Kawhi Leonard scores 32, Clippers beat Hawks for 5th straight win

ATLANTA (AP)— Kawhi Leonard scored 32 points, including a season-high five3-pointers, Paul George added 23 points and the Los AngelesClippers won their fifth straight game, a 120-113 victory over theAtlanta Hawks on Saturday night.

“We limitedthem to 25% from 3 tonight, under 50% from the field, I thinkthat’s big-time for us right now on defense,” Leonard said. “Thatwas one of the things that got us in a slump. We shot the ball welltonight.”

Trae Younghad 12 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter for the Hawks, whowhittled a 14-point deficit down to four on De’Andre Hunter’s leftcorner 3 with 2:09 remaining. But they couldn’t get any closerafter George buried a baseline jumper and Nicolas Batum hit a rightcorner 3 with 49.3 seconds to go.

Georgeknocked down two free throws at the 17.6-second mark to put thegame out of reach.

“I thinkwe’re just taking the steps to grow as a team,” George said. “We’resharing the ball. We’re playing the right way. We’re playing forone another, and I think our defense has been impactful. It’sstarting to affect games.

“I think whenwe went through a stretch where we weren’t playing well, we weregiving up a lot of points. I think we’re starting to cut thatdown.”

The Hawksdropped to 8-6 in January, including 6-3 in their last nineoutings.

The Clippersused an 8-1 run early in the fourth to build an 11-point lead onReggie Jackson’s layup. Atlanta called timeout, but it made nodifference as Los Angeles went up by 12 on Norman Powell’s leftcorner 3 with 9:13 remaining. A pair of free throws by Ivica Zubacand Zubac’s putback dunk made it a game-high 14-point lead at the5:22 mark.

“You’ve gottwo guys out there that are all-NBA type players,” Young said.“It’s easier said on how to stop those guys than just doing it.They played really good tonight. Kawhi did a really good job ofscoring when he needed to and P.G. got everybody involved when hewas getting in traps and stuff, but he was scoring early.

“Those guysplayed really well. You’ve got to give them credit.”

The Hawkspulled within one midway through the third, but the lead swelled to71-66 on a pair of 3s by Luke Kennard. Leonard followed with two 3sthat made it 76-68, and Los Angeles entered the fourth leading84-81.

“I was ableto get some open looks and if it’s open, I’m going to shoot theball,” Leonard said. “It felt good.”

Atlanta tookthe game’s first double-digit lead at 41-30 on Dejounte Murray’s10-footer, but the Clippers went on a 26-8 run to go up 56-49 onZubac’s dunk late in the second. They didn’t trail again for therest of the game and led 58-53 at halftime.

“I think welimited them to one shot attempt and got the rebound, came back onthe offensive end with pace and made shots,” Leonard said. “We wereable to control the game from there.”

TIP-INS

Clippers: FMarcus Morris Sr. was held out with a rib contusion. ... F RobertCovington was not available due to personal reasons. ... LosAngeles has scored over 100 points in 12 straight games. ... TheClippers improved to 20-6 when leading after three. ... They shot48.7% on 39 attempts on 3s.

Hawks:Outscored Los Angeles 62-32 on points in the paint. ... Young wentwithout a 3 for the third time in the last four games, and Atlantadropped to 1-5 when he fails to connect beyond the arc. He was 0for 2. ... All five of the starters scored in double figures. ...Young had 10 assists. ... Clint Capela had 12 rebounds.

UPNEXT

Clippers: AtCleveland on Sunday.

Hawks: AtPortland on Monday.