By David Bernal
Two months since their acquisition of James Harden, the Los Angeles Clippers have clawed their way to the top of the NBA Western Conference standings thanks to a 17-4 mark over their last 21 games.
However, their quest for the franchise's first title is only just beginning.
Barely had Ty Lue reached the podium for his postgame press conference on December 10th shortly after the trade for the enigmatic Harden when most NBA observers started the burial process for his Los Angeles Clippers.
READ Harden: ‘I can fit in with anybody and make a championship run work’
Just over nine days since their acquisition of Harden had become official, the Clippers were, at the time, winless with their backcourt star, losing to a Dallas Mavericks squad that outscored them by an astounding 29 points in the second quarter alone.
“We had some good spurts,” Lue told reporters gathered in the bowels of the American Airlines Arena, trying desperately to put a good spin on a squad that had yet to reach bottom.
Sensing the reporters' disbelief surrounding him, Lue couldn’t help but smile to himself, "it's going to be good," the coach said as he rose from his seat, speaking, perhaps, with more confidence than he may have felt.
“They better take advantage of it now; we’ll be alright," he said as he walked back towards the locker room.
It may not have occurred immediately, but “alright” the Clippers have become.
Los Angeles Has Finally Found an Identity
It wasn’t difficult to understand the logic behind the trade that netted the Clippers James Harden from the Philadelphia 76ers.
Paced by two versatile forwards capable of dominating both ends of the floor, LA had been a victim of their stars’ inability to stay on the court, as much as their playoff opponents, over the previous three seasons. Seeking to lighten the load on their leading duo and obtain a third leading man to insure against the loss of either Paul George or Kawhi Leonard, the trade for Harden made perfect theoretical sense even when considering the problems Harden presented as an organizational figure.
Combined with the bargain-low price the Clippers paid to acquire The Beard, the real question was whether any decision-maker in the league wouldn't have made the same decision as Lawrence Frank (Spoiler Alert: there isn't).
Still, that the price was right also didn’t mean that the integration of the former-league MVP would be easy.
Not only would Los Angeles be cutting into their fragile depth chart, but the team would be sacrificing frontline size in the form of Marcus Morris and Nic Batum, two players that, while far from All-Star talent, were critical in matchups against the Western Conferences’ bigger teams.
Case in point: from the squad’s first match with Harden running the point on November 1st through November 30th, when the team finally began to come together, the Clippers allowed a mere 24 shots per game in the restricted area — ninth-best in the league — but allowed opponents to convert on nearly 70% of those shots, ranking in the bottom nine.
In other words, the Clippers had retained their ability to compete at the point of attack and deny entry passes with their wing defense but faced significant vulnerabilities on their second line once defenses probed past the Leonard/George front.
Even more concerning, however, was the team’s performance on offense.
Harden was obtained primarily thanks to his ability to send the Clippers offense into the stratosphere, yet LA somehow managed to score less with him around than before his arrival, racking up 110 points per game through the team’s first six games with their new star, ranking a mere 26th in the league during that span. To reach those depths, the Clippers essentially transformed themselves into a reincarnation of a 2000s NBA middleweight: zero offensive movement, an endless amount of ISO’s, and a staunch belief that “hero-ball” would inevitably save the day.
Ultimately, it was the worst of both worlds for Los Angeles: handicapped by its lack of defensive versatility while operating an offense geared toward Harden's worst excesses.
Still, Lue and the Clippers never stopped tinkering.
Transitioning Russell Westbrook to the second unit and dropping PJ Tucker from the rotation, Los Angeles fortified its frontline by signing Daniel Theis to the veterans' minimum. Coupled with the emergence of rookie Kobe Brown, the Clippers have not only stanched their hemorrhaging of points at the rim - climbing back into the Top 10 in the restricted area - but have emerged as a bonafide defensive juggernaut, ranking seventh in the league in points per possession, according to Cleaning the Glass.
More than simple lineup changes, however, LA has benefited from establishing a clear defensive hierarchy.
Unleashing Terrance Mann on their opponent's biggest offensive threat, the Clippers harness the threat of George and Leonard on secondary options, short-circuiting the threat of a switch before it can happen. Sparked by their trio of lengthy wing defenders, not to mention the versatility of Ivaca Zubac, Los Angeles is free to hide Harden on lesser threats. Even when teams do succeed in forcing the former MVP into a mismatch against a bigger opponent, Harden more than holds his own, ranking in the 87th percentile of all defenders in the restricted area, according to tracking data from Synergy.
Clippers resurgence
Even as the defense has stabilized, however, it’s been the offense, per usual, that has been the real story of the Clippers’ resurgence of late.
While the top-line numbers have been impressive in their own right — the squad has improved their points per game by 11 points, their field goal percentage by seven percent, and their offensive rating by six points since their November nadir — the eye test speaks of an even bigger improvement.
Simply put, there is a connective tissue to the Clippers offense that didn't exist in the early days of the Harden experiment.
Perhaps most surprising is that the Clippers’ in-season turnaround was not the result of a players-only meeting, or any singularly (melo)dramatic event, but rather the product of a squad that never ran from the day-to-day grind required of team building.
”When you’re losing, it’s like you’re over-talking,” Harden told reporters after the Oklahoma City Thunder broke their nine-game winning streak. ”So, making sure we’re doing those really good habits because half the teams already have the advantage of being together for a number of years; they already know each other, teams like Denver and whatnot, and Milwaukee for the most part.”
Even if those good habits are still forming, the Los Angeles Clippers finally look like contenders (again).
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