In the NBA regular season on January 4, Beijing time, the Clippers, who are currently ranked 4th in the West & in three consecutive wins, challenged the Suns, who are 8th in the West & are currently in four consecutive wins, and Durant continues to be absent in this game.
Player stats and plus/minus:
Harden had 22 points, 5 rebounds, 11 assists and 1 block, shooting 7-of-13 from the field, 4-of-7 from three-point range, 4-of-4 from the free-throw line, and a plus/minus of -2
George had 39 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals, shooting 8-of-14 from the field, 5-of-10 from three-point range, 12-of-14 from the free-throw line, and a plus/minus of +10
Leonard had 30 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, shooting 9-of-15 from the field, 4-of-5 from three-point range, and 8-of-8 from the free throw line, with a plus/minus of +9
Mann had 12 points, 2 rebounds and 2 steals, shooting 5-of-8 from the field, plus/minus +15, and all the points were concentrated in the first quarter, with no points in the second three quarters
Zubac had 6 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks, shooting 2-of-4 from the field with a plus/minus of +0
Powell had 11 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist, shooting 4-of-7 from the field and a plus/minus of -9
Theis had 6 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal, shooting 3-of-5 from the field and a plus/minus of +7
Westbrook had 6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals, shooting 2-of-7 from the field with a plus/minus of +5
Coffey had 3 points and 1 assist, shooting 1-of-1 from the field and a plus/minus of +0
Game Overview: George was on fire in the first quarter, 6-of-8 in the single quarter, 3-of-4 three-pointers, 2-of-2 free throws to score 17 points and 4 rebounds, and Mann also contributed 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, although Leonard and Harden did not score, the Clippers still led the Suns by 15 points in the first quarter at 35-20. In the second quarter, Harden scored 9 points, and Xiaoka scored 12 points and 4 rebounds on 4-of-4 shooting, and the Clippers shot 68.8% in the quarter, and at the end of the second quarter, the Clippers led the Suns by 19 points, 70-51. In the third quarter, the two sides launched an attack, the Suns shot 11 of 19, the Clippers shot 11 of 17, and the Clippers lost 3 points 37-40 in this quarter, it is worth mentioning that George scored 11 points in the third quarter, Leonard scored 10 points, Harden scored 10 points, and the Clippers led the Suns by 16 points at 107-91 after the third quarter. In the last quarter, the Sun narrowed the gap to 8 points, but the pit in front was too big, and finally it was unable to return to the sky.
At the end of the fourth quarter, the Clippers defeated the Suns 131-122 to usher in a four-game winning streak, and their record of 21-12 continued to rank fourth in the West, two wins behind the third-place Nuggets (24-11). The Suns ended a four-game winning streak with an 18-16 record and were overtaken by the Rockets (17-15) to fall to ninth in the West.