This season's NBA regular season, two-thirds of the schedule has been played, and the overall situation in the West is becoming more and more interesting, first of all, the Timberwolves, Thunder and Nuggets, the three teams, are still glued together, and they are very tacit, the Nuggets are not interested in the top two, and the Timberwolves and Thunder, two young teams, want to seize the opportunity to show their faces, even if they are in the first round of the playoffs. And the Clippers are like a flash in the pan, from December to February 7, after the eleventh rocket in the West jumped to the first place in the West, it quickly slipped down, and it didn't matter if it was thrown away by the other three teams, the second group of the Suns, Pelicans, and Mavericks behind the key has caught up! The Clippers shared a set of data with the team, and throughout December and January, the Clippers combined 23-5, and the five games they lost had clear reasons. But throughout February, the Clippers were 6-5, and their offensive and defensive efficiency fell to outside the top 20 in the league, plummeting!
Let's start with the five games the Clippers lost from December to January! The most impressive thing is, of course, Leonard suffered a hip injury, and then the Clippers lost to the Thunder by 19 points and the Celtics by 37 points. In addition, the 3-point defeat to the Lakers caused a lot of controversy, and the final loss to the Timberwolves and the Cavaliers was two, the opponent had twin towers, and the Clippers lineup couldn't match at all! But except for these 5 games, the other games are all won! But throughout February, he defeated the Pelicans by 11 points, the Timberwolves by 21 points, the Thunder by 22 points, the Kings by 16 points, and the Lakers by 21 points. The few games won were all stumbling, with a 6-point win over the Pistons, a 6-point win over the Grizzlies, a 5-point win over the Warriors, and the Clippers looked like they weren't going to work.
It all started in early January. At that time, the Clippers and Leonard completed 3 years 1The $49.6 billion contract, the new contract is 51 million in the first year, and less than 50 million in the next two years, which is very low, because Leonard can insist on asking for 4 years and 2A cap salary of $300 million is equivalent to taking $80 million less. But Leonard made it clear that he didn't just support Harden on the court, he wanted to take less money and free up his salary for his brothers (Harden and George), which was what he said. But it was Leonard's selflessness that triggered a chain reaction: George insisted with an injury, obviously with a groin injury, and kept fighting, resulting in inefficiency! Second, the Clippers did not strengthen the interior at the trade deadline, Zubac was barely enough, but benches Plumlee and Theis, and the playoffs will not be in the rotation!
Tucker is still **, but as long as he plays, it is a drag on the team, after the All-Star Weekend, Tucker was reactivated in 3 games, played 30 minutes, 1 shot, 0 points and 5 rebounds! Fighting with the Lakers, he was shot through by James and Russell, and Tucker didn't shoot when he had the chance, which was really harmful to others and himself, such a performance, where did he go to get a big contract? What to do? All the pressure is naturally on Harden and Leonard! Leonard played in 52 of the Clippers' first 57 games, missing five games, including a hip injury in late December and an adductor injury against the Warriors before All-Star Weekend! And since Harden came to the Clippers, he has played 52 games in a row, not one of them! From a macro perspective, both Harden and Leonard are selfless, but they also raise a series of questions.
Here are two examples. In the 21-point defeat to the Timberwolves, Zubac had a time limit, Plumlee and Theis lost points on the court, no way, Leonard was misplaced to defend Gobert, and he really couldn't prevent it, but it led to Leonard's adductor injury! In the game where the Lakers completed a 21-point reversal, Leonard and Harden led the team to start without losing points, and even won points, but in the fourth quarter, Tyronn Lue put out a lineup of Harden + Powell + Wei Shao + Plumlee + Tucker, three points without projection ability, and the exhausted Harden, after being caught up by the Lakers in waves, Tyronn Lue remembered to let Leonard come back quickly to fill the hole, it was too late! Leonard averages the league's first singles points per game this season, and Harden is fifth in the league, and the opponent will hit Leonard without a bottom!
Harden had to balance the team's shots, which made it easy for the Clippers to shoot out on offense. But to put it bluntly, when Tyronn Lue was experimenting with the lineup, he treated Harden and Leonard as tool men and green leaves. Leonard attracts the pinch shot, Harden concedes the ball, watches Plumlee dribble, and watches Westbrook and Tucker pass each other without shooting, can Tyronn Lue not know the harm? Among the Clippers benches, including Boston and Kobe Brown, can actually enter the rotation and play well before, why insist on using the incompetent Tucker and Plumlee, who has repeatedly ignored Harden? In the final analysis, the various mistakes made by the Clippers were ultimately filled by Leonard, and if he couldn't fill it, he would lose, and Harden could not do anything about the ball being cut.
Tyronn Lue must have overlooked the state of physical attrition of Leonard and Harden during the trial-and-error phase. Both have very high attendance rates this season, but Leonard's glass physique, at 33 years old, and Harden will be 35 this summer, will they be able to make it to the playoffs? If they continue to play like this, then the Clippers are really not qualified to talk about competing for the championship. In addition, George, as an All-Star supergiant, should also improve his efficiency, Harden and Leonard shelter him from the wind and rain on both offensive and defensive ends, does not mean that he can accept it with peace of mind, don't you want a super maximum salary? Show up!
A new season of sports