With the Pelicans and Lakers out, three teams have already been confirmed to advance in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. Except for the Lakers who won a game, the Suns and Pelicans were swept out of the tournament by their opponents. The final matchup is extremely intense, with the Clippers and Mavericks currently tied at 2-2. At the same time, from the Clippers' point of view, the injury concerns on their team will have a huge impact on this group of series.
The Clippers announced that Leonard is confirmed to be absent from the battle of Tianwang Mountain!
Leonard's situation has been the focus of the most attention from the outside world in this series. And before the start of G5, this time, there was already a clear statement about Leonard's appearance. In an interview after training, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue announced that Leonard, the team's core forward, has confirmed that he will not play in the G5 Battle of Kings Mountain, who has missed G1 and G4 in this series due to knee inflammation and swelling problems. Obviously, Leonard's injury has had a great impact on the series between the Clippers and the Mavericks.
The Clippers made the right decision!
It stands to reason that if the team boss doesn't play, it will have a fatal effect on any team. That wasn't the case with the Clippers in the first-round series, though. In both games Leonard played, the Clippers lost without exception. On the contrary, in the two games he missed, the Clippers won both games. Although the G4 Clippers won very hard, one thing in common is that without Leonard, the Clippers players were able to give it a go and not worry about other factors. From this point of view, rather than letting Leonard play with an injury, watching him play not like himself and perform averagely. It would be better to just let him rest, and the other players were sure from the start that they would take on more responsibility.
As Harden said after the G1 game, although Leonard's state before the game was doubtful, the Clippers knew a few days ago that Leonard would not play, so they were prepared in advance from mentality to technical and tactical arrangement.
This time is different, though. If the Mavericks were speculating on whether Leonard would play in the first four games, they didn't know how to prepare for the game. Then in the next battle of Tianwang Mountain, under the premise of knowing Leonard's absence, the Mavericks will inevitably focus more on Harden and George, and study some offensive and defensive strategies against them. There is no doubt that for the Clippers, even if Tianwangshan is played on their home court, they are still dangerous, because the two sides are basically playing with open cards.
Bad luck Harden!
From Harden's point of view, he does give the impression that he is out of luck. Judging from the injuries of the Mavericks and the Clippers and the results they played, with the whole lineup healthy and fighting, to be honest, the Mavericks are not likely to cause much trouble to the Clippers, but there is no way, Leonard just had a knee problem at a critical moment. Looking back at Harden's career, it seems that every time he is hoping to challenge for a championship, he has been strongly impacted by other problems. During the Rockets period, Harden had survived until the Warriors disintegrated, Durant left, and they had more injuries. As a result, the owner was unwilling to pay the luxury tax, and while trading Paul away, he also gave up some of the puzzle pieces of the forward line.
Then the Nets encountered the epidemic order, Irving's persistence, and Durant's shortcomings in leading the team. The subsequent weakness of Embiid during the 76ers period, he valued individual glory more than team honor. As well as various problems with the coaching staff and management led by Rivers, Harden has once again become a victim. This time in the Clippers career, Harden once again saw the possibility of competing for the championship, the regular season team once let people see the championship, but in the playoffs, the problem is still coming, Harden gives people the feeling that he is very unlucky, and in the end, once he fails, the outside world will put the blame on him.
The bearded man has proven himself!
This time, though, Harden proved himself with his actions. He is the No. 1 core and best performing player of the Clippers in this series. If there is no Harden, or Harden is rumored to be in the playoffs, the playoffs will collapse, and it is difficult to say that the Clippers are on the verge of elimination now, or even have been out. In the absence of Leonard, Harden got his mindset right, and he managed to carry the team forward again, although it is difficult for him to play the crazy statistics of the Rockets again, but as long as he continues his performance, regardless of the Clippers' results, Harden will probably get a contract that he likes in the next free agent market anyway.