KAWHI Leonard scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the visiting Los Angeles Clippers beat the Denver Nuggets 105-102 on Monday to level their Western Conference first-round playoff series at one win apiece.
Denver’s Christian Braun and Nikola Jokic missed 3-point attempts to end the game. Jokic wound up with a triple-double.
James Harden added 18 points, Ivica Zubac contributed 16 points and 12 rebounds and Norman Powell scored 13 points for Los Angeles.
“Tough fight,” Leonard said postgame on TNT. “This is what the playoffs are about.”
The best-of-seven series shifts to California for Game 3 on Thursday in Inglewood.
Meanwhile, Cade Cunningham scored 33 points and Dennis Schroder hit the tiebreaking 3-pointer with 55.7 seconds left as the visiting Detroit Pistons evened their Eastern Conference first-round series, escaping with a physical 100-94 Game 2 victory over the New York Knicks on Monday night.
Game 3 is Thursday in Detroit.
“He’s played in so many big games,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said about Schroder. “When you go back and watch his history, he’s clutch in big games. We talked about it earlier on when he got here, he’s just fearless. There’s no moment, no crowd, no noise that’s too big that’s going to rattle him.”
Leonard bounced back from a seven-turnover performance in the opener on Saturday, a 112-110 Denver win in overtime. He hit his first six shots on Monday, missed a pull-up jumper early in the second quarter and didn’t miss again until early in the fourth.
He scored 12 points in the final period and finished the game with just one turnover. Denver was the team plagued by turnovers in Game 2. The Nuggets finished with 20 — matching the Clippers’ total from Saturday. Jokic had seven giveaways on Monday to go with his 26 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
