Kawhi Leonard, Clippers turn back Wizards for 4th straight win

INGLEWOOD — The Clippers’ turnaround from being a 6-21 team to now has been linked to Coach Tyronn Lue’s challenge to his players to finish the season above .500. He told them that their goal should be to go 35-20 the rest of the season.

That was in mid-December. At the same time, the team took a hard look at its defense and came away with a renewed focus on locking down opponents.

The Clippers needed every bit of that defensive effort to take another step closer to their goal with an uncomfortably close 119-105 victory over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night, extending their winning streak to four games despite playing without two members of their normal starting five.

Center Ivica Zubac missed the game after spraining his left ankle when he stepped on teammate Nicolas Batum’s foot in their victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Monday. Forward John Collins was a late scratch after experiencing soreness in his groin area during pregame warm-ups.

The Clippers (17-23) still had enough to put away the Wizards for their fourth straight win and their 11th in the past 13 games.

Lue pointed to the team’s improved defense as why they were able to hold off the young Wizards down the stretch.

“I told our guys that we shouldn’t have to have shootarounds. We should come in every night and know what we’re doing defensively, knowing what we’re doing offensively, how we want to attack,” Lue said. “So, we got to get to that point where we’re good enough to do that. But we just got to keep building defensively.

“And then offensively, James (Harden) and Kawhi (Leonard) are special enough offensively that we can get through, but it’s going to be our defense that pulls us through.”

Leonard scored a game-high 33 points and made a career high-tying seven 3-pointers to go with three rebounds and four assists in 30 minutes. Harden added 22 points, making all 10 of his free-throw attempts, eight assists and five rebounds. Rookie center Yanic Konan Niederhauser had 16 points on 7-of-7 shooting and five rebounds in 23 minutes.

Jordan Miller added 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Kobe Sanders and Brook Lopez also scored 11 points apiece.

But the victory didn’t come without the Clippers’ all-too-familiar third-quarter breakdown.

After leading by as many as 24 points in the first half, they saw their lead dwindle to 79-71 during a 20-9 run by the Wizards. Lopez shot a 27-foot airball and Harden did the same. Leonard added another miss from 8 feet away during Washington’s run.

Meanwhile, Khris Middleton found wide open lanes to score nine consecutive points to cut the Wizards’ deficit to eight points with 6:37 left in the third.

The Wizards kept chipping away and trimmed the lead to five before getting within 89-88 on a 3-pointer by Tristan Vukcevic with 1:54 remaining in the period.

The Clippers, led by their young players, regained their footing in the fourth and held off any further challenges by the Wizards (10-28) down the stretch. Lue said fatigue played a role in the slippage.

“Our young guys stepped up,” Lue said. “Jordan Miller and then Yanic was really good to just come off the bench to give us that energy we needed, I thought was huge for us tonight.

The Clippers are in a stretch where they are playing eight games in seven cities over 14 days. They head out on a three-game trip starting Friday before returning home to face the Lakers on Jan. 22 and the Brooklyn Nets on Jan. 24.

“I didn’t think we had a lot in the tank. Kawhi was a little slow. James looked slow. KD (Kris Dunn) as well. So, for our bench to come in and play the way it did, it was huge for us and Nico (Batum) as well,” Lue said.

The Clippers are 11-2 since Dec. 20, when Lue mentioned his goal for a strong finish to the rest of the season.

More likely, though, the team’s improved play has come from its renewed focus on defense, not some verbal push.

Last season, the Clippers were a top-rated defensive team, limiting opponents to 110.3 points per game. They currently sit 24th in the league, allowing 116.9 ppg, and defensive breakdowns and turnovers led to loss after loss in the first 2½ months of the season.

Then came a break in the schedule because of the NBA Cup that left the Clippers playing two games in eight days, providing plenty of practice time to shore up their half-court and transition defense.

“It gave us a chance to really lock in defensively and allow us to do what we wanted to do and how we wanted to play and what we wanted to take out,” Lue said. “I think (assistant coach) JVG (Jeff Van Gundy) has done a great job as far as seeing what worked for us last year and what didn’t work this year.”

The Clippers showed their defensive dominance early on Wednesday, leading by 24 en route to a 70-51 halftime lead. They held the Wizards to 45.7% shooting from the field and 28.6% from 3-point range and no player reached double figures in the first 24 minutes.

Wizards center Alex Sarr’s frustration boiled over late in the first half when he spiked the basketball after being called for his second foul, resulting in his second technical and an automatic ejection with 1:45 left in the half.

Washington was already playing short-handed after acquiring four-time All-Star guard Trae Young in a trade that sent CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert to the Atlanta Hawks. Young is expected to be sidelined through the All-Star break in February because of a hamstring injury.

Kyshawn George led the Wizards with 23 points, five rebounds and four assists. Middleton added 17 points, while Marvin Bagley III added 15 points and 11 rebounds.