In the past week, the Clippers have lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons—all playoff-caliber teams, a category of opposition the Clippers have struggled against of late.
Los Angeles is 3-10 in its last 13 games against teams in the top eight places in their conference, and one of the Clippers’ three wins came when a fully healthy Clippers team had the luxury of facing a Ja Morant-less Memphis Grizzlies.
Granted, we can attribute much of LA’s recent three-game-skid to injuries. The Clippers has been without their leading scorer and Most Improved Player candidate, Norman Powell, since the break due to a knee injury, and Kawhi Leonard has missed the past two games with a left foot injury.
However, some unfortunate recent injury luck doesn’t change the fact that the Clippers have not had success against playoff teams in some time, which could be a concern moving into the end of the season. Frankly, it could also affect the team’s confidence in playing together as a unit.
The Clippers came closest to a win in this three game stretch against the Milwaukee Bucks. This was the only game following the break in which Leonard played, and the Clippers seemed like they were in a good position to win, up by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter.
Yet, the Clippers were unable to hold onto their lead and collapsed. They were outscored 30-8 in the final eight minutes of play—their offense grew stagnant and Milwaukee caught fire from deep.
After playing the Bucks, the Clippers lost Leonard to injury and struggled mightily in their next two games. In Indiana against the Pacers, the Clippers never took the lead once despite getting a 30-point double-double from James Harden and a 22-point performance from Ivica Zubac. Beyond those two, LA lacked substantive offensive firepower and unfortunately for the Clippers, it showed.
The Clippers’ ensuing road game against Cade Cunningham and the Pistons was more competitive, but it still never felt as if the Clippers had a legitimate shot at winning, despite near non-existent contribution from Detroit’s second unit.
They were noticeably outclassed by one of the hottest teams in basketball and struggled heavily on offense. The Clippers shot just 40% from the field and 28% from 3-point range. Harden and Bogdan Bogdanović had particularly off-nights. Harden shot 5-for-22 from the field and Bogdanović, who started in place of the injured Leonard, shot 6-for-19 from the field and just 1-for-12 (8%) from three.
Bogdanović’s performance was the single worst 3-point shooting percentage by a player this season with a minimum of 12 attempts in a game, and the third lowest among players with games with at least 10 3-point attempts.
Despite their abysmal shooting performance, the Clippers found themselves down just five points with minutes to go. However, they missed a number of open 3-point looks to cut down on Detroit’s lead and were ultimately unable to close the distance, losing 106-97.
The Clippers will need to develop more chemistry as a starting group in these two months leading up to the playoffs. Since Leonard’s return, the Clippers haven’t had a consistent rotation like they did early in the year. Leonard has missed a number of games since his initial return, and now Powell is missing time due to an injury of his own.
Powell especially is the key for Los Angeles, as he’s clearly been the team’s best player this season. The Clippers are 27-18 in the 45 games he’s played this year, but just 4-8 in the games he’s missed. They need him if they hope to be competitive against the league’s best.
Powell will remain out in their upcoming match against Chicago, but Leonard is expected to return.
The Clippers will face the Chicago Bulls at 5 p.m PT in Chicago on Wednesday.