The LA Clippers have had one of the most dominant stretches of the 2023-24 NBA regular season. With a 23-5 record in December and January, the Clippers have the best record in basketball for that two-month span.
After briefly appearing atop the Western Conference during the first week of February, the Clippers looked like a real championship contender, but went just 17-16 the rest of the season.
While injuries played a role in the lackluster finish to the season, they were far less significant than in previous seasons. The fact that the Clippers were at their peak before the All-Star break was more a matter of team understanding than anything else.
Are the Clippers the team that went 26-5 or the team that went 18-22 outside of that streak?
James Harden: “We don’t know.” pic.twitter.com/BzDdvNeOaI
— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) March 26, 2024
On a recent episode of his show Podcast P, former Clippers star and current Philadelphia 76ers forward Paul George admitted as much, saying teams figured out the Clippers and it was downhill from there.
“We started to figure it out,” George said of that dominant stretch in LA. “Then we went through a period of about a month, month and a half, where we were just playing an extremely high level of basketball… Being out there with [Russell Westbrook], [Kawhi Leonard]Jacques [Harden], [Ivica Zubac]the whole team. Being on the field with them, it was a presence that made us feel like we were going to win every time we touched the ground.
George said it was his favorite part of the season and he wished he could contain that feeling.
“I wish you could just keep that to yourself and say, ‘You know what, we got this, let’s wait and see and push this to late April, early May,’” George said. “I feel like we peaked, the teams got this, and it was all downhill from there.”
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