The Los Angeles Clippers are back on the league stage**, Leonard has shown the strength of a superstar, and has returned to the land fairyland, which has made all opponents fearful, of course, the importance of James Harden to the Clippers has also begun to show, Tyronn Lue has begun to show the means of a championship coach, the only distressing thing is Wei Shao, who has now completely become a substitute and has very little playing time, but as long as the team can win, then everything is acceptable for Wei Shao.
In this game, the Los Angeles Clippers will challenge the Oklahoma City Thunder away, as the dark horse of the West this season, the Thunder has become a playoff-level team under the leadership of Alexander. The Thunder is undoubtedly a familiar place for Harden and Westbrook, and it's here that their careers began.
Leonard was rested for this game, which was the first time that the small card was absent this season, but George, Westbrook and Harden all played, and the team was still very competitive. At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, George carried the offensive banner, with 6 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist on 1-of-4 shooting, Harden had a poor hand, 3 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals on 1-of-8 shooting. Wei Shao continued to hit the basket, scoring 8 points and 5 rebounds on 4-of-5 shooting, leading the Clippers to 29 points in a single quarter.
The Thunder showed their talent, Alexander faced his old master, with 11 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist, as well as 2 steals and 2 blocks, Keady had 11 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists, Holmgren also had 7 points and 2 rebounds, and the team scored 35 points in a single quarter to take a 6-point lead. After returning from the game in the second quarter, the Thunder scored 5 points in a row to open up the difference, Powell scored three points to stabilize the situation, and the Thunder scored 5 points in a row, and the difference between the two teams came to 13 points. George hit a three-point shot, Wiggins made a layup, Jalen hit a throw, and George also responded with a throw.
Holmgren scored under the basket, Powell scored on the second offense, Dort dunked quickly, Harden's three-point shot finally opened, Wiggins immediately scored three points in color, Zubac threw and scored, Harden scored 2+1, and the difference returned to single digits. Joe made a three-pointer to stabilize the situation, Powell responded with a three-pointer, Joe made another three-pointer, Harden scored on a layup, then assisted Coffey on a layup, and Keady left the court with a broken foot. George hit a pullup jumper, Wallace responded from mid-range, Powell hit a three-pointer, Alexander leaned back to block Harden, and at halftime, the Los Angeles Clippers trailed the Oklahoma City Thunder by five points, 59-64.
The impact of Leonard's absence on the Clippers is self-evident, but the team still shows good competitiveness. Harden started with a very bad hand, once shooting 1 out of 10, but found his form in the second quarter to help the team narrow the difference, the most critical point is that in the entire first half, Harden only rested for a minute, and his physical condition was outstanding. At the end of the first half, Harden shot 4-of-13, got 11 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 1 block, and his personal performance was impeccable except for his poor shooting percentage.
George was a team-high 13 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist on 4-of-8 shooting, Powell also had 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting and 3-of-6 three-point shooting, Westbrook had 8 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists, and Coffey and Zubac scored 6 points each. On the Thunder's side, Holmgren made 5-of-6 shooting, scoring a team-high 13 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, while Alexander made 4-of-12 shooting with 11 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists, all of which came in the first quarter. Keady also had 11 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists, but left the game with an injury, hoping to be fine. Dort had 7 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists, Jalen had 5 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists, and Joe hit 3 three-pointers to finish with 9 points and 1 rebound.