Kawhi Leonard, Clippers hope for smooth waters against sunken Kings
Buried in the standings with one of the worst records in the NBA at Christmas, the Los Angeles Clippers will have the playoffs on their mind when they face the Sacramento Kings on Saturday at Inglewood, Calif.
A 28-11 record since Dec. 20 will have the Clippers thinking tie-breaker scenarios, and they can improve their Pacific Division record with a victory over the Kings. Los Angeles has just three division games remaining and two are against the Kings.
After head-to-head matchups are considered for playoff seeding, division records are the second tiebreaker. Los Angeles is two games over .500 for the first time this season at 34-32 and sits in eighth place in the Western Conference standings.
The Clippers will enter the second night of a back-to-back following a 119-108 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Friday. It was their fourth consecutive victory, as well as their fifth consecutive at home. Los Angeles is 7-1 in March.
Kawhi Leonard has led the charge with 44 consecutive games of at least 20 points to match Bob McAdoo's franchise record. McAdoo set his mark when the team played in Buffalo in the 1974-75 season.
Leonard scored 28 points against the Bulls, while trade-deadline addition Bennedict Mathurin posted 26. Los Angeles played without its other deadline addition in Darius Garland (toe), but he is expected to return against the Kings.
"He's a winner," Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said of Leonard. "He could have easily laid down on us this season, starting 6-21, but he came back with even more fight.
"I think he is a big reason why we're at where we're at today because of his play, getting healthy and he has carried us all season long. When Kawhi got healthy and started playing extended minutes, that's when we took off."
The Kings head to the Los Angeles area following a 117-109 home loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday that left them 4-21 since Jan 18. But they did win consecutive games earlier this week for the first time since mid-January.
DeMar DeRozan scored 39 points for Sacramento in the loss to the Charlotte Hornets, while Nique Clifford added 18 points. DeRozan moved past Tim Duncan into 18th place on the all-time scoring list and now has 26,505 points.
"I don't take anything in this game for granted," DeRozan said. "I never would have imagined coming into this league and playing this long. ... Me, just being a fan of this game since I was a kid, it's an honor to be in position to accomplish any kind of goal in this league.
"It's crazy just to be in that position. I just love playing basketball, at the end of the day, and you look up and things like this happen and it's definitely cool."
The Kings were without former Clippers guard Russell Westbrook because of a quadriceps bruise.
While the Clippers are thinking playoffs after a slow start, the 16-51 Kings are just one game ahead of the NBA-worst Indiana Pacers (15-52).