The halfway point of a Clippers season featuring some of the highest stakes in franchise history arrives Friday — a milestone that is also a misnomer.
The Clippers have played 38 games — by one measurement, anyway. They have also played only 14 games with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in the lineup, the franchise pillars on whose shoulders the Clippers’ championship hopes rest. At full strength? Four games.
Such numbers explain coach Tyronn Lue’s answer Saturday, after a 131-130 loss in Indiana ended a five-game road trip the Clippers finished 2-3, about his lineups and rotations.
“We haven’t been together long enough to say this is how we want to play, this is who we want to be,” Lue said. “Just the right combinations, how we can be better defensively when we go small, those combinations are one. And then offensively how we want to play, how we want to attack?”
It’s one of five takeaways from the Clippers’ five-game road trip.
Big question: How to play small
Just as against Boston on Thursday, Lue saw a Clippers rally surge in the third quarter (more on that later) and pivoted to some of the smallest lineups used all season, featuring either the 6-foot-8 Leonard or George surrounded by four smaller guards, including some combination of Luke Kennard, John Wall, Norm Powell, Terance Mann and Reggie Jackson.
Lue said he wanted to stick with it against Indiana to space the floor with shooters knowing Leonard and George would draw double teams, and to be able to switch defensively from point guard to center to slow Indiana’s pace. Just as against Boston, it also opened the Clippers up to Indiana attacking inside, with the Pacers shooting nine for 11 in the paint in the final quarter.
As soon as the Clippers led by six with less than six minutes to play, big man Myles Turner immediately made a layup, a free throw and another layup.
Asked after the loss if they felt the Clippers needed to continue experimenting with their lineup, multiple players echoed Lue and mentioned “still trying to figure out the small ball,” center Ivica Zubac said.
“We’re finally getting some rhythm now with everyone back so it’s much easier to figure it out that way. Hopefully we can keep staying healthy and just keep working on it. With repetition we’re going to get some results. I feel we’re trending in the right way.”
George felt smaller lineups were not consistent in forcing opponents toward baseline drives, allowing easy attacks into the defense’s middle.
“When we’re small that’s tough for us to rotate out of,” George said.
Here comes Kawhi
His minutes restriction hasn’t been lifted but things are beginning to return to normal for Leonard, who averaged 23.2 points and 35 minutes in four games during the trip, with Lue acknowledging that Leonard is playing essentially his normal amount.
“As far as explosiveness, I don’t think that’s all the way back yet or as far as trusting it all the way right now,” Lue said, “but just his decision-making, his timing of getting to his spots and getting to his shot and I think his timing of making passes when teams are double-teaming, making the right read in the right play, that’s really good.”
After 17 third-quarter points against the Pacers, Leonard said he was “still moving up the right track, feeling healthy still, and that’s what it’s about.”
Lue plans to continue staggering Leonard’s and George’s minutes. It’s a defensive boon, but presents an offensive challenge, too, Lue said, of still allowing the offense to play through Powell and Kennard.
On the road trip the Clippers had varying levels of success handling blitzes against Leonard and George in Philadelphia, Toronto, and Boston before doing a “way better job” with spacing and passing out of double teams against Indiana, in Lue’s estimation.
The tactics led Leonard and George to pass at much higher rates than their season average — in Leonard’s case, more than double — during the trip.
“It’s just a compliment to me just seeing that” onslaught of double teams and blitzes,” Leonard said. “It means I’m doing a great job of either getting to my spots or making plays for my teammates.”
Third quarters a first priority
To Lue, championship teams are strong third-quarter teams, a reflection of a roster’s ability to focus out of halftime and impose its will. In that regard, the Clippers have been unpredictable: They’ve outscored opponents by double digits in third quarters five times while also being outscored by that margin in six games.
The common link in getting outscored in the third quarter three times was an average of nearly seven turnovers per quarter.
The Clippers broke open a game Tuesday in Toronto in the third quarter by shooting 68%, committing zero turnovers and outscoring the Raptors by 11. An 11-point halftime deficit in Boston on Thursday was erased during a third quarter that saw the Clippers make seven of their 11 three-pointers, the most they’ve made in any quarter after halftime this season.
The same circumstances played out in the trip’s finale: An inefficient start in Indiana was compensated for during an extremely sharp start to the second half in which they shot 54%, got to the free-throw line nine times and committed only two third-quarter turnovers.
Minutes squeeze for Mann
The returns of Leonard and George have squeezed minutes for reserves, particularly Mann, who averaged 12 minutes during the trip.
When the Clippers are healthy again — reserve wing Nicolas Batum didn’t play Saturday because of an ankle injury — what is Mann’s role?
“I don’t know,” Lue said.
Mann played five first-half minutes against Boston, then didn’t appear after halftime. Against Indiana, he didn’t appear before halftime before being featured in the smaller lineups. Entering Saturday’s game, lineups without a center that didn’t involve Mann had essentially broken even in scoring margin. Center-less lineups featuring Mann outscored opponents by 11.4 points per 100 possessions, according to Cleaning The Glass.
Kennard looking for his shot
Until Kennard’s three-pointer one minute into the fourth quarter Saturday, he hadn’t scored in 49 previous minutes of game action.
Held without a field goal against Toronto on Dec. 27, he didn’t attempt one against Boston two days later, the continuation of what has been a difficult matchup against a Boston defense determined to take away the 47% three-point shooter.
“There are times I can get even deeper into the paint,” Kennard said. “Looking at the rim more and trying to create a little more of an advantage on the offensive end when teams do run me off the line.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
