{"id":530785,"date":"2026-03-12T05:53:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/530785\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T05:53:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:53:22","slug":"kawhi-leonard-scores-45-points-in-los-angeles-clippers-romp-over-minnesota-timberwolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/530785\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard scores 45 points in Los Angeles Clippers’ romp over Minnesota Timberwolves"},"content":{"rendered":"

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Kawhi Leonard<\/a> scored 45 points and the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> routed the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> 153-128 on Wednesday night, moving above .500 with their third straight victory and sixth in seven games.<\/p>\n

Eighth in the Western Conference at 33-32 after opening 6-21, the Clippers had their highest points total of the season. They blew out Minnesota after beating New York on Monday night to open a five-game homestand.<\/p>\n

Leonard was 15 of 20 from the the field, 6 of 9 on 3s and made 9 of 10 free throws. Los Angeles made 19 of 37 3s.<\/p>\n

Bennedict Mathurin<\/a> scored 22 points for Los Angeles. Clippers newcomer Darius Garland<\/a> had 21, hitting five 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

Anthony Edwards<\/a> led Minnesota with 36 points and Naz Reid<\/a> had 18.<\/p>\n

Minnesota dropped to sixth in the tight Western Conference, but only a half-game behind the third-place Lakers. The Timberwolves have lost three in a row after winning five straight. They lost to the Lakers on Tuesday night to open four-game trip.<\/p>\n

Leonard scored 18 points in the first quarter to help Los Angeles take a 38-27 lead. He had 28 at the half, with the Clippers up 74-65, and went to the fourth with 39 and LA ahead 109-98. Los Angeles had a 44-30 edge in the fourth.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Timberwolves: At Golden State on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Clippers: Host Chicago on Friday night.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Kawhi Leonard scored 45 points and the Los Angeles Clippers routed the Minnesota Timberwolves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-530785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}