There’s many reasons for optimism as the LA Clippers gear up for the postseason.
The LA Clippers have been championship contenders all year, and still are. The Clippers are battle-tested. They dealt with a lot of injuries this year, and overcame that adversity.
Now that the playoffs are here, it’s going to be time for key Clippers to step up. One of the best parts about this roster is how talented it is. While there are plenty of big-time players on this team, one of the best attributes of the Clippers is simply having a player as good as Kawhi Leonard healthy and ready to get after it.
There are very few teams in the entire league who have a better player than Leonard on their roster, and that applies to just playoff teams as well.
Having an easy-money top five player in the NBA on the Clippers is going to automatically draw mismatches on the floor.
Look at this first series. Nobody on the Mavericks is the type of player that two-time NBA Finals MVP Leonard is.
Everybody who is going to be playing in the playoffs for the West is a good team. Being able to have a player who’s above the rest and can take over a game the way Kawhi can is going to have the Clippers favored over many teams.
There’s almost nobody in the entire postseason who one could bet more on in these playoffs than Kawhi. The future Hall of Famer has of course proven to be a dominant force in the regular season, but is also a different beast in the playoffs.
He’s been tasked with two of the hardest feats in NBA Finals history before: Stop prime LeBron James in 2014, and end the Golden State Warriors dynasty.
He’s slain both beasts. Nobody wants to deal with Leonard in the playoffs.
The Clippers have championship experience on their team.
It’s not just Kawhi who has been there and done that in the playoffs.
They have a veteran leader in Rajon Rondo who’s known for his playoff dominance, Serge Ibaka who was a teammate of Leonard’s in their 2019 Finals Championship, and many more players who have played plenty of playoff basketball.
Say what you want about Paul George in the playoffs, but it wasn’t always that he struggled at times in the postseason.
He made back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals in 2013 and 2014, and took prime LeBron to seven games in the Conference Finals in 2013.
In 2013, 2014, and 2016, George put up 21.9 points per game in the playoffs, 7.5 rebounds per game, and 4.4 assists per game. Those were huge numbers for who George was back then. Now imagine George playing to his potential now, and what those numbers could be.
I’m not giving up on PG at all. If he finds his rhythm this postseason, he’s going to play out of his mind.
Even through his failures, he’s gained experience playing on the biggest stage. He has plenty to prove as a postseason player, but there was a reason the name ‘Playoff P’ didn’t used to be something people joked about.
He used to be the real deal in the postseason, and he can get back to that level. Any experience is solid experience, and the Clips have it.
There’s one more attribute that they really boast as well coming into the playoffs.
The Clippers shot 41.1% from three this season.
That’s the best clip in the entire NBA. Even better, the next-best three-point shooting team in the West is the Utah Jazz, who aren’t even second or third in the league.
The Clips will absolutely out-shoot everyone they play in the postseason.
Think it’s just the superstars on the Clippers that are shooting the lights out? Think again.
Marcus Morris Sr. is third in the NBA in three-point percentage at 47.3%. Luke Kennard’s 44.6 three-point percentage is ninth in the league.
Reggie Jackson comes in with the 14th-best percentage at 43.3%. All three are top-seven in the Western Conference, and Morris leads the conference.
The Clippers’ shooting identity runs through the entire roster, and it’s going to be a huge challenge for teams to guard the perimeter when there are so many options.
As for this first matchup against the Mavericks, Dallas is 18th in three-point shooting across the NBA. It’s going to be hard to keep up with the Clippers and how they’re bound to shoot.
It’s going to be hard for any team to keep up, not just the Mavs.
The Clippers are ready, and have what it takes to compete for and win a championship.
They have a Kawhi, they have strong playoff experience, and they have shooters up and down the roster.