LA Clippers: 3 Stats that Explain the Team’s 4-2 Record

We’re 6 games into the season, and the LA Clippers sit at a cozy 4-2 record. We take a look at some stats that have propelled this good start.

Outside of one serious downer against the Mavericks, the LA Clippers have had a very good start to the season. They’ve recorded convincing wins against contenders in the Lakers and Nuggets, and they were nearly able to shake off a horrendous shooting night against the Jazz.

There are many explanations for this quality start, one of which is that they have two of the 20 best players in the league in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. But we wanted to go a little deeper than that, and give you three statistics that have caught our eye in the first six games.

And yes, we actually did cheat and give you 6 statistics, but we’re putting them into 3 related pairs, so we’re still calling it 3.

LA Clippers Stat #1: 14.5, and 6

The LA Clippers are averaging 14.5 turnovers per game so far in this young season. That’s not an incredibly high or low number, and it’s actually not that much different from last season when they averaged 14.6.

The difference here is that, last season, 14.6 was a pretty mediocre number, good for 13th out of the 30 teams in the league. This season, teams are still recovering from either a very short or very long offseason, and 14.5 is good for 6th in the league.

Whatever malaise is sapping other offenses and making them turn the ball over at a higher rate hasn’t hit the LA Clippers. Which is even more impressive when you consider that they have a new head coach and offensive system to which they’re adapting.

Being a top team in terms of taking care of the ball helps turn 5 point wins into 10 point wins, and it helps make games like the Denver game – which could have easily come down to the wire with a late push by the Nuggets – and turn it into a comfortable win.

We can certainly thank Lue’s new system for being a big part of limiting turnovers, and as the players get more comfortable in it, I expect to see these turnover numbers drop even more.