LA Clippers Make Strong Bid for West Final Six, Sweep Series Versus New York Knicks
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 27 Mar 2025
Coming back strong from a sorry two points home loss to league leading Oklahoma in their last outing, the Los Angeles Clippers repeated over the New York Knicks 126-113 at the Madison Square Garden to keep their bid alive for the Final Six in the Western Conference.
The win tied the Clippers with the idle Golden State Warriors for the sixth and final automatic seed in the West and more importantly swept their season series against the Knicks which are one of the strongest teams in the Eastern Conference.
Bearded veteran guard James Harden strung eight straight points including two triples in the crucial moment of the third quarter to break off LA from a close nip and tuck affair with the Knicks which proved to be the turning point of the match in which the Clippers played catch up since the opening quarter.
From there, LAC's 1-2 punch Kawhi Leonard and Ivica Zubac with support from Norman Powell and Derrick Jones took over and forge the Clippers to a series of double digits lead in the fourth and final period leading to a comfortable win on the road.
Earlier, particularly in the opening quarter, it seemed that New York was headed for a revenge win as Karl Anthony Towns, Oggie Anunoby and Cameron Payne alternated in puncturing the hoops from the three points land, powering the Knicks to a series of big leads. And though not as deadly in his last game where he scored triple doubles with Towns, Josh Hart was helping clear the boards and setting up his teammates for open looks at the basket.
New York was still without ace scorer Jalen Brunson but it did not look like the Knicks would have much problem against the Clippers with them playing at their home floor.
That appeared to be until Harden unleashed an 8-0 bomb that suddenly thrusted the Clippers ahead, 89-84 with a minute left in the third, an advantage they never let go but in fact even build up in the payoff period.
Fittingly, Harden topped LAC scoring with 29 points. Leonard and Zubac were almost unstoppable scoring 27 and 18 while combining for 20 rebounds. Powell tossed in 19 points and Jones got off the bench for 12.
Towns was his usual deadly self scoring a night high 34 points while pulling down 14 boards. Anunoby backed him up with 28 points plus 5 boards. Michal Bridges was good for 17 and Cam Payne added 15. But Hart could only put up 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 7 points, a far cry from his triple double the day before.
With both having ten games left, the battle for the sixth between the Clippers and the Warriors will be very tight going forward.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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