the score. Stats: Alexander had 31 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, Keady had 11 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists, Dort had 21 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists, Jalen Williams had 13 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists, and Holmgren had 23 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists.
On the other hand, the Clippers played a little passive in this game, Leonard's injury has a relatively large impact on the Clippers, although George's state is okay, but there is still no way to make up for Leonard's absence, and in this game, the Clippers' outside three-point slump, and more importantly, the Clippers did not protect rebounds well, and finally lost the game Harden really tried his best. Stats: Harden had 23 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists, George had 22 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Coffey had 9 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist, Mann had 5 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist, Zubac had 6 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists, and Westbrook had 15 points, 13 rebounds and 4 assists.