Kawhi Leonard looked rusty in his return for the first 47 minutes Monday night: 5-of-13 shooting, 0-3 from beyond the arc.
But that final minute was special.
First, there was a great hustle play from Paul George — also making his return — that got the ball to Leonard to tie it up.
Kawhi coming up big in CrunchTime!
— NBA (@NBA) December 6, 2022
The bucket to tie it up before his game-winner 👀 pic.twitter.com/tbjSoHco1A
Then, after a stop, the Clippers got the switch they wanted, cleared out the side and let Leonard go to work on the game-winner.
https://t.co/zsyrToDERK pic.twitter.com/1KfwCRWBZO
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) December 6, 2022
Los Angeles picked up the 119-117 win on the road. Not exactly pretty, but for a team just starting to get healthy and build some chemistry, they showed resilience and got the win. Leonard finished with 16 points on 7-of-15 shooting, and George looked sharp on his way to 19 points on 8-of-15 from the floor. It was a balanced Clippers attack, which is what Tyronn Lue is trying to build.
Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 28 and P.J. Washington added 26 for the shorthanded Hornets.
