Kawhi Leonard sparks Clippers’ fast start in rout of Nets

INGLEWOOD — The Clippers’ successful run isn’t talked about in the locker room or during team meetings. The fact that they have posted a league-best stretch of games is a quiet conversation, if mentioned at all.

“I mean, we understand we’re playing good basketball right now,” veteran guard Kris Dunn said. “Right now, we just are focusing on keeping it one game at a time and everybody keeping their urgency up.”

Not even Coach Tyronn Lue talks about how the Clippers have resurrected their season since Dec. 20.

“Those games are behind us. We got to continue to keep getting better and we just can’t let our foot off the gas,” he said.

It’s getting harder to ignore, however. The Clippers overwhelmed the Brooklyn Nets, 126-89, to notch their 15th victory in the past 18 games on Sunday night at the Intuit Dome.

The fans who sat in The Wall section of the arena, however, were not shy talking about the Clippers’ feat. A few hundred fans shouted “Eat the Tweet” as the game wound down and the Clippers were comfortably ahead.

Their chant was in reference to a tweet by podcaster Robert Flom, who posted before the Dec. 20 game against the Lakers that if the Clippers, at any point in the season, went 15-3 over a stretch, he would “print and eat this tweet.”

Flom has promised to eat his words on air tomorrow.

“I don’t know how healthy that is for you,” Clippers star Kawhi Leonard cautioned.

While rubbing his stomach, forward John Collins advised Flom to get some fiber. “Whoever’s going to eat that piece of paper, make sure you get your banana in or whatever you can.”

Center Ivica Zubac said he wants to see the video.

Rookie Kobe Sanders took a more diplomatic approach, saying, “Hey, I don’t got no message for him specifically, but I’d just like to say we got the dub, we got the dub. That’s all that matters.”

With the victory, the Clippers (21-24) are now just three games under .500 after starting the season at 6-21.

“We got to continue to come out every single night, having that defensive mindset to start games,” Lue said. “We got to share the basketball and make the right plays. So that (stretch) is behind us, and we have to just continue to keep building.”

The Clippers got off to a strong start on Sunday and finished equally strong behind Leonard’s game-high 28 points, five rebounds and two assists in just 25 minutes. It was Leonard’s 24th consecutive game of at least 20 points.

James Harden added 19 points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field (3 for 5 from 3-point range) and 10 for 10 from the free-throw line. He also had eight assists and six rebounds.

Collins finished with 18 points, five rebounds and one assist, while Jordan Miller came off the bench for 16 points and seven rebounds. Zubac posted another double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Overall, the Clippers outshot the Nets, 56.4% to 33.7% from the field and 48.0% to 20.9% from long range.

Dunn watched from the bench as the Clippers closed out the win. He took a hard fall late in the second quarter and headed to the locker room with 2:25 left in the half. He returned to the bench in the third quarter but didn’t play again.

Dunn had two points, three rebounds and one steal in 13 minutes.

After dominating in the first half, the Clippers went into their usual third-quarter funk, turning the ball over three times in less than four minutes and missing three of their first five shots, some of them layups. They recovered their energy and maintained a 30-point lead by the end of the quarter, 96-66.

“We got the big lead, we got comfortable. We didn’t really finish it with our defense like we had been doing, and so they made a little run at the end of the half and then in that third quarter they made a little run as well,” Lue said. “But overall, we’re confident, we’re playing well, but we still got to play better, run through the tape and continue to execute the right way.”

The Nets were coming off a double-overtime loss to the Boston Celtics on Friday, nearly knocking off the team with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. The tough loss, coupled with a cross-country flight, left the Nets punchless. They trailed 47-14 early in the second quarter, shot 28% in the first half and trailed 68-37 at halftime.

The Clippers didn’t take it easy on the Nets, who dropped their fifth consecutive game and 13th in their past 15. Behind Leonard’s 21 first-half points and Harden’s 14, they shot 54.5% from the field and 38.5% from 3-point range, hammering the Nets at the Intuit Dome for the second year in a row. When the teams met in L.A. last January, the Clippers won, 126-67. The 59-point margin of victory is the only 50-point win in Clippers history.

The Nets were playing without Cam Thomas, the team’s second-leading scorer at 16.2 points per game, and Noah Clowney (back), who has been averaging 13.1 ppg. Michael Porter Jr., the team’s leading scorer at 25.4 ppg, finished with nine points on 3-of-11 shooting and no 3-pointers.

The Nets were led by Danny Wolfe (14 points) and Egor Demin (12 points).