Clippers top Thunder, extend win streak to 5 with strong defensive effort

The L.A. Clippers held the Oklahoma City Thunder to just 94 points in a 15-point victory on the road.

The L.A. Clippers are rolling, and we all should have seen it coming.

L.A. has been fully healthy since February 24, the team's longest injury-free streak of the season. In that time, the Clippers have gone 5-0 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets, Philadelphia 76ers and, after tonight, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Clippers used a terrific defensive effort to upend the Thunder, coming away with a 109-94 victory. The win brings L.A. to 42-19 on the season and 9-0 in games with a fully healthy roster. In addition to the teams listed above, the Clippers have also beaten the Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, Miami Heat and Minnesota Timberwolves when the whole team is available. 

Kawhi Leonard was the game's MVP, showing out with a game-high 25 points to go along with eight rebounds, two steals and an assist in 32 minutes of action. It was his first game against the Thunder this season after he missed the previous two due to injury. 

Paul George had a strong showing as well, racking up 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals in 27 minutes. The star forward is still on a minutes restriction, but he's been playing great basketball since returning from the All-Star break.

L.A. nearly led wire-to-wire against a scrappy Thunder squad. Oklahoma City held the lead twice in the first few minutes of the game, but the largest deficit the Clippers faced was two points. L.A. went up by as many as 12 points in the first quarter, eventually pushing the advantage to 21 by the time the game was over. 

Oklahoma City did manage to make things interesting about halfway through the second quarter when they made it a 43-42 game, but the Clippers immediately went on a 9-0 run to bring the lead back up to 10 points. 

That was as close as the Thunder would get for the rest of the night.

The Clippers played suffocating defense throughout. L.A. was able to force several shot-clock violations and difficult looks, which contributed to the Thunder shooting just 42% from the field. That's an especially impressive number considering Oklahoma City ranked fifth in field goal percentage entering Tuesday's game. 

The road only gets harder from here for the Clippers, who play the Houston Rockets Thursday night and the Los Angeles Lakers Sunday afternoon. But if L.A. continues to show this same poise and focus in these next two games, there's no reason why they can't come out of this stretch looking like the Western Conference's team to beat.