Clippers take down Knicks to reach .500 for 1st time since early November

INGLEWOOD — No one was celebrating in the Clippers’ locker room after Monday night’s 126-118 victory against the New York Knicks.

No one was patting themselves on the back or seeking out validation for reaching the .500 mark after starting the season at 6-21. The mood was subdued, the room quiet.

“It’s cool but the job ain’t done,” Clippers star Kawhi Leonard said. “The season is not over. I mean, it’s what’s expected. Like I told the fellas, we don’t train to lose, we train to win. Job is not over. We still got games to play, so it’s nothing to be happy about.”

The message, delivered to a handful of teammates on Monday, was received loud and clear.

“I came in (to the Clippers organization) to win games. I mean, that’s what we do, put in work in the offseason to win games,” said point guard Darius Garland, who was acquired in the trade that sent 11-time All-Star James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers last month. “So, I mean, it’s exciting to be back to .500, but we got a lot more ways to go. We’re not done yet.”

The Clippers’ victory, backed by five players scoring in double figures, pushed their record to 32-32 to reach the .500 mark for the first time since November. The last time they were at .500 was on Nov. 3 after a home loss to the Miami Heat dropped them to 3-3. That setback was the first of 19 in a 22-game stretch that left the Clippers reeling at 6-21.

Since then, the team had come within one game of leveling its record twice but lost both times, including blowing a 25-point lead in a 116-112 road loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Friday. The Clippers bounced back from that with a 123-120 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies one night later to get back into position and just went 5-1 during a stretch of six games in nine days.

“It means a lot,” Coach Tyronn Lue said of their record. “Just about our guys in the locker room, just staying with it … continue to fight, continue to compete.

“Like I said earlier, just staying with it, being positive, continuing to help these guys get better. And to start 6-21 and be .500 right now, it’s a big thing for us.”

Reaching the elusive .500 mark again proved difficult, but the Clippers and their remade roster were up to the task against the third-place team from the Eastern Conference.

The last time the Clippers played the Knicks they looked a lot different.

Ivica Zubac started at center, Harden was shooting his trademark step-back 3-pointers and they were the oldest team in the league.

A lot changed in two months. Garland is their 23-year-old point guard, Brook Lopez has moved from the bench to the starting lineup and newcomer Bennedict Mathurin, 23, has quickly made himself a force on offense.

Knicks coach Mike Brown said despite the changes, the Clippers can still throw a lot of different looks at opponents and “Kawhi is still Kawhi.”

Leonard wasn’t any different than Brown remembered on Monday. The 34-year-old, seven-time All-Star scored a team-high 29 points to go along with seven rebounds and eight assists to lead the Clippers.

“It’s amazing. It just seems he keeps going and going,” Brown said. “It’s just one steady pace and it’s amazing to see somebody at that age not fall off a bit.”

It was Leonard’s 42nd consecutive game scoring 20 points or more, the second-longest active streak in the NBA. On Monday, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tied Wilt Chamberlain for the most consecutive 20-point games (126) in NBA history in a victory over the Denver Nuggets.

Mathurin scored 28 points, Garland added 23 points and seven assists, while Derrick Jones Jr. and Brook Lopez each had 16 points.

“I loved it,” Lue said of their balanced scoring. “… and it was good to see us shoot 39 3s after shooting, I think 22 and whatever (last game). But just our pace, I thought, generated a lot of our success. I thought we executed better against the blitz tonight, did a good job in the pocket. Kawhi did a good job of stringing them out, hitting the pocket. We got dunks, we got 3s, and so we have to continue to keep building, continue to keep getting better, but we can’t stop now.”

The Clippers carried a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter and pushed ahead 106-93 on a 3-pointer by Jones with 7:14 left.

The Knicks, however, didn’t fade and chipped away at the deficit to pull within five 112-107 with 2:36 remaining. The Clippers answered the threat with a three-point play by Mathurin.

After Knicks guard Josh Hart scored on a jumper, Jones buried a 3-pointer to give the Clippers a 118-109 lead with 1:41 left. Leonard added a pair of free throws for an 11-point lead. The Knicks closed to within 120-114 but couldn’t catch their hosts.

Garland shot 5 for 9 from 3-point range, while Jones was 4 for 7 and Lopez was 3 for 5 to lead the Clippers on a night when they shot 18 for 39 from behind the arc. Leonard and Mathurin each made two 3-pointers as well.

Jones seemed to have a hand in a number of key sequences, adding seven rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots to his point total.

The Clippers went ahead by nine early in the game, led by as many as 11 and held a 64-55 advantage at halftime.

The Knicks (41-25) looked like a team that was coming off a Sunday afternoon loss to the Lakers in the first game of a back-to-back set. They struggled to find their shot from long range early, shooting 28.6% from behind the arc in the first half, and had 10 early turnovers that led to 18 Clippers points.

During one stretch late in the second quarter, the game turned into a duel between Leonard and Knicks forward Karl-Anthony Towns with the two taking turns scoring baskets and free throws. Twice, Leonard slipped past defenders for quick layups to give the Clippers an 11-point advantage in the final two minutes of the half.

The Clippers, behind Leonard and Mathurin, pulled ahead by 15 in the third quarter, giving Lue a chance to rest his starters.

But the move backfired, as the Knicks picked apart the Clippers’ second unit and went on an 11-3 run to close the gap to 85-78. Mohamed Diawara’s 3-pointer with nine seconds remaining in the third cut the Clippers’ lead to 88-81 heading into the fourth.

Towns scored a game-high 35 points to go with 12 rebounds, while Jalen Brunson had 28 points and OG Anunoby added 22.