The Los Angeles Clippers are gearing up to face the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. It will be a much-anticipated matchup between two Western Conference teams loaded with star power, and two squads that have had much different seasons than anticipated.
When many were questioning mid-season if the Suns’ championship window had closed, Phoenix decisively silenced those questions by adding Kevin Durant at the trade deadline. With one of the greatest offensive players of all time on their side, the Suns certainly like their chances of making it to the 2023 NBA Finals.
On the other hand, the Clippers were seen as favorites in the West by many in the preseason. After getting Kawhi Leonard back from a torn ACL, LA looked to have a title contender on their hands once again.
Unfortunately, the 2022-23 season has involved far more headaches than Clipper fans had anticipated. Dealing with injuries to multiple important rotation players throughout the year, the team has not been nearly as dominant as expected, and they were at risk of falling into the play-in tournament leading up to the end of the regular season.
Even so, they have as good a chance as anyone of making a run in a seemingly wide-open Western Conference. With one of the best postseason performers of all time on their side in Kawhi Leonard, the possibility for a deep run is always there.
While there will certainly be some surprises in the series, there are also a few things you can go ahead and place your bets on happening.
Surefire event 1: Clippers-Suns will be a long series
Analysts and fans have been busy getting their hot takes off about the Clippers and Suns this week. Many believe this could be a quick and decisive victory for Phoenix, with the Suns’ offensive firepower simply being too much for LA to handle.
In reality, this series is about as close to a coin flip as is possible. The Clippers may have struggled more than expected this season, but their roster is built to thrive in the postseason. That alone does not guarantee a series victory, but it should make this a dogfight to the very end.
We can expect this series to go to at least six games. Both teams are capable of winning on the road, but the Clippers finished with a winning road record in 2022-23 while the Suns did not. The travel time will be hectic for both squads, with neither team getting more than one day of rest until game five of the series.
At the end of the day, the talent differential between the Suns and Clippers is close enough that neither should be running away with the series after two or three games. Durant and Leonard’s carrying power will be enough to keep this series going down to the wire, which leads us to our next guaranteed event.
Surefire event 2: The star power of Kawhi Leonard/Kevin Durant will shine
If there is one thing certain in this series, it is that basketball fans across the world are in for a treat. Kawhi Leonard and Kevin Durant will be facing each other in a playoff series for the first time since the 2019 NBA Finals, and the first time with both healthy since the 2016 Western Conference semifinals.
Kevin Durant enters this first-round matchup playing some of the best basketball of his entire career. He recently became the first player in NBA history to average 55/40/90% shooting splits over the course of an entire regular season.
It hardly seems possible, but KD has statistically been a better player since tearing his Achilles in 2019 than he was before the devastating injury. Since joining the Suns, he is averaging 26.2 points while shooting 56.4% from the floor and an absurd 53.7% from three-point range.
Those are scary numbers for the Clippers to think about, but the good news is that they have a player whose playoff form rivals any version of Kevin Durant. Kawhi Leonard will be suiting up for the playoffs for the first time since June 2021, and he will look to pick up where he left off.
When we last saw Leonard in the playoffs, he was putting up 30.4 points per game on 57% shooting, nearly single-handedly willing the Clippers to a series win over Dallas. His efficiency was off the charts, and his improved shooting numbers in 2022-23 are a good indicator that he is ready to do what he does best once again.
These two all time great playoff performers will not disappoint the national audience.
Surefire event 3: Clipper offense will thrive with Westbrook
Since Russell Westbrook signed with the Clippers in February, he has helped revive what had been a suboptimal transition offense in LA. Despite the fact that they employed the speedy John Wall, the Clippers were scoring just over 12 fast break points per game before Westbrook’s arrival.
With number zero taking the reigns, the Clips have racked up their per 48 minute transition scoring to 16.4 points per game with Westbrook on the floor. His ability to increase the pace while finding shooters for quick points has done wonders for LA in the last six weeks.
While many questioned the Westbrook signing after his less-than-impressive tenure with the Lakers, he has shown that he is in a far better situation to thrive than he was with the team across the hallway. With Westbrook out of Darvin Ham’s system, his natural talents have returned to the forefront.
He is still turnover prone at times, but the spark he provides for the Clipper offense has been worth the trouble thus far. Westbrook already has eight double digit assist games since joining the Clippers, but his own shot has been falling more frequently as well. He has been red-hot from three in the month of April, knocking down 53% of his threes through four games this month.
With Paul George likely sidelined for the entire first-round series, having Westbrook at the top of his game will be a big difference-maker for the Clippers.
Here are two potential surprises from the Clippers-Suns series:
Surprise 1: Robert Covington joins Clippers’ closing lineup
Robert Covington has had a bit of a strange season with the Clippers. After arriving in LA for the final 23 games of last season, he saw his role greatly reduced in 2022-23, playing just 16 minutes per game and being much less of a factor than anticipated.
As a result, his numbers are down across the board and Clipper fans are wondering what he did to get buried so deep in Ty Lue’s rotation. Despite his low usage to this point, there is reason to believe a change could be on the horizon.
Earlier this week, a picture from the Clippers’ practice surfaced that showed Covington wearing a black starter’s practice jersey. Of course this does not confirm anything, but it could mean that Lue is preparing to insert RoCo into the starting lineup, or perhaps play him down the stretch of close games with the closing lineup.
This would make sense considering the Clippers will be going up against some of the most deadly pull-up jump shooters of this generation in Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, with Chris Paul still a master of the midrange as well. There is a very real chance the Clippers will need to rely on the quick hands and feet of Robert Covington to get stops when it matters most.
Surprise 2: Clippers could pull the upset with wing depth
Even without Paul George, the Los Angeles Clippers are a team loaded with talent on the wing. Between Kawhi Leonard, Terance Mann, Norman Powell, Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington, Eric Gordon and others, the Clips are deep enough to always have playoff-tested veterans on the floor in crucial situations.
To beat a team as talented as the Suns, it will take the kind of versatile wings that LA has on their roster. Players like Batum and Mann have been in dozens of playoff games before and experienced the pressure of playing in a hostile environment with everything on the line.
Gordon and Powell are knockdown shooters that can be relied on to make a clutch shot. Not to mention there are capable defenders all over the Clippers’ roster as well. With a lethal combination of skill and experience, LA has the wings to be world beaters and challenge a star-studded team like the Suns.
In a way, the Clippers are something of the inverse to the Sacramento Kings. They may not have the flashiest players or most high-powered offense, but they bring intangibles and expertise that could give them a chance when everyone is counting them out. Time will tell, but on paper, the Clippers certainly have the potential to knock off the Western Conference favorites in round one.