It doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch to say the Los Angeles Clippers are the NBA’s best team.
They have Kawhi Leonard, among the best players in the league thanks to his two-way play and they way he can hit another gear in the playoffs. Paul George is similarly terrific on both ends of the floor. Lou Williams has won back-to-back Sixth Man of the Year awards and might win it again. Montrezl Harrell, Landry Shamet, Marcus Morris and Ivica Zubac make up a great supporting cast, and Patrick Beverley is his usual trash-talking, intense defender.
There’s depth, shooting, D, toughness, versatility … everything you’d want in a contender.
What a nasty, one-handed, driving poster dunk by Montrezl Harrell.#Clippers pic.twitter.com/kykoQYtVzv
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) February 14, 2020
That is, except for one thing. They can’t get fully healthy.
George just reinjured the same hamstring that kept him out a bunch last month on Thursday night. The All-Star break timing helps, but that’s bad news. Beverley missed the double-overtime loss to the Boston Celtics with a groin injury. Per ESPN, they’re tied with two other teams (the Warriors and Pistons) for using 27 different starting lineups, the most in the NBA.
Leonard has played in 42 of 55 games, and George has played in just 34.
In a funny way, the Clips have the rest of the NBA right where they want them. They’re five games out of first place in the West, but it won’t matter if they get all the way to a series against the Lakers. They’ll play each other in an all-LA seven-game series at the Staples Center, a dream for NBA fans and the league itself, and bad news for the Lakers. As my colleague Nate Scott said about LeBron James and the Lakers on Thursday, “the whole season is about building toward the postseason.”
The Clips are good enough to stay in the top-four of the West and have enough talent to keep them afloat while keeping Leonard from playing back-to-backs and to get George fully back. So ignore the fact that they’ve lost recent games to the Kings, Timberwolves, Sixers and Celtics.
It’s all about getting healthy for when the games REALLY count.
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