Clippers end Grammy Trip on high note thanks to Harden, Leonard
The Clippers moved to 34-15 after going 6-1 on season-long trip.
There’s a meme format on ‘X’, the social media platform that everyone with an ounce of sense still calls Twitter, that remains funny still two months later.
It involves an iguana calmly floating through the sea with nary a worry in the world. Treacherous entities may be roaming all around, but the iguana is not phased. ‘Calm Iguana’ is a mindset.
That’s the LA Clippers at this moment in time.
They calmly float through troubled waters without an ounce of trepidation.
On Monday night in Atlanta, the Clippers (34-15) were once again unflustered, outpacing the Hawks in a 149-144 shootout that left onlookers wondering if there was anything that could rattle the Clippers’ unflappable sense of confidence.
“This was a hell of a trip for us,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said to reporters in Atlanta after the win. “To go six-and-one against the caliber of teams we played on this trip, coming into it we knew it was going to be a tough battle, but I give these guys credit. We stuck with it. We got down in some games early, continued to keep fighting, and like I said, just a total team effort.”
That team effort was led by Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. The two superstars showed up in a major way on Monday, guiding the Clippers through some tough patches.
Leonard scored 36, marking his sixth straight game with at least 25 points. The forward also finished with five assists, two rebounds, one steal, and one block in 37 minutes. Leonard made 13 of his 20 field goal attempts on the night, but none bigger than his spurt in the fourth that saw him score 13 points after checking in with just under eight minutes left.
The two-time Finals MVP had a putback to push the Clippers in front with roughly five minutes to play. The Clippers would never trail again. Leonard then added six straight points to push it to a seven-point lead with just over two minutes to play and assisted Amir Coffey on a layup to push it to nine. It was done and dusted from there.
Harden had arguably his best game as a member of the Clippers, notching his first 30-point double-double since his early-season trade. Harden ended the evening with 30 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds, two steals, and a block in 39 minutes while going a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe.
The guard made six 3s on the night, but none more important than his trey with 66 seconds to play that saw Harden complete another one of his patented 4-point plays which sprung the Clippers into a 10-point cushion.
Harden’s mastery over all things offense is noticeable, and it’s allowed the Clippers to turn into a well-oiled machine whenever the ball is in his steady hands.
Paul George added 18 points while Terance Mann had nine and Mason Plumlee finished with eight points and nine rebounds as he started in place of Ivica Zubac who was held out of Monday’s game after returning on Sunday following a nine-game absence due to a right calf strain.
When asked pregame by The Athletic’s Law Murray if Zubac’s designation was due to precautionary reasons, Lue answered in the affirmative: “Yes, sir.”
Amir Coffey, Norman Powell, and Russell Westbrook each finished with 13 points off the bench, but it was the team’s non-center lineups down the stretch that made a difference, thanks primarily to the work of both Coffey and Westbrook.
The pair combined for 17 points in the fourth quarter on 6-for-10 shooting, supplying just enough help in aid of Harden and Leonard to nudge the Clippers over the line.
Daniel Theis had nine points and eight rebounds in 20 minutes as the bench big.
De’Andre Hunter led Atlanta with 27 points while Trae Young finished with 25 points and 12 assists. Dejounte Murray, seen often in trade rumors this time of year, had 21 points and seven assists while Saddiq Bey and Onyeka Okongwu scored 18 apiece for the Hawks (22-28).
The loss ended Atlanta’s four-game winning streak.
The Clippers staved off several Atlanta pushes, including one in the fourth that resulted in the Hawks taking a lead with just over five minutes to go. But it was that calmness, that belief, that led the team to another impressive win despite the daunting circumstances.
This was the Clippers’ seventh game in 11 days. All on the road. In seven different states or countries. And with two sets of back-to-backs. They only lost one time. They’ll take that every chance they get.
Even if their defense floundered yet again.
“Defensively, we got to get back home and really start locking in defensively and being better because we are better than that,” Lue said postgame. “And I don’t know if it’s fatigue and [being] tired and guys are playing a lot of minutes, played a lot of games, seven games in 11 days. So, I’ll give them a little bit of the benefit of [the] doubt with that, but you know, we got to be better and just sharper.”
Yet, despite the hiccups along the way and the holes that have popped up here and there, the Clippers keep chugging along; 34-15 and only a half-game out of the top spot in the brutal Western Conference race.
The defense might ebb and flow. The offense can get stuck at times. Yet the confidence never wavers. The faith is never snuffed out.
That’s life when you’re floating through the NBA sea calm as can be in your ability.
Or, as ‘Calm Iguana’ would say:
LA Clippers, you have to stop;
Your nerves too tough;
Your calmness too different;
Your skill too immense;
You’re killers, LA Clippers.