Kawhi Leonard’s first triple-double and an offensive meltdown doom Heat against Clippers
The moment was always going to arrive. On Friday, it took until the third quarter for Kawhi Leonard to finally take over the Miami Heat’s matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers. The Heat kept the All-Star limited in the scoring column by sending double teams and hard hedges his way all throughout the first half, but such tactics can only work for so long.
Leonard gave the Clippers their first lead with a step-back three-pointer with 5:43 left in the third quarter and it was only the start of the barrage. The star wing scored 17 of Los Angeles’ final 24 points in the period to bury the Heat for a 122-117 win in Miami. The Heat (31-14) missed its final nine shots of the period and the Clippers closed on a 15-0 run to take a commanding 101-85 lead into the fourth quarter after Miami led by as much as 15 in the first half.
Leonard finished with 33 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for his first career triple-double by taking what the defense gave him. The Heat’s biggest issue was on offense.
Jimmy Butler, Kendrick Nunn and Goran Dragic were all questionable coming into the game and only Butler played. He scored 20 points, dished out seven assists and grabbed eight rebounds before going down with an ankle injury in the fourth quarter, but Miami desperately missed the other two guards.
Nunn is averaging 16.2 points per game this year. Dragic is averaging 15.8. Behind only Butler, they’re the Heat’s second and third best, in some order, at creating offense for themselves and Miami couldn’t make up for their missing punch. One solution coach Erik Spoelstra tried was giving Dion Waiters his first minutes of the season. The wing checked in for the last 1:38 of the first quarter to a massive ovation from the 19,632 inside AmericanAirlines Arena and promptly bricked a three.
It got better from there. Waiters nearly led a miraculous comeback in the fourth quarter and finished with 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting in 18 minutes. The Heat, which trailed by as much as 18, had the lead down to 118-112 without in the final minute and Waiters found himself guarding Lou Williams. With Butler now out because of an ankle injury, Waiters blocked the guard’s first attempt from midrange, then blocked another from three and raced in the other direction. He found space and nailed a pull-up three with 34.2 seconds to cut the lead to 118-115 before Leonard made four free throws in the final 30 seconds to seal up the road win.
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 10:47 PM.
