On October 24, 2022, the Clippers made their first show at home in the new season. As a result, the Clippers were defeated by the sun with 95-112 in front of the home fans. Paul-George and kohuai-Leonard scored 27 points in total, it is better to have more than one German-Booker who scored 35 points.
“Don’t expect us to have any crazy performance before NBA Christmas wars. We are like a new team now, but we will be fine in the end.” Nicholas Batum said at that time.
At that time, Batum was optimistic and normal. Almost everyone thought that as long as they were healthy, they must be champions. But the problem is that the precondition of “as long as the Clippers are healthy” has never been removed.
In a blink of an eye, NBA Christmas wars has passed and the time has come to January 7, 2023. The situation of the Clippers seems to be no different from that at the beginning of the season. The last clippers were defeated by the Nuggets by 91-122, and after half-time, they surrendered with a white flag. Today, the Clippers went out with a residual array and eventually lost 115-128 to the forest Wolf. After a wave of 5 consecutive defeats, they ranked 7th in the West.
“The line-up is not neat” and “The running-in is not in place” can still be used as a universal excuse for the Clippers, but the same excuse has been used again and again. How much patience is left in the management who is crazy about real money and silver? What’s more, this season, when the Clippers played in full body, they did not show the strength of the strong team. The last game was completely played in body, but the surprise defeat to the Nuggets was even more confusing.
Although the Clippers finally missed the playoff in last season’s halberd play-off, but when Leonard didn’t play one game and George only played 31 games, the Clippers still played well, tyron-Lu’s coaching was well received. And in the middle of the season, Clippers made a reserve transaction that ignored the tax. They exchanged Robert Covington and Norman Powell, this transaction, which has led to the upgrading of Clippers’s front line and back-court book strength, is widely favored.
At that time, insiders believed that as long as Leonard and George returned, the Clippers would have the most profound lineup in the league, and they would have different combinations according to different needs, they can even put on a five-forward lineup. Therefore, before the start of the season, the general manager voted, and 48 percent of the general manager thought that the Clippers would reach the top in the West, while 21 percent of the general manager thought that the Clippers could win the championship.
But people can’t predict whether the maestro is bad or bad. The Clippers didn’t expect Leonard and George to return, but their attendance was still a problem. Besides Leonard and George, many other people were troubled by injuries.
In the first 41 matches, Leonard played only 17 games and George played 30 games better. As a result, Leonard and George played only 15 games at the same time, the presence time is only 349 minutes. In contrast, drozan and vucevich are the longest duo to be present at the same time this season, with a time of 1137 minutes. There are 6 sets of duo who have been present for more than 1,000 minutes at the same time, and Tatum and Brown have been present for 917 minutes at the same time.
The Clippers do not have full attendance, but there are still a few players with low attendance. Powell and Wall missed 10 games respectively, Luke Kennard missed 13 games, and withdrew again today due to injury. As for Covington, he dropped out of rotation more, and currently only played 23 games.
Because the lineup changes frequently, the Clippers can’t find several sets of stable lineup. Only two Clippers were present for 100 minutes at the same time. Jackson, George, Leonard, little Morris and zubatz were the first five tigers in their plan, but the time for this squad was only 163 minutes. Warriors and Eagles also had many injuries in the starting lineup, but their starting five Tigers were still present for more than 250 minutes.
“I’m disappointed because we can’t keep healthy,” Lu instructor said frankly. “It seems that every time we just entered the rhythm, we just won three games in a row, and then the injury hit, sometimes it’s really frustrating.”
The uneven lineup did affect the performance of the Clippers, especially the attack. Even with the introduction of wall, Clippers are essentially a team driven by dual-core. Leonard and George scored points with their personal abilities. Attracting defensive passes is the basic disk of the Clippers attacking. Last season and this season, the basic plate of the Clippers was not firm. Their offensive League counted down, and this season fell to the 27th place. In the first two seasons of Leonard and George, the Clippers ranked second and fourth respectively in attack efficiency.
Leonard said he was still looking for a state after a knee injury, and he preferred to leave his best state to the playoffs. Lu’s guidance is also optimistic that as long as there are more than a dozen consecutive games, the attack will definitely improve. As for when the Clippers can play more than a dozen games in a row with a complete lineup, neither of them can give an answer.
Most of the Clippers players have done a good job within the scope of their abilities. Little Morris still has extremely high-definition stars in the middle pitch and the three points. The single-theory offensive ability Powell is indeed the best sixth candidate in the war, zubatz’s cost performance is good. Kenard was still the prime shooter when he was healthy, and Batum was still an indispensable puzzle for the five Clippers. In the past two seasons, when the Clippers were unable to play, they suffered too much pressure that they should not have taken.
Of course, you can tell Lu that sometimes he is too superstitious about the small-sized lineup and is scolding the Lakers coach ham for using three defenders. In fact, Lu’s guidance is also commonly used. However, in the case that the dual-core attendance rate is unstable, the team has only one positive Indian Center, and cowington’s performance is not good, Lu’s choice is actually not much. Like ham, he can only make some helpless choices.
Nowadays, the Clippers can barely keep the winning rate above 50% by relying on the defense of the top ten of the league, but the Clippers have to count on Leonard and George, especially Leonard, in order to achieve the set goal. This season, the Clippers were 5-14 when facing the team with a winning rate of more than 50%, of which Leonard and George were only 1-5 when they played together, which obviously did not meet the Clippers expectations.
The Clippers also have room for reinforcement. They have a vacancy, and 7 people have an annual salary of between US $10 million and US $17 million. They have enough flexibility to do transactions, previously, it was rumored that Clippers were interested in Miles Turner. Ballmer spent $0.337 billion on salary and tax this season, and he didn’t care to continue throwing money into it.
However, if Leonard can’t get back to his peak state, maintain high attendance rate and assume his responsibilities, the Clippers are meaningless no matter what transaction they make. Leonard did show his peak strength in some sessions after his return, but whether he could maintain this performance stably had to be marked with a big question mark.
On November 20, 2022, Clippers 119-97 won Spurs. In that game, the full-body Clippers shot 21 points with a high hit rate of 52.5%, and the whole team had 32 assists in 44 goals. They suppressed the opponent’s hit rate at 41.4%.
“This is our blueprint.” Guide Lu said.
Dual-Core Plus Wall drives the strongest attack, playing team basketball, and suppressing opponents with suffocating defense at the same time. This is what Lu’s guidance called the “blueprint”.
Can the blueprint become a reality? The result may not only determine the fate of the Clippers this season, but also affect the management’s judgment on the future route.