Kawhi Leonard scored 26 points and John Collins added 25 as the Los Angeles Clippers moved into eighth place in the Western Conference standings with a 138-109 road victory over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday.
Darius Garland and Kobe Sanders each scored 17 points, while Kris Dunn and Jordan Miller added 13 each as the Clippers (40-38) ended a two-game losing streak while winning their fourth consecutive road game.
Los Angeles has the same record as the Portland Trail Blazers but now owns the eighth spot in the standings via tiebreaker by winning two of the three games between the teams. Los Angeles will visit Portland on Friday.
The No. 7 and No. 8 teams in the standings meet in the play-in tournament for a chance to advance directly into the playoff field while the ninth and 10th teams have to win two play-in games.
Devin Carter scored 21 points and Nique Clifford added 18 as the Kings saw a two-game winning streak come to an end. Maxime Raynaud scored 11 points with 15 rebounds for Sacramento (21-58), which has struggled with injury issues this season but has managed to go 7-8 since March 8.
The Clippers opened the game with a 42-point first quarter and took a 71-59 lead at halftime by shooting 56.5% over the first two quarters. After leading by as many as 19 points in the first half, Los Angeles took its first 20-point lead with 7:53 remaining in the third.
The Clippers went into the fourth quarter with a 107-79 lead and were never threatened the rest of the way.
Collins came off the bench for Los Angeles after starting the previous nine games, while Dunn was effective in his first start over the last eight games.
Leonard increased his franchise-record streak of consecutive 20-point games to 54.
The Clippers finished 53.3% from the floor and 20-of-41 (48.8%) from 3-point range while the Kings shot 52.9% overall, 28.1% from outside the arc and committed 20 turnovers.
–Field Level Media
