The stats don't lie|37 points fiasco turned into a 19-point win: the league's No. 1 can't beat the Clippers with small cards

On January 28, Beijing time, the Clippers defeated the Celtics 115-96 away, avenging the 37-point home loss to the opponent in the last meeting, and the Clippers led by up to 36 points in this game. From a 37-point defeat to a 19-point win, what has changed for the Clippers? The biggest difference is that in the last meeting, the Clippers' Leonard was suspended, and this time, Leonard played healthy and led the team to overturn the first place in the league!

It must be mentioned that the Clippers did not beat the Celtics in their entirety, and Porzingis was absent from this game. Coincidentally, the last time they lost to the Green Army by 37 points, Porzingis didn't play. The opponent is basically the same, and the Clippers have a small card, so the battle situation has changed so much?

How important is Leonard to the Clippers?

In this game, Leonard is indeed the best player on the Clippers team, he only played 29 minutes, and contributed 26 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks in the third quarter, shooting 10 of 15 from the field and 3 of 5 from three-point range, showing dominance on both offensive and defensive ends.

Leonard's fitness has been pretty good this season, and he has only missed four games so far this season, with the Clippers going 2-2 in those four games. The two games won against the weak Hornets and Grizzlies were not worth mentioning, but the Clippers without Leonard lost to the Thunder by 17 points and the Celtics by 37 points.

This also shows that the Clippers without a small card lack the ability to compete with a really strong team, but the Clippers with a small card can show a completely different face in the face of the same opponent. They won the Green Army by 19 points today and the Thunder by 11 points on January 17. The two opponents who lost without the small card became the Clippers' defeated players when the small card played.

The high-level data also further illustrates the importance of small cards. Before this game, in the 1350 minutes that Xiaoka played, the Clippers had an offensive efficiency of 122.4 and a defensive efficiency of 111.0, and the Clippers could win the opponent by 11.4 points per 100 rounds, while in the 721 minutes that Xiaoka was not on the court, the Clippers had an offensive efficiency of 119.7 and a defensive efficiency of 121.6, and they had to lose to the opponent by 2.0 points in 100 rounds, a difference of 13.4 points!

The chemistry of the Big Four has improved

Commenting on the team's recent good form, Lue said: "It's about our players who know how to make sacrifices, I'm talking about George, Ka, Westbrook, Harden. I think our players now understand how to play. ”

On the topic of sacrifice, when Harden first arrived, Lu had already pointed it out very clearly. At that time, he said that Xiaoka was the most important offensive point among the four, so the Big Four had to be sacrificed, and Xiaoka's sacrifice should be less. is also the above set of data that is not present, and the data of the other three giants are as follows-

George is +10.5 when he's on the floor and -1.4 when George isn't, a difference of 11.9 points

+9.6 when Harden is on the floor and +2.0 when Harden is not on the floor, a difference of 7.6 points

+3.7 when Wei Shao is on the field and +9.6 when Wei Shao is not on the court, a difference of -5.9 points. Of course, this has a lot to do with Wei Shao's sacrifice to play as a substitute and not be in the starting lineup. This data also reflects the pattern of Wei Shao. He doesn't care about the stats, which makes the team have better chemistry.

The Clippers have the first record after changing formations

After this period of running-in, the tacit understanding of the Clippers has been greatly improved. Since November 18 last year, when Mann replaced Willis as the starter, the Clippers have a 27-7 record, a 79.4% win rate, ranking first in the league during the same period. During this period, the offensive efficiency was 122.0 and the three-point shooting rate was 40.4%, both of which were also the first in the league.

The Clippers have never won a championship in their history, or even made it to the Finals. Is this Western powerhouse really expected to win the first championship in 54 years this season?