Three weeks before the Clippers started their winning streak and became the hottest team in the NBA, they left Dallas at what could be their lowest point of form as a team.
Their stars are struggling to find their role in the team. The combination between them is a mix-and-match experiment. Their head coach said they lost the final three quarters of four straight games in what looked like "the worst moment." Subsequently, Taryn Lue's comments went viral across the internet in a matter of minutes with dark humor.
Only a small fraction of the population heard what he said next.
opponents) better take advantage of this opportunity now," Tyronn Lue said before returning to the locker room after the Nov. 10 crushing defeat to the Mavericks. "We'll be fine. ”
Now, a quarter of the way through the schedule, the Clippers will return to Dallas on Wednesday, with the Clippers (16-10) currently undefeated in December, and Wednesday's big win tied the league's longest winning streak of the season. They did so to dispel concerns about the durability of their fragile roster and to quell ridicule about how their new roster fits together.
Point guard James Harden has raised a lot of buzz when he confidently declares that he has his own "system" when he was traded, but he has been walking on thin ice since he came here through a trade, accommodating his teammates who had been part of Tyronn Lue's offensive system for many years. Slowly, the Clippers combined their system with Harden's own, which made him one of the best ball-handling playmakers in the league again. In Monday's win over the Pacers, he scored 15 straight points in the fourth quarter and yelled at his teammates on the bench as he greeted him with his sixth three-pointer of the quarter with a slightly comical celebration from the sidelines.
Center Ivica Zubac used to be unsure of how to play pick-and-rolls with ball-handlers, and pick-and-roll offense is critical to Harden's efficiency, and now, after more than a month of training, Zubac has scored in double figures in 13 of his last 14 games, and Harden is once again among the league's top pick-and-rolls in pick-and-roll scoring.
The Clippers' starting lineup in the past has been a hodgepodge of overlapping or redundant features, with Russell Westbrook on the bench since Terence Mann was promoted to the starting lineup on Nov. 17, with the new starting lineup scoring 16 more points per 100 possessions than opponents, while Westbrook has often contributed effectively in his limited playing time, averaging 58 rebounds and 41 assist, while only 16 times.
The evidence for the Clippers' shift goes far beyond these examples. But underpinning it all is Leonard's recovery.
Since changing his starting lineup on Nov. 17, Leonard has averaged 26. per game in his last 16 games4 points, including 45% three-point shooting. During his eight-game winning streak, his points per game average rose to 293 points, 3-point shooting percentage of 548%, which is only 1. in 35 minutes per game8 turnovers. After Saturday's win over the New York Knicks, he was asked if it was the best period of his career.
If you want to think about it in numbers, yes," Leonard said. "But I'm more focused on what's more important, not just data. ”
However, this data is hard to ignore. He hasn't missed a game so far this season, especially given the serious injury he suffered in April, a torn meniscus.
As of Monday, Synergy Sports ranked him as the most efficient scorer among the players who used the most rounds, and it was not the quantity that stood out, but the quality. In his first three seasons, Leonard averaged around 60 touches per game and needed to hold the ball in almost every round he played.
But since Harden made his promotional debut with the Clippers on Nov. 6, Leonard has averaged 10 fewer touches per game. After a period of fumbling around, Leonard and his teammates seemed to find their offensive rhythm as they learned how to work together, and Leonard became the NBA's most efficient scorer in December, while the team began a winning streak.
Of the 282 players who averaged at least 20 touches per game this month, none were more effective at converting touches into points than Leonard, who scored 0560 points, leading the league. Such rankings are usually dominated by big men close to the basket, not on the wings. But Leonard is even more efficient than MVP Joel Embiid (0542 points), or Grizzlies' big man Jaren Jackson Jr. (0.).516 points). The Clippers' offense has ushered in the best of the best, with backup wing Norman Powell finishing second in the league behind Leonard with 0 points per touch553 points.
The Clippers have always believed that Leonard can score so efficiently. But "just on the defensive end, his performance was incredible," Tyronn Lue says. Leonard now defends the opponent's best players more often early in the season, as in the past, when the Clippers were only willing to increase his workload on the defensive end when the playoffs approached.
In Tyronn Lue's recollections, Leonard said to him, "Man, you can let me play against the best player against the opponent." ”
After a big win in Sacramento at the end of November was called a "blueprint" for the team's development by Tyronn Lue, Paul George said he had spent the past few weeks trying to "figure out who the 'biggest threat' is in this system," George said, "and that's true for all of us." We're all trying to find it. ”
If Leonard is the most powerful finisher in the system, Leonard now looks like the gritty, formidable Leonard to whom the Clippers entrusted their championship ambitions four years ago. He doesn't care about data and accolades, because everything falls into place. The Clippers are on a nine-game winning streak