The Los Angeles Clippers’ impressive climb up the Western Conference standings, from 15 games below .500 to a spot squarely in the play-in tournament, outwardly seemed undone by the jettisoning of James Harden and Ivica Zubac at last week’s trade deadline.
Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard and his unyielding teammates appear to believe otherwise.
Behind another sensational performance from Leonard, the Clippers thumped the Minnesota Timberwolves 115-96 on Sunday despite the absences of Harden and Zubac, as well as the players they received back in those separate trades.
The Clippers anticipate Darius Garland, Bennedict Mathurin and Isaiah Jackson will make their debuts Tuesday in the first of back-to-back road games against the Houston Rockets.
Leonard posted 41 points, eight rebounds and four steals in the road victory over Minnesota, marking his career-best fourth 40-point game this season. Despite being short-handed and presumably disinclined to make a playoff push following the departures of Harden and Zubac, the Clippers proved they have plenty of fight remaining for the stretch run of the regular season.
“We’re always ready to go,” Clippers forward John Collins said. “We’ve got great guys ready to step up and take advantage of their opportunity, as well as Kawhi Leonard. What more can I say?”
A sweep of the two-game set in Houston would lift the Clippers to a .500 record at the All-Star break. Such a mark seemed improbable in mid-December, but moxie is difficult to measure.
“We’ve got a good group,” Leonard said. “Guys are levelheaded, they love to play basketball, so we’re just going out and competing every night. That’s all we’re doing.”
The Rockets are also seeking to carry momentum into the break. After dropping consecutive home games to the Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets last week, Houston rallied to claim the finale of a three-game season series with the Oklahoma City Thunder 112-106 on Saturday.
The Rockets have displayed a tendency to play to the level of their competition this season, often saving their best for their most challenging opponents. Houston has labored against inconsistency, with vacillating effort and intensity addressed during last week’s back-to-back.
“That was the message even before the Charlotte game,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “We wanted to play well these last five, didn’t do so in those first two, but it was good to get back to playing with the effort and intensity it takes to win a game against Oklahoma City.
“And that’s the case with the Clippers. We want to finish on a good note. We got two days off to recover really quickly, get this back-to-back in, and obviously, it’s a race to the finish, those 29 games. Good to get us into the All-Star break on the right foot and then build off of that.”
Against the Thunder, the Rockets received critical contributions from Tari Eason and Jabari Smith Jr., who combined for 48 points and 18 rebounds in support of the All-Star tandem of Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun.
If the Rockets are to meet their lofty preseason expectations, they will require similar efforts from their role players during the closing sprint to the playoffs.
“We’re going to have to deal with that throughout the rest of the season,” Durant said of the attention opposing defenses focus on himself and Sengun. “It was a good test for us.”
