Leonard's honest postgame critique overshadows 33-point outing in win over Pistons
The Clippers were an offensive show on Friday, but the defense needs to make an appearance soon.
Kawhi Leonard made 10 straight shots at one point.
It didn’t matter.
Kawhi Leonard scored 33 points to lead the LA Clippers to a second consecutive win as they defeated the Detroit Pistons 136-125 on Friday. The win moved them to 4-1 on this ongoing seven-game Grammy Trip.
It didn’t matter.
For the seventh time this season, the Clippers scored 130 points. They’ve won all seven.
But, to Kawhi Leonard, it didn’t matter.
What mattered to Leonard was everything in between the dazzling buckets and offensive excellence; the lack of discipline on the defensive end from a team that yearns to be taken seriously as a championship contender is what took center stage in the two-time Finals MVP’s mind.
It wasn’t enough that the Clippers (32-15) scored 136 points. It wasn’t enough that Kawhi Leonard led the way or that Russell Westbrook reached 25,000 career points.
Not when the defense has regressed in recent weeks.
“It’s between our ears,” Leonard told The Athletic’s Law Murray in the locker room following Friday’s win.“Tonight, we were terrible on the defensive end.”
Terrible, as Leonard puts it, might be kind.
While the final few minutes of the game were spent in what’s affectionately known as garbage time, the Clippers had surrendered 109 points to the Pistons with roughly six minutes to go in the fourth. To Leonard, that’s inexcusable when considering they were playing the team with the worst record in the league.
Leonard continued: “We gave up 120 points, 120-something points. I feel like we’ve just been winning games off of talent, even on the offensive end. It’s a lot of isolation or a lot of slow pace, and it starts with our defense. You can see it on the defensive end; the slow pace, starting off slow. We have to see who we want to be and see what goals that we have set for ourselves because I just feel like these last games are just winning based off talent. We need to be winning off execution, playing hard throughout the whole 48 minutes, and then letting our talent take over in the times that we do need it.”
Slippages happen, that’s for certain. It is, after all, an 82-game season. But it’s happened too much for the Clippers in recent weeks.
Friday marked the sixth time since Jan. 1 that the Clippers had a defensive rating of 125 or worse. While they’ve won five of those six games, you can’t keep, as Clippers announcer Brian Sieman puts it, walking through raindrops.
That’s the execution that Leonard is referring to. And Friday night’s victory in Detroit served as a reminder to the Clippers that while they have made tons of progress in the last couple of months — an NBA-best 24-5 since December, mind you — there’s still a lot of work left to do for this team to get to the point where a title seems realistic.
Russell Westbrook finished with 23 points in 25 minutes, his last bucket making him one of just 25 players in NBA history to notch 25,000 career points.
“It just says a lot about the work he’s put in, in his career,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said postgame. “It’s just a tribute to him and his hard work and the style of play, and he brings it every single night.”
Westbrook left with the game ball, and rightfully so.
Paul George made his return after missing Wednesday’s game against Washington, scoring 18 points in the process. George told The Athletic’s Law Murray that he felt good after the game.
“I’m good enough to go out there and compete,” said George.
Mason Plumlee and Terance Mann each contributed 12 points while James Harden struggled from the field in what was his worst game from a production standpoint as a Clipper, tallying just four points, six assists, and three rebounds on 1-for-10 shooting.
Norman Powell scored 15 off the bench while Amir Coffey continued his string of impactful play with 14 points, four rebounds, and four steals in 24 minutes.
Jaden Ivey led Detroit with 28 points while Bojan Bogdanovic went 6-for-9 on 3s and finished with 26 points. Cade Cunningham had 16 points and 11 assists. Guard Marcus Sasser scored 21 off the bench. Detroit fell to a league-worst 6-42.
Up next for the Clippers on Sunday is a Miami Heat squad that has won two in a row after riding a seven-game losing streak. It’ll be an interesting test for a Clippers team that has, as Leonard put it, gotten by on talent far too often lately.
While the Clippers have the best record in the Western Conference and the best offense in the league overall since they lost starting center Ivica Zubac to a calf injury on Jan. 12, their defense has experienced some wobbles. And Friday night in Detroit was just another example.
Sunday is as good of a time as any for the Clippers to get back on the defensive front foot as Miami possesses a bottom-10 offense, the type of remedy that could come in handy for this Clippers squad.
We’ll see if words are backed up by actions.
If Kawhi Leonard has his way, they certainly will be.