Clippers overcome sluggish start to stymie Heat in second half

In first game in five days, Clippers get immense outputs from Harden, Powell, Zubac.

(Photo credit: Jason Parkhurst-Imagn Images)

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- It wasn’t the smoothest of starts for the LA Clippers on Monday night as they came out lethargic against a Miami Heat team that enjoys mucking up games with a zone defense and tough style of play, trailing the Heat by as much as 13 in the first half.

But that all changed in the second half as the Clippers found their offensive groove, scoring 66 points in the final two quarters to nab a 109-98 victory and move to 21-17 on the season—halfway to the franchise’s 14th consecutive winning season.

“I thought James [Harden] really got going to help propel us to the win,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue told reporters after the team’s fourth-straight home win and 13th in their last 15 home contests. “But I thought we figured out the zone and how we wanted to attack it. We talked about it the last two days and then we got some good shots in that first half, but we still were kind of slow and kind of stagnant with getting them. I thought in that second half we really did a good job of just locking in to how we wanted to execute against that zone and we were able to really get some good shots and knock down shots as well.”