The Los Angeles Clippers bench couldn’t comprise its pleasure.
With about 90 seconds left in a latest sport at Dallas, Kawhi Leonard spun to his proper, blew previous Grant Williams, took a step to his proper, then a step to his left, introduced the ball from one aspect to the opposite and completed with a left-handed layup to provide the Clippers an eight-point lead.
As Kawhi was ending his transfer, the Clippers bench erupted. Bones Hyland leapt from his seat, Daniel Theis faked the identical layup together with his left hand, Ivica Zubac braced for impression and Russell Westbrook pantomimed the Eurostep transfer with a cheerful grin.
This was L.A.’s ninth-straight win, a streak that was snapped in Thursday’s loss to the Thunder on the second evening of a back-to-back and the crew’s first sport with out Kawhi this season. However the streak got here on the proper time for a Clippers crew that was 8-10 earlier than it and was the topic of a lot debate after a polarizing commerce for James Harden.
What the win streak, Kawhi’s layup and his teammates’ ensuing jubilation confirmed is that, regardless of the Clippers are doing, it’s working.
The Clippers are 17-10, climbing to fifth place within the West standings, above the Lakers, Suns and Warriors and only a game-and-a-half behind the defending-champion Nuggets. Over the past 10 video games, they’ve the league’s third-best web score (plus-8.9, behind solely the 76ers and Celtics) and the league’s prime offense (a blistering 125.2 factors per 100 possessions).
After dropping their first 5 video games after buying Harden from the 76ers in November, the Clippers are 14-4 since. There are a lot of causes for the development – Ty Lue’s resolution to interchange Westbrook with Terance Mann within the beginning lineup, Harden taking part in himself into sport form and time to gel – however none are extra impactful than Kawhi’s world-class play.
Earlier than lacking the Clippers’ second sport in two days on Thursday, Kawhi had performed in every of L.A.’s first 27 video games this season. The varied leg accidents look like behind him, and he hasn’t seemed this agile and powerful, for this lengthy of a time, since his first 12 months with the Clippers in 2019-20.
On the stat sheet, Kawhi’s career-best true capturing proportion (63.1) bears this out, however so does the attention check.
Kawhi has regained full entry to his bag: Eurosteps, pull-ups, fadeaways, step-backs and turnaround jumpers in isolation. All of the stuff that fueled Kawhi’s take-over within the 2019 playoffs with the Raptors en path to a championship are on show.
As Jared Dubin stated in a latest version of his “Last Night in Basketball” e-newsletter:
“It would not actually matter how a lot site visitors there may be round him both. You possibly can ship further defenders. You possibly can power him center. You possibly can power him to the baseline. It would not matter. He is simply going to make the shot anyway.”
If that sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of that’s precisely how the league felt when Kawhi averaged 30.5 factors on 49% capturing within the 2019 playoffs. Remember this?
Amongst gamers averaging a minimum of three isolation possessions per sport, solely three others are producing extra factors per probability than Leonard (1.19). One in every of them is his teammate Harden, who’s making a league-leading 1.35 factors per isolation possession. The others are De’Aaron Fox (1.21) and MVP favourite Joel Embiid (1.21).
Kawhi is capturing 52.6% on fadeaways and 51% on turnaround jumpers, based on NBA.com’s database. Each are career-best charges, exceeding even what he did in his three consecutive All-Star seasons from 2018-2021.
As a crew, the Clippers are operating greater than ever. They’re getting out in transition at their highest price since Leonard and Paul George joined the crew. A part of the rationale for that’s the well being of their stars and a full season with Westbrook, however they’re nonetheless operating even with the notoriously methodical Harden on the helm.
The Clippers acknowledge the issues they trigger for opponents once they run. Harden continues to be one of many league’s finest passers, and in Kawhi, Westbrook and George, he has the deepest receiver room within the NBA. Kawhi is a freight practice going downhill, George is a knock-down shooter opposing defenders can’t depart and Westbrook streaks down the ground to seek out openings within the protection like Wes Welker within the slot.
Taking part in within the open ground additionally mitigates a few of the Clippers’ clunkiness within the halfcourt. The primary few video games after the Harden commerce have been an uninspired sequence of your-turn-my-turn possessions yo-yo-ing between Harden stepbacks and Kawhi post-ups. (L.A. posted an offensive score of 108.2 in these video games, which might rank twenty sixth for the season.)
It’s much less clunky within the halfcourt now. Lue has turned the reins of the offense over to Harden, and Kawhi and George have settled into (barely) decrease utilization roles. Harden has logged extra time hours with facilities Zubac and Theis to work on pick-and-roll chemistry, and Lue carves out time every sport for Harden to run the offense with out his star wings on the courtroom to demand the ball. Likewise, Leonard and George get loads of time to function with out Harden in Lue’s staggered rotations.
Most significantly, the Clippers are dominant with all three on the ground, out-scoring opponents by 10.5 factors each 100 possessions with Leonard, George and Harden within the lineup, per Cleaning the Glass.
With Harden on the wheel on offense, it permits Leonard and George to ratchet up the depth on protection. Kawhi is averaging probably the most steals per sport since his final All-Star season, and whereas he’s not fairly on the Defensive Participant of the 12 months-candidate degree he was at throughout his ultimate years in San Antonio, he nonetheless anchors a formidable protection that’s holding opponents to only 93.5 factors per 100 possessions in the halfcourt this season.
The mix of a powerful halfcourt protection, elite one-on-one offense, and championship expertise of Lue and Leonard is a components that makes the Clippers reputable contenders within the West.
With the Clippers, a wholesome dose of skepticism is at all times suggested, but when they will keep wholesome and drama-free the best way they’ve over the past month, the items can be in place for a run on the NBA Finals.