On November 14, the Clippers lost in Denver and recorded a sixth defeat in a row. The transplant with James Harden had not yet taken hold, Tyronn Lue's team lacked rhythm, barely ran and the season was clearly taking a bad turn.
A month later, things are much better. Certainly, Los Angeles suffered to beat the Warriors or the Blazers but the franchise remains on five victories in a row, the best series in the league currently. The latest one is crushing, without appeal (there was up to 33 points difference), against the Kings.
“I know we started off badly, but we stayed the course”had explained Tyronn Lue before this meeting, for the Los Angeles Times. “The credit goes to the players, present at every shootaround, every training session to improve and try to do better collectively. »
An alchemy takes hold
The Clippers coach knew that his patience would be rewarded. It was therefore not necessary to change everything after the defeats. Time was going to be on the side of Los Angeles.
“The most important thing is not to lose the thread,” continues the coach. “At the beginning, it was complicated to know how we wanted to play, we were looking for our rotations and the balance between James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard and Russell Westbrook. Once we found that, the guys had a constant dialogue, before and after practices. Every day they try to do better. »
The symbol of this success is Kawhi Leonard. For three matches, he has been absolutely brilliant and is averaging 35.3 points with a 64% shooting success rate. “It’s alchemy, we play together. Everything is clearer. We know what to expect before the matches. That's the most important thing I think.”delivers the winger.
“We are heading in the right direction. We are doing a lot of good things and we must continue to work”concludes Tyronn Lue, before meeting the Warriors who are skating, Thursday evening, to continue their good series.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Paul George | 22 | 36.0 | 44.6 | 38.5 | 92.7 | 0.7 | 5.2 | 5.9 | 4.2 | 2.3 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 2.9 | 23.2 |
| Kawhi Leonard | 22 | 34.9 | 49.2 | 41.5 | 85.9 | 1.0 | 4.9 | 5.9 | 3.6 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 23.0 |
| James Harden | 17 | 33.8 | 46.3 | 41.0 | 85.9 | 0.3 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 6.8 | 2.3 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 1.9 | 16.0 |
| Ivica Zubac | 22 | 26.9 | 62.7 | 0.0 | 59.4 | 3.2 | 5.8 | 9.0 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 2.7 | 12.3 |
| Norman Powell | 22 | 24.4 | 47.9 | 44.0 | 84.2 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 12.3 |
| Russell Westbrook | 22 | 25.3 | 44.1 | 28.1 | 62.1 | 1.5 | 4.9 | 6.4 | 5.0 | 2.4 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 11.5 |
| Bones Hyland | 12 | 16.8 | 42.0 | 35.4 | 90.0 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 1.8 | 8.3 |
| Daniel Theis | 11 | 17.3 | 46.6 | 46.2 | 50.0 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 4.5 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 2.6 | 7.2 |
| Terance Mann | 16 | 26.6 | 43.9 | 20.5 | 58.8 | 1.2 | 2.5 | 3.7 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 6.6 |
| Mason Plumlee | 6 | 17.0 | 63.2 | 0.0 | 42.9 | 1.3 | 4.2 | 5.5 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 5.0 |
| Kj Martin | 2 | 15.7 | 40.0 | 20.0 | 50.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 5.0 |
| Moussa Diabate | 9 | 6.1 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 3.0 |
| Robert Covington | 3 | 23.1 | 33.3 | 25.0 | 50.0 | 0.7 | 2.0 | 2.7 | 2.3 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 2.3 | 3.0 |
| Nicolas Batum | 3 | 18.0 | 37.5 | 28.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 2.7 |
| Jordan Miller | 2 | 3.4 | 66.7 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.5 |
| Kobe Brown | 13 | 9.3 | 31.0 | 26.3 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 1.8 |
| Amir Coffey | 10 | 5.8 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.2 |
| Pj Tucker | 12 | 14.4 | 28.6 | 27.3 | 100.0 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 2.4 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 1.2 |
