With a come-from-behind victory over the Chicago Bulls in a Crypto matinee last weekend, the Los Angeles Clippers notched their 13th straight season with a record of .500 or better, the longest active streak in the NBA. The last time the Clippers finished with a losing record was 2010-11, when Blake Griffin was a 21-year-old rookie and Steve Ballmer was three years away from buying the team. And yet, despite all this success in the regular season, the franchise has not been able to shake off its reputation for failure.
“I think Clipper fans [would] it’s better to keep it going [to have] success after the regular season,” Paul George said after that Bulls game. “I think they know how good the team is in the regular season, that’s why there’s so much frustration and heartbreak in the playoffs.”
During the 2019 offseason, the Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard and traded for George, opening a new chapter in the franchise’s efforts to win an NBA title and contend with a larger share of basketball fandom. Los Angeles. Five seasons later, the Kawhi-PG era has yielded mixed results. In the second round of the 2020 bubble playoffs, the Clippers lost to the Nuggets in seven games. A year later, Leonard tore his ACL, leaving his team short-handed in a six-game loss to the Suns in the Clippers’ first trip to the Western Finals in franchise history. With Leonard out for the entire 2021-22 season, Los Angeles missed the playoffs entirely. And last year, the 6-seed Clippers lost to Phoenix in the first round, despite Leonard only playing two games and George missing the entire series due to injury.
But this season – the Clippers’ last before a crosstown move to their own arena – may be their most promising yet. With 57 games each, Leonard and George have managed to not only stay healthy so far, but play some of the best hoops in their partnership. James Harden, whom Los Angeles acquired from Philly three games into the season, has assumed primary ball-handling responsibility and slotted seamlessly into the Clippers’ All-NBA wing duo.
From mid-November until the All-Star break, the Clippers went 33-10, the best record in the West during that span. They climbed from outside the play-in to the top of the conference at one point, cementing their place in the title race with consistently dominant play..
But since then, the Clippers have struggled to find this rhythm. “That break obviously didn’t help,” guard Terrance Mann told me recently. “It kind of happened right in the middle of the good flow we had.”
The Clippers have gone just 5-5 since the All-Star festivities, with curious collapses against the Bucks and Lakers, who erased a double-digit lead to knock out their crosstown opponent in the last Clippers-Lakers showdown in as co-owners of the arena. To add injury to insult, Russell Westbrook fractured his left hand two days later; he has since undergone surgery and it is unclear when he will return.
Now, the Clippers find themselves fourth in the West, having all but lost the race for the No. 1 spot. But Los Angeles is aiming for much more than the ranking. He has just over a month left to get healthy and regain his momentum, starting with a crucial home game Tuesday against the Timberwolves, who currently lead the Clips by two games in the standings.
“We’ve won some games on talent, just by having the team that we have,” Clippers coach Ty Lue said recently. “We just have to understand and pay attention to the details and work on execution on both sides of the basketball, which we haven’t done a great job of over the last 10 games.”
There is a certain irony in the length of this Clippers season. After more than a decade of regular season success, they know full well that the real proving time comes in the playoffs. But at the same time, they understand the importance of finishing the regular season strong and carrying their momentum and winning habits into the playoffs. And despite their midseason lull, the Clippers project the steady self-confidence of a veteran team that knows itself and what’s expected of it.
“When we’ve been healthy, we’ve been outstanding,” George said. “Now I hope it’s time to put it all together and make sense of it.”
The turning point in the Clippers’ season came 15 days after the Harden trade, the day after a mid-November loss to the Nuggets, their sixth straight loss. Harden had missed most of training camp as he prepared for his release from Philadelphia, and the Clippers struggled to find a rhythm as their new point guard learned Lue’s offense on the fly. After the loss to the Nuggets, Westbrook approached Lue with a proposition.
“He said, ‘Look, we’ve lost six games in a row,’” Lue told me. “Whatever it takes for us to be better…I’ll come off the bench if it helps. I said, “I don’t know if that’s necessarily the change we need, but we’ll think about it.” »
Lue eventually accepted his offer, and the change immediately paid off. With more room to maneuver, Harden unlocked his game, as well as those of George and Leonard. But the move also allowed Westbrook to carve out a more optimal role for himself. Playing against second units, Westbrook thrived as a ball of energy setting the tone and pushing the pace on an otherwise slow and methodical roster. And, more importantly, according to Lue and other Clippers, Westbrook’s outspokenness and tough love have remained essential for a team whose stars prefer a reserved form of leadership.
“Kawhi and PG, they do it more by example,” Lue told me. “But [Westbrook] happened, instant leadership, instant conversation, and the communication and support to our young people has been really good.
Westbrook has been especially valuable in bringing the Clippers’ young players together and facilitating buy-in up and down the roster. “That’s why he’s so crucial,” says guard Bones Hylalnd, “and so important to our team. Because we have guys who maybe aren’t as vocal and maybe aren’t going to voice on anything, but Russ provides it. So it’s big.
This part of the regular season seems tailor-made for Westbrook. Players who give maximum effort every night can propel their team through the dog days when most NBA players are fighting their way to the finish. This is especially important for an older team like the Clippers who are trying to get back to their mid-season form. Westbrook is listed week-to-week as he recovers from hand surgery, and the organization is hopeful he will return in time for the playoffs. The Clippers should be able to replace his 23 minutes per game in the meantime, but they will miss his energy and aggressiveness as they go down the stretch.
In place of Westbrook, Hyland saw an increase in minutes on the reserve units. Amir Coffey has provided valuable minutes as a versatile forward who can come off the bench or start in a pinch. The Clippers are deep with multiple looks they can throw at their opponents, but ultimately they will go as far as their main stars can take them. It’s up to Lue to steer the ship over the final five weeks so his team arrives at the playoffs healthy and on pace.
The Clippers’ past weekend offers a glimpse of what that may look like. Due to overlapping home stands with the Lakers and LA Kings, the Clips hosted back-to-back games in the afternoon, with the news separated by only 11 p.m. summer). They won on Saturday against the middling Bulls and lost on Sunday against the Bucks, with Leonard and George missing the latter game. As the team progresses toward the finish, health takes precedence. But can they maintain their execution and rediscover the type of basketball that made them contenders?
“You’re not going to play well for 82 games,” Lue said. “We understand that. But you still have to adopt the right habits and play the right way.
With plenty of season left between now and the playoffs, that’s where the Clippers find themselves. Winning the regular season is nothing new, but they hope their playoff result is.
