Clippers players wore T-shirts with the words “L.A. STRONG” on them, and Clippers public address announcer Eric Smith delivered a pregame speech, offering encouragement to those affected by the devastating fires ravaging Los Angeles.
“The smoke will lift and they will return and rebuild because this is L.A., and today we all stand together — one team, one Los Angeles,” Smith told the Intuit Dome crowd.
The Clippers then played their first game since Wednesday, looking sluggish and falling behind by 13 points in the first half.
Read more: Kawhi-less Clippers are routed by the Jokic-less Nuggets
But the Clippers surged in the third quarter, taking control behind a strong defense and the play of James Harden and Norman Powell to pull out a 109-98 win over Miami.
Having four days off from basketball, the Clippers reflected on how L.A. is dealing with a catastrophe.
“It was hard just understanding what everyone is going through,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said, “the whole city and just everyone rallying behind each other just trying to do what they can to help support friends, families, neighbors. … It’s a tough time. So we’re just here to support, try to uplift people playing basketball, see if we can put smiles on people’s faces, see if we can have people gather, watch the game and do something different and try to take their mind off it. But it’s tough times right now.”
Powell finished with 29 points and six rebounds and Harden had 26 points and 11 assists. The Clippers also got a dominant performance from center Ivica Zubac, who had a 20-20 game with 21 points and 20 rebounds. It was his second career game with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds.
“It’s hard to do, but that’s something that I set a goal of: ‘I want to get a 20-20,’” Zubac said. “…I’m glad I was able to do it.”
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Harden had 13 of his 26 points in the third quarter, including a floater to beat the buzzer that gave the Clippers an 11-point lead they never surrendered. Powell had 11 of his 29 points in the third. He was 12 for 17 from the field and five for eight from three-point range.
After the game, Powell talked about the challenges of playing basketball in a city coping with tragedy.
“They are losing everything and you’re focused on basketball,” Powell said. “It’s a tough thing to focus on like it’s normal. You’re in this city where there are tragedies and fires are going on. But like I said, we got a job at hand, they cleared us to play, so you got to focus on that.”
The Clippers (21-17) scored 36 points in the third on 55.5% shooting from the field. But they were even more impressive on defense, holding the Heat to 20 points on 38.1% shooting.
“I thought the zone (Miami played) slowed us down, made us stagnant,” Lue said. “We didn’t make quick decisions early on in the game. And, so, we kind of got stagnant and I thought in the second half we did a much better job of executing against a zone. … We just didn’t look good in that first half offensively. In that second half, we kind of figured it out.”
For Kawhi Leonard, it was just his third game back after missing the first 34 games of the season with inflammation in his right knee. Leonard played in two games and then missed Wednesday’s game against Denver to return home to Los Angeles to take care of his family after the wildfires broke out Tuesday night.
Leonard has a home in Pacific Palisades.
“Just trying to get the family in order, making sure that everybody is settled, and everyone is safe,” said Leonard about what the past week has been like for him.
Leonard played 20 minutes 44 seconds, scoring six points on three-for-nine shooting, including missing all three of his three-point attempts. Under a minutes restriction, he didn’t play in the fourth quarter.
“I’m trying to do my job to help the team win,” Leonard said. “That’s all I do. And, yeah, I feel good. As long as I’m feeling good on the court, I’m able to move quickly, get to my spots and that’s all I’m looking for.”
Miami All-Star center Bam Adebayo (back contusion) did not play for Miami (20-18).
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
