Battle of the Big 3s: Clippers prevail over Suns, 138-111

In a Battle of the Big Threes,the Los Angeles Clippers prevailed over the Phoenix Suns, 138-111,in a star-studded match-up on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena indowntown Los Angeles.

Los Angeles' Kawhi Leonard, PaulGeorge and James Harden combined for 61 points in the Clippers'victory, while Phoenix’s Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and BradleyBeal finished with 65 points in the losing effort.

The game was close through thefirst three quarters, featuring eight lead changes and ties. TheSuns only trailed by 8 points at the half, and then 10 coming intothe fourth quarter (and Durant even cut the lead down to just 7with a pull-up three).

However, that was the closestPhoenix could get as the Clippers opened the floodgates to turn atight game into a blowout. Leonard, Harden, Norman Powell andDaniel Theis connected on a series of baskets, unleashing a 15-2run in the first two minutes of the fourth to break the game wideopen.

The Clippers dominated thefourth quarter of this game despite being on the second night of aback-to-back, losing to the neighboring Los Angeles Lakers just anight ago. They controlled the boards (49 rebounds to the Suns’ 32)and assists (32 to the Suns’ 17) and shot 62% from thefloor.

The Clippers have now won six oftheir last seven games (and 15 of their last 18). They arecurrently holding the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference with a23-13 record, and they sit just two games behind the third-seededDenver Nuggets.

For the Suns, Durant, Booker andBeal have just played five games together and they're continuing toget on the same page as Phoenix fell to 19-18, which is theninth-best record in the West.