Norman Powell and James Harden lead Clippers to dominant win over Portland
The Clippers were eliminated from NBA Cup contention during Tuesday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers at the Intuit Dome. The primary goal on this night, however, was for the Clippers to continue to compete at a high level and play their smothering defense.
With Norman Powell scoring with efficiency and James Harden keeping up his offensive production, the Clippers pulled off a 127-105 win over the Trail Blazers.
After missing six games, Norman Powell scores 28 points and Clippers defeat Nuggets, who get a triple-double from Nikola Jokic.
“Just offensively, I thought we did some good things,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “I thought defensively we had some breakdowns. When we’re playing good offense, you just can’t let it dictate your defense and let your guard down. I thought tonight we weren’t really good defensively.”
Either way, the Clippers have won eight of their last 10 games with sustained grit and by following the lead of their backcourt in Powell and Harden. Powell started strong, making his first five shots en route to going 11 for 15 from the field and five for seven from three-point range in a 30-point effort.
It was just his second game back after missing the previous six because of a hamstring injury. He’s on a minutes restriction but made the most out of his 25 minutes 15 seconds against Portland.
“Just working,” Powell said. “Just staying with it. I’m doing the control workouts, just staying ready. That’s really it.”
For Harden, it was another milestone game. Finishing with 23 points, Harden has scored 26,399 points over his 16-year career, pushing him past Paul Pierce for 17th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. Harden also had seven assists and made a three-pointer at the end of the third quarter to cap his scoring and give the Clippers a 13-point lead.
“Any time you can reach those kinds of milestones in this organization, it’s huge,” Lue said. “We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of great players through here and James is one of them. So, just very happy for him and he’s only going to continue to move up the board.”
The Clippers took control in the third quarter, holding the Trail Blazers (8-14) to 20 points. And they didn’t hold back in the fourth, building a 26-point lead. They shot 55.3% from the field and 51.4% from three-point range to secure their ninth consecutive win at the Intuit Dome, their longest home winning streak since the team won 10 straight during the 2019-20 season.
It wasn’t all good news for the Clippers. Key substitute Terance Mann sustained a fractured middle finger on his left hand in the third quarter. He will be evaluated by a hand specialist Wednesday to determine if he needs surgery.
“It definitely impacts our team,” Lue said about the loss of Mann heading into Wednesday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. “Tomorrow will be our first look at it without him. But the energy that T-Mann brings — and since coming off the bench, he’s really been playing well. So, after having the game he had last game and then for this to happen, it’s not good timing.”
The Clippers finished NBA Cup play 2-2. But with a 14-9 overall record, the Clippers have kept their focus on giving the right kind of effort in every game.
“We just can’t get comfortable,” Lue said. “Our goal is to be a top-five defense into the season and we’re doing that so we can’t let go of the rope from doing that. And then just having the right mindset every single night. When we come in for walkthroughs and shootarounds, we have to take advantage of those times because we haven’t had time to practice all month, because we play every day, or every other day. So, just locking in, being mentally sharp, watching film, understanding what we need to do, and I think our guys have done a good job with that so far.”
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