LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Clippers shut down Karl-Anthony Towns, and the Minnesota Timberwolves disappeared with him.
Paul George scored 23 points, Reggie Jackson added 21 points and the Clippers won 129-102 on Sunday (PH time) for their seventh victory in a row.
Towns was held to eight points on 3-of-11 shooting in his first single-digit scoring game since 2018. He missed all five of his 3-point attempts, ending his streak of making at least two in the season’s first 11 games.
“We’re fronting him on the post and coming with the low man,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “We just try to switch everything so he can’t get shots off. We just want to slow him down.”
Ivica Zubac had 10 points and 12 rebounds, Eric Bledsoe had 14 points and nine assists and George had nine rebounds for the Clippers, who have taken all three meetings this month against the Wolves.
Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 21 points and nine rebounds. D’Angelo Russell and Jaden McDaniels had 15 points each.
Towns led the Wolves to a 107-83 victory over the Lakers on Friday night that snapped their six-game skid. He scored 29 points on 11-of-17 shooting in that game, but the Clippers suffocated him.
“They wrestled with him, they pre-doubled him,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “They take the ball out of his hands every shape, way and form when he gets it. We got to find a way to solve that and it’s on me.”
The Wolves kept it close in the first, when there were six lead changes and seven ties and they trailed by six. Then the Clippers took over and the Wolves never led again.
HEAT 111, JAZZ 105
Tyler Herro had 27 points and eight rebounds to help the Miami Heat beat the Utah Jazz 111-105.
Duncan Robinson made six 3-pointers and added a season-high 22 points. Kyle Lowry had 21. Miami swept the season series with the Jazz and snapped a three-game losing streak.
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 26 points –19 coming in the fourth quarter – to lead Utah. Jordan Clarkson added 25 points, and Donovan Mitchell had 22.
The Jazz lost for the fourth time in five games.
WIZARD 104, MAGIC 92
Spencer Dinwiddie scored 23 points, Montrezl Harrell added 20 and the Washington Wizards used a 20-0 first-half run to defeat the Orlando Magic 104-92 for their fourth consecutive victory.
Kyle Kuzma added 17 points and 10 rebounds as Washington improved to 9-3 for the first time since the 2014-15 season. That’s much improved over last season when the Wizards were 3-9 after 12 games.
Orlando’s Cole Anthony scored 22 points, but he made just 4 of 16 shots. Mo Bamba added 14 points, 17 rebounds and three blocked shots for Orlando, which dropped to 0-7 this season when failing to score 100 points. (AP)