Fans Defend Russell Westbrook in Clippers' Loss to Durant, Booker, Suns Without Kawhi
A nightmare scenario for the Los Angeles Clippers came to pass with Kawhi Leonard sitting out Thursday's 129-124 loss to the Phoenix Suns in Game 3 of the Western Conference playoffs because of a knee injury.
The Clippers were already playing without Paul George, who has a sprained right knee, and Leonard was ruled out hours before tipoff with the same injury. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski noted the two-time NBA Finals MVP aggravated his knee in Game 1 and played through it in Game 2.
Despite being down their top two players, the Clippers were able to put up a valiant effort against the Suns thanks in no small part to Russell Westbrook. The often-criticized former MVP scored 30 points on 11-of-23 shooting, dished out 12 assists and grabbed eight rebounds in 40 minutes.
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Westbrook has turned in back-to-back efficient scoring performances. He went 9-of-16 in Game 2 and has scored more than 25 points in two consecutive games for the first time since January.
Fans were giving praise to Westbrook for how well he was playing to at least give the Clippers a chance to win a game in which they were playing shorthanded:
The Clippers also got a great performance from Norman Powell in his first start of the series. He went 7-of-12 from three-point range and scored 42 points. It was his first game with more than 30 points all season.
The efforts of Westbrook and Powell weren't enough in large part because Phoenix's two superstars showed up in a big way. Kevin Durant had 28 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Devin Booker remains a big problem that the Clippers defense hasn't figured out. The three-time All-Star dropped 45 points on 18-of-29 shooting from the field. He's averaging 36.3 points per contest on 60.0 percent shooting in the series thus far.
Leonard is considered day-to-day at this point with Game 4 set to be played on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET. The Suns can take a commanding 3-1 series lead over the Clippers with another win at Crypto.com Arena.
