INGLEWOOD — Clippers coach Tyronn Lue preached recently about the importance of stacking wins if his team hopes to turn around its flailing season.
The Clippers got one on Saturday. Now they have two after dismantling the Houston Rockets, 128-108, on Tuesday night at the Intuit Dome, winning consecutive games for just the second time this season.
This kind of turnaround is what Lue was hoping for when he challenged his team to go 35-20 the rest of the season. Sort of a do-over to a rapidly sinking season.
“I know we can’t do that as far as the wins and losses (start over), but just with our guys mentally, not worrying about the record, just worrying about what we need to start today and build from here,” Lue said. And I thought our guys have really responded.
“James (Harden) and Kawhi (Leonard) – we need those two guys as our leaders and as our best players to really step up and take charge and lead us through this. And they’ve done a good job the last couple of games.”
Harden (41 points) and Leonard combined for 70 points in Tuesday’s victory.
“We all know how many games we lost early,” Leonard said. “I don’t know how many games are left, probably 50 plus so, it’s a long season. So, anytime we put on this jersey, you got to compete and try to win a basketball game, and that’s what I’m taking pride in. I think everybody else is too, win, lose or draw.
“We don’t have a give-up mentality even though the record looks like that. But like I said, we got to compete.”
That attitude was evident on Tuesday against the Rockets.
Although the Clippers (8-21) have a long way to go to salvage their season, this was another step forward, another chance to climb toward a .500 record or better. All they had to do was hold off the Rockets (17-10), who were looking for redemption after losing to the last-place Sacramento Kings on Monday, and try to contain 15-time All-Star Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun.
That, and protect a double-digit lead in the second half, which has been a troublesome task this season. Yet, they managed to hold on for their eighth victory this season.
With the Rockets at near-full strength (guard Fred VanVleet is out for the season with a torn ACL) and Durant firing, the Clippers didn’t appear to have much of a chance to build on their victory over a depleted Lakers squad on Saturday, especially without center Ivica Zubac.
Zubac will miss at least the next 10 games after suffering a sprained left ankle against the Lakers. But the Clippers still had Leonard, who shot 16 for 23 from the field (4 for 5 from 3-point range) to go with eight rebounds and five assists, and Harden, who had 29 points (going 12 for 13 at the free-throw line), four rebounds and six assists.
John Collins and Kobe Sanders added 13 points apiece and Kris Dunn scored 11 for the Clippers, who shot 54% (20 for 37) from 3-point range.
Collins said he believes the biggest change for the Clippers is their consistency in communication and “just the want, the need to play hard,” he said. “I feel like we’ve all had that feeling where we had our backs against the wall and we just wanted to continue to improve and obviously change the course of the season.”
Behind Leonard’s hot shooting, the Clippers went on a 13-2 run to open a 92-75 lead with 3:10 left in the third quarter. Leonard scored 10 points in the period as the Clippers took a 98-82 lead heading into the fourth.
The Rockets struggled to find much offensive rhythm in the final quarter and didn’t make much of a dent in the Clippers’ lead. And with the margin at 17 points and getting bigger, Durant sat out the fourth, watching the rest of the game from the end of the bench after contributing 22 points and five rebounds.
Meanwhile, the Clippers kept scoring, kept pushing until the lead swelled to 116-96 on a 3-pointer by Harden, his third of the game. Leonard hit a midrange jumper for a 22-point lead, and the crowd suddenly had more to cheer for than free t-shirts.
Sengun finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds and Amen Thompson scored 19 as well for the Rockets, who shot 9 for 30 (30%) from behind the arc while losing for the fourth time in five games. Jabari Smith Jr. added 16 points.
The Clippers’ only other consecutive wins came between Oct. 24-26, against Phoenix and Portland. They have a chance to add to their win streak with five of their next six games at home.
“I don’t know what it feels like to be in this position with this record,” said Harden, who never has encountered this kind of season in his 15 years in the NBA. “So, I always feel like we’re better than obviously the record shows. We got an opportunity, these home games coming up, to take advantage of it and rock up some wins.”