On January 2, Beijing time, the NBA regular season Clippers hosted the Heat, Leonard returned, before the game, the Clippers 19-12 ranked 4th in the West, while the Heat was 19-13 ranked 4th in the East, Butler, Martin, Richardson and Highsmith were absent, in terms of strength, the Clippers must be above the remaining Heat. Clippers starters: Harden + Mann + George + Leonard + Zubac, Heat starters: Lowry + Herro + Harkes + Kane + Adebayo.
In the first quarter of the game, Lowry scored first with a jump shot, Mann scored three points, Harden scored 5 points in a row with a layup + three points, and then the Clippers offense suddenly lost power, Adebayo, Herro and Lowry continued to score, the Heat gradually opened up the difference, came back from a pause George made a layup to stop the bleeding, and then the jump shot went in again, Lefu responded with a layup, Wei Shao scored a jump shot after the game, the two sides were deadlocked for a while, but the Clippers defense was terrible, even Lefu could continue to cut points, Powell responded with three points, Herro also hit a three-point shot, Dunroe made a three-point foul, Lefu made a layup and could still score, the Clippers defense couldn't watch, Wei Shao three points brushed out of the basket, at the end of the quarter Lefu continued to make free throws, George three points or iron, and Dunroe three-point shot, 23-35 Clippers trailed by 12 points in a single quarter。
Harden scored five points in the first quarter and Dunroe scored 11. At the beginning of the second quarter, the Heat's shooting rate declined across the board, the Clippers opportunity came, Powell threw and scored, Love responded with a three-pointer, Harden walked, Adebayo made free throws, Coffey jumped, Powell fired outside, Coffey hit three points again, Leonard scored a pull-up jump shot, the Heat called a timeout, and after coming back, the Clippers continued to fight back, Leonard hit a three-point shot, and then scored a layup, not over, Leonard singled and made 2+1, the Heat is also scoring, but the small card broke out, the Clippers are still gradually narrowing the difference, Powell scored three points, Harden made a layup, Zubac received a dunk in the air, Powell and George hit three-point shots, the Clippers finally overtook and led the Heat 59-58 at halftime.
Halftime statistics, Leonard 13 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, 13 points all from the second quarter, Harden 7 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists, Wei Shao 4 points, George 11 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, Powell 14 points and 2 assists, Zubac 2 points and 8 rebounds. On the Heat side, Adebayo had 7 points, 11 rebounds and 2 assists, Herro had 12 points and 5 assists, Love had 11 points and 2 rebounds, Lowry had 8 points and 2 assists, Harks had 6 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists, and Dunroe had 12 points and 2 assists.
Yibian fought again, George hit a jump shot in the opening game, and Mann attacked the basket to make 2+1, Adebayo jumped to help the Heat open the situation, George missed three points, the Heat took the opportunity to counterattack, Harden scored three points to stop the bleeding, Leonard was also scoring, Mann made a basket, Harden made free throws, the Clippers led by 10 points, Adebayo scored consecutive points to lead the team to counterattack, the Clippers did not give a chance, Harden assisted George to hit a three-pointer, it was not over, it was still Harden assisted, George scored three points again, Kane scored 5 points in a row to become the Heat Wonder, and Wei Shao assisted Theis to respond with a violent dunk, during this time Deng Wei was on the court, Theis and Wei Shao scored one after another, Adebayo responded 2+1, Harkes dunked, Powell made a layup, Leonard missed a throw, and the Clippers ended the third quarter 95-85 Heat.
In the fourth quarter of the game, the Heat opened directly, played 8 minutes and only scored 9 points, Leonard scored two consecutive dunks, Wei Shao made a layup, Powell jumped, Leonard chased three points and scored, the small card is too strong, Zubac eats cakes, Powell throws, Harden retreats and hits a three-point shot, the difference exceeds 20 points, the Heat remnants are blown up, no Butler really can't, the Clippers are more careful, and the bench lineup was replaced with 2 minutes and 55 seconds left in the game, and finally the Clippers reversed the Heat 121-104.
Clippers data: Leonard 24 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and 2 turnovers, 10 of 19 shots, perhaps the reason for the comeback, the small card fell into a slump in the first quarter, but fortunately it recovered in the second quarter, and scored 13 points in a single quarter, and the small card did not score much in the third quarter, but it went violently again in the final quarter. George had 23 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 turnovers, and the Clippers surpassed Redick in three-point shooting in his career and rose to second in team history, with Piakowski being the first. Harden had 15 points, 4 rebounds, 10 assists and 2 blocks, and was the assist king of the game.
After Leonard came back, it was obvious that Harden didn't want to attack, and most of the rounds were passing, from the perspective of fans, we still hope that Harden can shoot more, at least 15 shots, because Harden is a big offensive threat, can attract packs, and create better scoring opportunities for Leonard.
Mann had 12 points and 3 rebounds, Zubac had 6 points and 12 rebounds, Wei Shao had 8 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals, playing less time, and was abandoned in the second quarter. Powell had an excellent performance with 22 points, 2 rebounds and 2 steals, hitting four three-pointers, Theis had six points and Coffey had five points.
Overall, after Leonard's return, it did affect Harden's play, in fact, the correct way for the Clippers to play is Leonard's main offense, Harden has to ensure at least 15 shots, George does a good job of defense and assists in offense, and Wei Shao rushes to rebound or counterattack after coming on the court. After beating the Heat, the Clippers won three in a row and continued to approach the top three in the West. The current pattern in the West has changed, and the Suns are now starting to exert their strength, and the Clippers have climbed all the way up from the 11th in the West, and the Suns are replicating the Clippers' feat.
Heat stats: Adebayo 21 points, 15 rebounds and 4 assists, the Clippers couldn't do anything about him all over the game, Herro 12 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 3 turnovers, Harkes 15 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals and 2 turnovers, Lowry 8 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists and 3 turnovers, Love 17 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks, Dunroe 15 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists. After losing to the Clippers, the Heat were overtaken by the Magic and dropped to 5th place in the East.