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DENVER - - — The Clippers take Game 2 105-102 against the Denver Nuggets behind a big night from Kawhi Leonard on Monday night. Los Angeles found a way to fix their mistakes from Game 1 to help from going down 2-0 in the series. Los Angeles is now 1-1 in the series with the Denver Nuggets with the next matchup taking place at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood on Thursday night.
Here are some takeaways from the Clippers win over the Nuggets:
Kawhi bounces back
Kawhi Leonard was the talk of the Clippers loss in Game 1 but he did more than makeup for it on Monday night.
Leonard scored a game-high 39 points on 15-19 shooting from the field in the Clippers Game 2 win. He made 12 of his first 13 shots on his way to the big night.
With the Clippers up one with 54 seconds remaining, Leonard pulled up near the right elbow and knocked down a jumper to put Los Angeles up 105-102.
Leonard added five assists, three rebounds, two steals and a block.
Leonard needed to have a bounce back game and be great to steal one in Denver.
He did exactly that to even the series.
Clips flip the turnover battle
The turnover battle will be key in determining the winner of this series and tonight the Clippers won the battle which helped them win the game.
In Game 1, the Clippers turned the ball over 20 time while the Nuggets had 11. Leonard finished with seven turnovers.
In tonight’s win, the Clippers had just 11 turnovers and forced 20 Nuggets’ turnovers. Nikola Jokic recorded a triple double but had seven turnovers.
This gave the Clippers extra possessions and they needed everyone to pickup the win.
If want to know the stat to look for in this series to predict a winner. It’s going to be about who wins the turnover battle.
Powell finishes strong
Norman Powell struggled for the first seven quarters of this series but in the fourth quarter tonight he found his way.
Powell scored seven of his 13 points in the final period of the Clippers win.
He scored the go-ahead basket with 1:30 remaining in the fourth quarter. The game was tied at 100 when Powell received the ball from Leonard, took a jab-step at Jokic and knocked down the three. It was his second made three of the night.
The former Bruin is averaging 12.5 points after two games and all of Clipper Nation is hopeful his fourth quarter play can get him rolling.
Powell is a key figure for the Clippers winning this series and if he can find some consistency Los Angeles will come out on top.