Norman Powell scored a team-high 29 points and James Harden had 26 points and 11 assists as the Los Angeles Clippers defeated the Miami Heat 109-98 on Monday night.
The Clippers returned to action for its first game in five days after the NBA postponed its game on Saturday due to the dangerous wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
“As one, we can stand together and get through it. … praying for everybody out there,” said Harden on the city being impacted by the wildfires.
“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.”
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Ivica Zubac also recorded a double-double with 21 points and a season-high 20 rebounds for the Clippers.
Kawhi Leonard had six points and five rebounds on 3-for-9 shooting in 21 minutes in his third game on the year.
“I feel good and as long as I’m feeling good on the court, I’m able to move quickly, get to my spots,” Leonard said. “That’s all I’m looking for.”
“He’s just working his way into conditioning-wise, playing-wise, flow of the game, like all of the above,” said Harden on his co-star returning to the lineup. “He hadn’t had a training camp, preseason, none of that, so for us it’s just trying to make his job a lot easier.”
Tyler Herro finished with a game-high 32 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Heat. Rookie big man Kel’el Ware had 19 points and a career-best 13 rebounds off the bench for Miami.
The Heat led by as many as 13 points in the first quarter after a Nikola Jovic three-pointer gave Miami a 33-20 lead with 2:02 left. Harden cut the Clippers deficit to seven, 35-28 after making a three at the buzzer to end the first.
The Clippers still trailed 48-43 at halftime but outscored the Heat 36-20 in the third quarter. Harden scored 13 of his 26 points in the period and made 6 of 10 three-pointers on the night.
“I thought the zone [Miami played] slowed us down, made us stagnant,” said Clippers coach Ty Lue. “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.”
Powell also had 11 points in the third and added five three-pointers in the game.
Harden scored the final five points of the period to give the Clippers a 79-68 lead.
Los Angeles led by as many as 19 in the fourth. Powell made a three and extended the lead to 91-72 with 7:28 left in regulation and the Heat were unable to get any closer than 11.