The ridiculed Clippers have won seven in a row
The wisdom of fans is endless, and in recent years a new term has emerged in the world of professional sports, called the "Northern Expedition".
The probable source of this is that football giants like Manchester United or Chelsea have been hovering in the Premier League standings and even falling to the bottom half of the table because of a period of unfavorable results. But the fans are serious or ridiculous, and believe that these teams can have the potential to rise rapidly in the rankings, and can jump all the way from the back class to the front, based on the law of "up the north, down the south, the left, the west, the right east", this kind of upward climb in the standings is named the "Northern Expedition".
Unexpectedly, in this season's NBA world, there is now a team that is on the Northern Expedition, and that is the Los Angeles Clippers: with the recent longest winning streak in the league, the Clippers have completely shaken off the previous sinking in the play-off circle, not only ranking sixth in the West, but also only 1.5 wins away from the second-ranked Thunder.
The NBA regular season is less than a third of the way to this day, and the current state and momentum of the Clippers will inevitably make people wonder: given time, maybe the "Northern Expedition" can really succeed?
You must know that a month ago at this moment, the surrounding Clippers were still full of laughter, so what kind of changes have occurred in this month?
The first to die
Today is December 18th, Beijing time, exactly a month ago, that is, on November 18th, there was an atmosphere of slaughter in the Clippers at that time:
After being defeated by arch-rival Nuggets, the Clippers have swallowed a six-game losing streak. Especially after trading James Harden, it is difficult to find a win, and with the four stars in the hands, the team seems to be on the verge of falling apart.
At this time, a news came out of the team that Westbrook took the initiative to communicate with the coaching staff, and he was willing to start from the bench to help the team find a way to win. So in the game against the Houston Rockets that day, Westbrook retreated to the bench and gave up the starting spot to Terence Mann. It was also on that day that the Clippers, who had lost six in a row, defeated the Rockets, who had won six in a row, and the Clippers ushered in the turning point of their season and officially embarked on the starting point of the "Northern Expedition".
In the next 15 games, the Clippers had an excellent record of 12 wins and 3 losses, and tied for the first place in the league in terms of winning percentage during the same period. Indeed, his average of 9.4 points and 4.1 assists per game in these 15 games is no longer a star player's stats, but there are still some people who remember that Illyan Lakhane, a writer for Clippers fan station Clipperholics, wrote a few days ago that "it was Westbrook's 'beyond the data sheet' personality that changed the course of the entire Clippers."
We can push back the clock a little further, back to before the Harden trade, in fact, Wei Shao was living a fairy-like life in the Clippers at that time: he was in good shape, the team relied on him very much, the Clippers played a good start, Wei Shao averaged 15.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game before Harden joined, and the shooting rate was more than 50%. Coupled with his gritty performance with the Clippers in last year's playoffs and the high value for money of his contract, Westbrook has undoubtedly become the darling of fans, and the media has unanimously given him positive reviews. Even at a press conference at the beginning of the season, Wei Shao was asked, "Why do you look so much happier with the Clippers than you do with the Lakers?" He sighed into the microphone and popped out two words: long list -- you have to tell me about this, I may list too much for you.
But soon the team pressed the trade button, and Wei Shao and Harden met for the third time in their careers, and he was the first person to get up to welcome Harden in the locker room, but soon reality told them that the second and third brothers of the past, when they reached middle age, were no longer suitable to appear at the same time.
Harden is the guy who shouts "I'm the system," and he's really more capable right now, and the Clippers should be in charge of the course. But Wei Shao also needs to have the ball in his hand, and the two NBA historical players with ball usage rates can no longer be forcibly tied up by old friendships, so Westbrook took the initiative to choose to take a step back. He was right, taking a step back would indeed open the sky, but it would be tantamount to cutting his finger and dripping a drop of blood into the reagent bottle, which gave birth to all the chemistry of the Clipper ship after that.
But what's even more touching than the active selection of the bench is that Westbrook has not been bitter since then, he has only averaged just over 20 minutes per game in the last 15 games, and his offensive success rate has declined, but he is a variant for the Clippers, always lighting the game off the bench, not only making the team happy, but even making the team happy.
He and Harden are still a couple off the court, and they have to dance on the bench before the game; in the game against the Knicks, New York titan Josh Hart was sent off the court, and Wei Shao stood up and waved goodbye; and even after each game victory, the Clippers will often use Wei Shao as a representative on the postgame poster, because he always has the most infectious expression and conveys moving emotions.
