The Los Angeles Clippers shocked the NBA with their 6-21 start to the season through 27 games, and now they’re shocking the NBA again as they’ve won each of their last four games by double figures. Not to mention, three of those four wins have come against teams that will almost certainly make the playoffs in the Lakers, Rockets and Pistons. 

The story of Sunday’s win over the Pistons was the lights-out performance the Clippers got from Kawhi Leonard. He looked every bit as good as his vintage self and then some, scoring a career high 55 points on 17-of-26 shooting to nearly single-handedly carry the Clippers to their 10th win of the season. 

Following the game, Clippers coach Ty Lue made it clear just how much the Clippers needed to have their superstar at full strength in order to right the ship from their atrocious start to the season. 

“We need it,” Lue said. “Yeah, we need it, and he’s been playing at a high level. To have 55 tonight on 26 shots, attacking the basket, attacking the rim, steals defensively. I thought it was really good as well, and he willed his win for us.”

Leonard really got going in the third quarter, so much so that Lue abandoned his typical rotation of subbing Leonard out alongside James Harden in the third quarter. When Harden went out at his typical time, Leonard remained in the game and finished the frame with a whopping 26 points in the frame. 

“I thought in that third quarter, we kind of let (Kawhi) get going,” Lue said. “He's a tough cover anyway, but he kind of got going early on. But overall, just our guards being able to get into the basketball, our bigs being up, and then our rotations are flying around, getting to the shooters. I think we've done a great job with that.

As far as what the Clippers can do with a fully healthy and clearly motivated Leonard, that remains to be seen. Lue understands that his team will need plenty more of these kinds of performances if they want to erase the gap they’ve left themselves in the West.

“ I mean, (he’s) finally getting healthy,” Lue said. “He’s finally being able to play enough minutes to be very, very effective. And so when he's healthy, like I said, he's one of the top guys in the league. We've been able to see that as of late. Understanding where we're at, what we're trying to get to, what we're trying to do. 

“We're in a huge hole, but just continuing to keep stacking days and keep getting better each game. I thought we were able to do that tonight. Like I said, Kawhi, he led the charge on that.”