Behind All-Star guard Jimmy Butler; rookie sensation Tyler Herro & long-range specialist Duncan Robinson; the hometown Heat surged ahead by 15 against the Clippers and looked to have this game under control. That was till the Clippers brought on their famed resurgence; with Kawhi Leonard & hot-shooting Landry Shamet leading the fightback.
Behind their stellar 38-point third quarter; the Clippers wrested control back in this one; only for the Heat again to come back and tighten things up in an intense fourth quarter; with big men Bam Adebayo & Kelly Olynyk spurring the comeback.
And when James Johnson threw up four consecutive missed three-pointers and committed two needless fouls in an awful two-minute sequence en-route to a zero-point performance; you sensed the Clippers could just about edge it. But the drama had not ended; as Dion Waiters; making his first appearance of a troubled season; upped the ante with a miraculous double-block on Lou Williams before hurling in a crowd-rousing three-pointer; before proceeding to throw up an equally crowd-deflating three-point air-ball on the next possession; such was the up-and-down tempo of this fluctuating match.
And it was perhaps fitting that it was man-of-the-moment Kawhi Leonard who iced the game with a nerveless three-pointer from the top of the key; as the Clippers finally out-lasted the Heat in this absorbing contest. Leonard produced his first-ever triple-double in this one; and it was the seventh consecutive 30-point game for the Clippers superstar; behind only World B. Free & Bob McAdoo's record set in 1980 & 1975 respectively. On current form; there seems to be no-one better in the NBA.
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