Tyronn Lew understands everything
After those 15 games, as the team's navigator, Tyronn Lue must be very grateful to Westbrook:
If it weren't for this young master's initiative, Director Lu might have to spend more time finding a way to speak.
But if you really want to ask Director Lu if he knows what the problem was when the Clippers lost 6 in a row, he actually felt like a mirror in his heart.
Tyronn Lue has always been a coach with a huge contrast between the NBA world and the fans' field of vision, and in the general manager vote every year, Tyronn Lue's coaching level and on-the-spot reaction are highly praised, including the current U.S. men's basketball coaching team, he also occupies the same position as Steve Kerr and Spoelstra, but from the perspective of fans, Lu's ability to coach is probably more derogatory than praised, and he is more regarded as a meme celebrity.
But after winning 12 of his last 15 games, Lou has proven that a lot of things can be done in an instant in a world where the upper lip touches the lower lip, but in an environment where he needs to be around people, he needs time to push for all that change.
Not only is Willow off the bench now, but Tyronn Lue is staggering his game time with Harden more and more as the season progresses, such as the Clippers' pivotal win over the Nuggets on December 7, which not only ended the Clippers' eight-game losing streak against the Nemesis, but also brought the team's winning rate back to 50%, and Westbrook and Harden did not appear together for a second that day.
Throughout December, the Clippers played a total of 37 minutes together in seven games, averaging just over five minutes per game, "yes, that's the team's plan, staggering them as much as possible," Lue said bluntly in an interview in December, "but there's always a lot of unknowns in the game, and you have to know exactly which players and which lineups will work in each game, but we'll try to maintain our rotation as much as possible." ”
In fact, it is not only the use of the two Denway, Lu is aware of many details, such as the feasibility of the Clippers' small lineup, he has tried the configuration of Harden and Leonard to defend the four or five positions respectively, but in fact, he knows, "Harden is not suitable for playing a pure small lineup now, and both offensive and defensive ends need to have a No. 5 position as a supplement"; For example, the use of P.J. Tucker, Tucker's offensive ability has long been degraded, but he is Harden's best brother and is highly regarded in the player base, can Coach Lu press Tucker to the bench from day one?
The art of coaching is to let everyone see that he is really not good, and even he himself knows that he can't do it, so he slowly makes changes. Beginning on Nov. 30, Tyronn Lue completely abandoned Tucker and didn't give the veteran even a minute of time, and the Clippers went 8-1 over the same period.
From his playing days to his coaching career, Tyronn Lue's basketball life has always been with all kinds of epoch-making superstars, from Jordan Kobe O'Neal to James Owen Leonard, Rao is like that, and he confided in ESPN's Omm Youngmisak a month ago: "It's really hard to pinch four stars together, but that's my calling, and I love this team, so I have to be like all four of them and come up with a solution." ”
Now that the team is on the right track, Lue finally breathed a sigh of relief after beating the Knicks 144-122, "We have to get better, but the direction is now set." ”
Leonard is back
It's never easy for Tyronn Lue to pinch four superstars, but he's always been sure of one thing:
At a time when these stars are sacrificing each other to make the team a success, Lew wants one person not to sacrifice.
The one who shouldn't be sacrificed is because he has to play 100% of his power and be 100% of himself, and he has this privilege because of all four stars, this person is undoubtedly the absolute number one: this character, Carhoue Leonard.
Although the physical condition of the small card at the beginning of this season is slightly better than this time last year, Coach Lu sighed repeatedly, "This is the first time since I coached the Clippers, Leonard can play at 100% during training camp", but in fact, when the season started, Leonard still showed some signs of rust, and Xiaoka, who had a history of countless injuries, was diagnosed with a serious injury with a torn meniscus during the 2023 playoffs. Although he recovered in time, his form was still up and down in the first 15 games of the new season, with a strong performance of 38 points against the Lakers, but also the embarrassment of not scoring double-doubles twice - you know, Leonard has always been known for his robot-like stability since his miraculous achievements in 2017, such as the November 1 against the Magic, playing more than 30 minutes but only scoring in single digits, the last time dating back to January 2016.
A superstar played such a performance, and even when the Clippers team was back on track, the small card still had a lot of sluggish performances, including the signature mid-range finish, which once made the Clippers have a tilt in the direction of Paul George's main offense.
