Pistons meet Kawhi Leonard in career-high form in loss to Clippers

Detroit Pistons were not at the races in Inglewood as they drop their second straight game at the hands of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Dec 28, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) moves to the basket against Los Angeles Clippers center Brook Lopez (11) forward Derrick Jones Jr. (5) and forward Kawhi Leonard (2) during the second half at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

The Detroit Pistons found Kawhi Leonard in video game mode. And unless they reverted to the arcade setting and mauled him, they couldn’t stop him.

From doubling to trapping and denying him the ball, Leonard was simply unstoppable as he led the Los Angeles Clippers with a career-high 55 points, beating the Pistons 112-99.

For Detroit, this wasn’t pretty. A second straight loss for the Eastern Conference leaders against a team languishing near the basement of the West, but given the nature of this defeat, you would have never guessed it. Mind you, given the Clippers have now won their fourth game in a row, perhaps you could have a little.

Especially with Leonard playing the way he played. He went 17-for-26 from the field, drained five three-pointers and went 16-for-17 from the free throw line. He scored 26 points in the third quarter. and finished with 11 boards and five steals in his haul.

"We allowed him to get into a rhythm," Cade Cunningham said. "He is the type of player that, once you allow him to get into his spots and the looks that he wants, we just took too long to try and get the ball out of his hands, and he just continued to go. That was on us."

Cunningham was an unusually slow burner, held scoreless in the first half and suffering with foul trouble, before finishing with a team-high 27 points; his performance mimicked how Detroit played – slow and at times, painful.

"We did a better job of giving him more room to operate," Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.

"In the first half, he was playing with three fouls, which makes it a little bit difficult also. But to their credit, they crowded him. They made him give it up. In the second half, our guys did a better job of adjusting and giving him more room to go out and work."

The Pistons bricked their first 12 three-point attempts before finishing 7-for-29 in a game they never led, never looked like they were in it. Fatigue was obvious, given that they are a week into a gruelling road trip and currently 2-2 in that stretch.

They fell behind by double digits nearly four minutes into the first quarter and trailed by as many as 26. Detroit pulled it back to as little as nine points twice in the third quarter and outscored the Clippers 30-20 in the fourth, but by then, the game was cooked with Leonard the head chef.

He becomes the second player in Clippers history to score at least 40 points in consecutive games at home, joining the great Bob McAdoo.

Up next for the Pistons is a meeting with the Lakers on Tuesday night.