Kawhi Leonard exits with sprained left ankle as Clippers lose to Kings – Orange County Register

INGLEWOOD — The Clippers came into Saturday’s game with forward John Collins back in the lineup, a four-game winning streak and a rematch with superstar Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in 48 hours.

With all that, they still had to contend with the Sacramento Kings. But stopping the last-place team in the Western Conference proved harder than expected.

Harder than it should have been.

The Clippers fell behind early and, despite a strong fourth-quarter effort, couldn’t overcome the Kings and lost, 118-109, at Intuit Dome, ending their modest winning streak and a chance to stack another victory.

“We got to focus every night,” Coach Tyronn Lue said before the game. “I don’t care what a team’s record is or how they’re playing. … We got to have the same mindset every single night to play the right way, to have the mindset to guard every single possession and just go from there.

Meanwhile, the short-handed Kings (17-57) played like a team with nothing to lose, having been eliminated from the playoffs. They shot 58.5% from the field and 44.4% from 3-point range, making 12-of-27 and outrebounding the Clippers 52-40, spoiling Kawhi Leonard’s record-breaking performance.

Leonard scored 31 points, giving him 45 consecutive games with at least 20 points, the longest single-season streak in franchise history, eclipsing the mark set by Bob McAdoo. But Leonard’s milestone couldn’t make up for a rough night.

He suffered a cut above his left eye in the second quarter and then left the game for good in the fourth after suffering a sprained left ankle early in the fourth.

Leonard’s injuries were only part of the Clippers’ problems.

The Clippers didn’t play the same intensity that marked their past seven games through the first three quarters, but regained their focus in the fourth, cutting a one-time 18-point lead to eight, 99-91, capping a 16-4 run with a three-point play by Bennedict Mathurin with 6:57 remaining.

Back-ups center Isaiah Jackson then grabbed a rebound and scored a dunk off a pass from Darius Garland to further trim the lead, 99-93.

After Kings star DeMar DeRozan scored, Garland added a layup followed by another three-point play by Mathurin to make it 101-98.

Mathurin kept going. His pull-up jumper cut the lead to 103-101 before Russell Westbrook buried a 3-pointer, but it was the closest they got down the stretch.

The Kings pounded the Clippers inside and controlled the boards behind a balanced attack.

Precious Achiuwa posted a double-double with 25 points and 13 rebounds, while Maxime Ranaud added 23 points on 11-of-12 shooting, DeRozan had a team-high 27 points and seven assists and Westbrook chipped in 12 points and 10 assists.

“That’s the scariest people, when you have nothing to lose, you know that, right?” Jordan Miller said before the game. “So, it’s all about handling business earl and coming out, throwing the first punch and not giving them hope.”

Or as reserve guard Kobe Sanders succinctly put it, the Clippers need to “step on their neck early, try to drain any momentum that they could have.”

Neither of those things happened as the Kings, who were missing seven players, including Zack LaVine (finger) and Domantas Sabonis (knee), grabbed a six-point advantage in the first quarter on an 11-4 run for a 26-20 lead with 2:48 left.

Despite clawing their way back, the Clippers trailed 33-31 heading into the second quarter, where the game got away, leading to a 68-54 deficit.

The Clippers never got close in the second half, falling behind by as many as 18 to drop them to 34-33 with 15 games left to play.

The Kings built a 14-point halftime lead behind DeRozan and Achiuwa, who combined for 17 points in the second quarter, and Westbrook scored seven points, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer, after being held scoreless in the first 12 minutes.

As if things couldn’t get worse in the first half, Leonard suffered a gash above his left eye in a collision with DeRozan with 6:27 remaining in the second. The Clippers star left the court briefly and returned with a bandage over his eye.

But he wasn’t himself. In the final 3:38 of the half, Leonard missed 3 of 4 free throws, overshot a 3-pointer, missed a layup and committed his third turnover.

More to come on this story.