Two weeks ago, the Clippers had just suffered a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans that led to LA dropping from a comfortable playoff position to the ninth seed in the West. The Clippers were on a downward trend, incapable of staying healthy and playing sloppily—at the time, I said that they no longer looked like a team that could be competitive in the playoffs.
Now, two weeks later, they’re one of the hottest teams in the Western Conference.
Following a stretch of games where it looked the Clippers couldn’t buy a win against healthy, playoff-caliber teams, the Clippers strung together their most impressive run of the season yet.
Their win last night versus the Brooklyn Nets marked 10 LA wins in the last 12 games played, including two wins against the New York Knicks and decisive wins against the Memphis Grizzlies, Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks.
They were also a couple of sloppy possessions away from overcoming the best team in the league in the Oklahoma City Thunder. Still, despite the loss, the Clippers were able to force Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the current MVP favorite, to suffer his worst shooting performance of the season, holding him to just 25 points on 29 shots.
The catalyst to this success for LA? A long-awaited consistency on the offensive end of the floor that has finally allowed the Clippers to complement the defensive intensity they’ve had throughout the season. Additionally, for the first time all season, Los Angeles has had a somewhat consistent rotation, and its benefits couldn’t be more evident.
Kawhi Leonard, who is now seemingly fully off of his prior minutes restriction, has put together a vintage stretch of games. Over his last eight, the Klaw has averaged 27 points and 8 rebounds per game on an absurd 59% shooting from the field and 56% from 3-point range.
Given Leonard’s age and lengthy history of knee surgeries, many thought before the season began that the Clippers would be fortunate to have him playing at just 80% of the level he’s shown in the past, but recently, he’s produced some of the best basketball of his later career. He looks explosive, and has been surprisingly dominant on both ends of the floor—only adding to the Clippers’ effectiveness defensively.
James Harden and Ivica Zubac have improved their play from earlier in the season as well. For Harden, who at one point was problematically streaky as a scorer for Los Angeles, off-nights where he sometimes shoots the Clippers out of rhythm have become less frequent. And Zubac has also been incredible, averaging 20 points and 12 rebounds over the last 12 games. He’s posted 16 double-doubles since the All-Star break—the most in the league.
Statistics aside, this Clippers team now actually feels threatening on the offensive side of the ball in a way they simply didn’t before. They’re capable of putting pressure on defenses and forcing lapses—leading to explosive runs that often single-handedly put games out of reach for opponents.
The Clippers were down three towards the end of the third quarter in their game against Cleveland, but after two strong runs, the Clippers found themselves up 12 points early in the fourth and played off of that lead for the rest of the game. In their game against Memphis, they were down seven early in the third, but went on 34-13 run that created a hole Memphis couldn’t crawl out of. Most recently against the Nets, they trailed by three after the first quarter before outscoring Brooklyn 79-42 over the next two periods of play, riding the hot hand of Leonard, who seemingly couldn’t miss from beyond the arc.
The scariest aspect of the Clippers’ newfound confidence for the rest of the league is that Norman Powell, who carried the majority of LA’s load offensively at the start of the season, hasn’t returned to form yet since coming back from injury. Given how hard hamstring injuries can be to recover from, it’s quite possible that he might not have the same kind of offensive presence for the rest of the season, but if Powell can scrape just some of his early season success in these final games, the rest of the West will be in trouble.
Looking to the playoffs, the skill gap between teams in the Western Conference has seemingly evened out over the past month. At the current moment, there doesn’t necessarily feel like there’s a team that the Clippers can’t compete against in the West. However, only time will tell. Despite the promise this team has shown, the Clippers don’t have the best reputation when it comes to living up to expectations in the playoffs, much less exceeding them.
The Clippers play their next game on Sunday at 12:30 p.m in a rematch against the Cavaliers in Cleveland.