George leads Clippers past Kings for fourth straight victory
Paul George scored 23 points, Ivica Zubac had 15 points and 12 rebounds and the Los Angeles Clippers won their fourth straight, beating the Sacramento Kings 117-98 on Saturday night.
Norman Powell added 20 points off the bench for the Clippers, who will face Minnesota on Tuesday in the play-in tournament. A victory would send Los Angeles to the postseason for the fourth straight year and a first-round matchup against Memphis.
A loss to the Timberwolves would have the Clippers meeting either New Orleans or San Antonio on Friday with one more chance to make the playoffs. The winner of that game would then get the top-seeded Phoenix Suns.
Davion Mitchell led Sacramento with 22 points, and Trey Lyles had 15.
The Clippers are 5-1 since George returned to the lineup. He is averaging 22.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 6.8 assists after he missed 43 games due to an elbow injury.
George — who also had eight rebounds and tied a career high with 12 assists — had 14 points during the first quarter as the Clippers led throughout.
Zubac recorded his 24th double-double of the season and 60th of his six-year career, but this is the first time he did it by halftime with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
The Clippers' largest lead in the first half was 20 points before the Kings went on a late run to get within 59-45 at halftime.
Sacramento then scored the first seven points of the second half to cut the margin in half. But Los Angeles began to steadily pull away again. It went on a 19-5 run over the last five minutes of the quarter to again put it out of reach to lead 92-71 going into the final 12 minutes. Powell had 10 points during the spurt.
TIP INS
Kings: Damian Jones had 12 points and tied a career high in a regular season game with four steals. ... Neemias Queta had 10 points off the bench. ... Josh Jackson reached 250 career steals.
Clippers: Los Angeles was 21 of 43 on 3-pointers. It is the third time in the last four games they have made at least 20 from beyond the arc. ... Marcus Morris scored 11 points despite going 4 of 13 from the floor. ... Luke Kennard and Isaiah Hartenstein added 10 points apiece.
