{"id":216139,"date":"2026-03-12T07:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T07:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/216139\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T07:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T07:51:10","slug":"kawhi-leonard-scores-45-points-clippers-score-153-and-win-to-move-above-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/216139\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard scores 45 points, Clippers score 153 and win to move above .500"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Kawhi Leonard scored 45 points and <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/clippers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Clippers<\/a> routed the Minnesota Timberwolves <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/game\/min-vs-lac-0022500952\/box-score\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">153-128 on Wednesday<\/a> night, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/standings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">moving above .500<\/a> with their third straight victory and sixth in seven games.<\/p>\n<p>Eighth in the Western Conference at 33-32 after opening 6-21, the Clippers had their highest point total of the season. They blew out Minnesota after beating New York on Monday night to open a five-game homestand.<\/p>\n<p>Leonard was 15 of 20 from the the field, six of nine on threes and made nine of 10 free throws. Los Angeles made 19 of 37 threes.<\/p>\n<p>Bennedict Mathurin scored 22 points for the Clippers and Darius Garland had 21, hitting five three-pointers.<\/p>\n<p>Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 36 points and Naz Reid had 18.<\/p>\n<p>            <img class=\"image\" alt=\"Kawhi Leonard goes to the basket against Julius Randle in the first half.\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"1801\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773301870_139_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>         <\/p>\n<p>Kawhi Leonard goes to the basket against Julius Randle in the first half.<\/p>\n<p>(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<p>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<p>Leonard scored 18 points in the first quarter to help the Clippers 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 his team ahead 109-98. The Clippers had a 44-30 edge in the fourth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard scored 45 points and the Clippers routed the Minnesota Timberwolves 153-128 on Wednesday night, moving above&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[26641,43154,15998,6665,58698,99173,32732,1953,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,16138,1417,11837,7553,22926,2498],"class_list":{"0":"post-216139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-anthony-edwards","9":"tag-bennedict-mathurin","10":"tag-clipper","11":"tag-clippers","12":"tag-darius-garland","13":"tag-four-game-trip","14":"tag-free-throw","15":"tag-kawhi-leonard","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-headlines","18":"tag-la-news","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","21":"tag-los-angeles-news","22":"tag-los-angeles-times","23":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","24":"tag-point","25":"tag-three","26":"tag-three-pointer","27":"tag-tuesday-night","28":"tag-western-conference"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}