On November 26 against the Mavericks, he scored only 8 points in 2 of 12 games, as if a needle pricked Xiaoka's nerves, and he continued to improve in the ensuing games: the American media has widely disseminated the data of his past 10 games, but in fact, only these 10 games, Xiaoka has a secondary start process, from November 28 to December 6, he averaged 25 points and 7.2 rebounds per game in 5 games, and his three-point shooting rate soared to 50%;
And then, in the last five games, Leonard averaged 33.8 points per game, shooting a terrible 64.8% from the field, and a total of 18 of 29 from the three-point line, and his true shooting rate in these five games was an incredible 80.4%.
You know, this season, the Clippers decided during training camp to let Terence Mann occupy a starting position, and for this appointment, the person who needs to adapt the most is actually not Mann himself, but the small card who was pushed to the No. 4 position. In his long career, Leonard was of course one of the most outstanding No. 3 players in the league, but with a good size, his transformation to the No. 4 position was far less smooth than James and Durant, which also became a slight criticism of him.
Coming to the new 2023-24 season, Leonard decided to accept this mission, which also partly led to his rusty start to the season. But just like yesterday's home game against the Knicks, Leonard dominated the matchup against a big, in-form Randle, not only scoring 36 points on 12-of-16 shooting on the offensive end, but he didn't let Randle hit a single mid-to-long-range jumper.
Of course, Leonard's surprise in this game didn't stop there, he followed Westbrook in a fast break, received an unseen pass from the latter, and then took off from a very long distance and stuffed the ball into the basket with his left hand. At that moment, it suddenly came to mind: my God, Leonard, who has been able to play back-to-back games this season and has been in full attendance for 25 games so far, is in such good physical condition!
So far, Leonard's stats have almost surpassed last season's, and every serious injury can't stop him from returning to his peak level, but when asked after the game against the Knicks what he thinks of his recent heroic form, he responded: "My focus will be on something more important than that." ”
Pour some cold water on the Clippers
With a 12-3 record in 15 games, the Clippers are gradually breaking free of their shackles and baring their sharp fangs, and now more and more people are believing Harden's words, "Once we find a solution to the problem, we're going to be terrible."
”
But after praising the Clippers' outstanding performance, we need to bring out a big basin of cold water at this moment, so that the expectations of the Clippers and fans will be slightly cooled.
The Clippers need to realize that their recent good results are largely due to the support of the schedule. Their opponents during their recent winning streak include not only teams in the late Western Conference such as the Trail Blazers and Jazz, but also the Warriors, who have been in a bad situation recently, including the Knicks, who also played back-to-back games against them after a bloody battle with the Suns.
Including these 15 games, the Clippers played 10 home games and 5 away games, especially in the past wave of 7 consecutive wins, they have 6 games on the doorstep of Los Angeles, these games can't be won, that's the big problem.
So far this season, the Clippers have an 11-3 record at home and 4-7 on the road, and with that contrast, they are about to have a month and a half of mostly playing on the road. The 7-7 record against teams with a win rate of more than 50% also shows that the Clippers' dominance is still insufficient. So far this season, the Clippers and the four teams with the highest winning percentage in the league, the Celtics, Timberwolves, Bucks, and 76ers, have not played a single game, which makes them 8th in the league in the difficulty of the remaining schedule, and there are still a lot of strong opponents to face - in comparison, the Celtics not only have a joint first record in the league with the Timberwolves so far this season, but also have the most difficult schedule in the league, so the current ranking is naturally more convincing.
At the same time, the Clippers also need to be highly vigilant, that is, the physical condition of Xiaoka, Paul George and even Harden, Leonard is currently in full attendance for 25 games, George has only missed 1 game, and Harden has also played every game after joining the Clippers. But these three vital players, their attendance in recent years has not been optimistic, and the Clippers have been able to get where they are now with the full force of the trio and the nerves, but once the team is on track and the schedule is a little slack, Tyronn Lue must think about their load reduction early, and even sacrifice some regular-season records at some times.
Now that Leonard has made it clear that "his focus is on something more important," he'll certainly remember the last time he won the championship in 2019, when the Raptors didn't let him play in any back-to-back games that season to make sure he had plenty of energy in the playoffs. After sustaining an injury in the 2017 playoffs, Leonard has played just eight back-to-back games in the six years since, and he has played four times this season. The alarm will go off at any time, and the Clippers must be prepared for danger in times of peace.
Tomorrow, Beijing time, on the home court of the Clippers, their city brother Los Angeles Lakers will raise the 17.5th championship flag in team history. For the Los Angeles kids on the Clippers, don't they really want to make a mark on the arena?
So, where will the summer of 2024 be?
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