INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Kawhi Leonard did not slow down.
One of the NBA’s best defenses couldn’t stop him when he scored 25 points in the first half of Sunday’s blowout victory. He sped up even more in the third quarter, when he throttled to a new career high, surpassing his previous NBA best of 45.
He finished the night with 55 points, leading the LA Clippers to a 112-99 win over the East-leading Detroit Pistons.
Leonard sliced up the league’s second-ranked defense from the jump, carving out space and rising for jump shot after jump shot. Only two of his buckets came around the basket. The other 15 were from midrange or beyond the arc.
🚨 KAWHI LEONARD 50-POINT GAME 🚨 pic.twitter.com/vJVdL4CxLK
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) December 29, 2025
CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP KAWHI LEONARD 🖐️ pic.twitter.com/W7oAWgImR9
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) December 29, 2025
By the third quarter, fans at the Intuit Dome began to stand up any time he touched the ball, even if it was 70 feet away from the basket with Leonard rushing the rock upcourt. Leonard went for 26 points on 9-of-12 shooting just in that period. Those 26 points set a career high for any period of 900 combined NBA games, regular season and playoffs. He drained eight jumpers, including three 3s, in the third quarter alone.
On the night, he shot 17 of 26 from the field and 5 of 10 from 3-point land. He added 11 rebounds and five steals.
Leonard is now the sixth Clippers/Braves player ever to go for at least 50 in a game, joining teammate James Harden, who has done it twice, Lou Williams, Charles Smith, Freeman Williams and Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo, who did so a franchise-record four times. Leonard’s double-nickel ties the Clippers’ single-game record, which Harden set on Nov. 22. Leonard and Harden are the only players in NBA history to record at least 55 points, five steals and five 3-pointers in a game. Harden did so for the Houston Rockets on Jan. 23, 2019, during a road game against the New York Knicks.
“Are you having a little bit of fun here tonight?”
“Oh, yeah” -Kawhi Leonard after dropping 55 pic.twitter.com/gVPJEvQQIU
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) December 29, 2025
The Clippers have now won four in a row, all by double digits. Leonard has gone on a run during this stretch, scoring 32, then 41, then 28 and now 55 during the quartet of games.