Clippers are the NBA’s hottest team, but road trip will offer major tests – The Athletic

On Nov. 6, the LA Clippers visited the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. It did not go well for the Clippers, as they lost 111-97 in James Harden’s first game with the team. They started November on a six-game losing streak.

Fast forward 40 days to the Knicks visiting the Clippers while LA is amid an undefeated start to December. Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau understood that a Clippers team with Harden would be good at some point, even if they couldn’t break 100 points in New York last month.

“Great players always figure it out,” Thibodeau said before Saturday night’s Knicks visit. “It rarely happens in a split second, and those guys have played together before. So I felt like, ‘OK, this should be or will be a pretty easy transition for them.’ And they’re all high IQ guys. I think the big thing for them is health.”

Before facing the Knicks, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue identified three areas of progression over the past 40 days.

“One, just getting James comfortable, in better shape,” Lue said. “That was his first game since May. Two, I think just being able to acquire Daniel Theis, another big, that we can play, that can play backup minutes with (Ivica Zubac). And then I think our rotations. Just understanding who plays well with who, who fits well with who, has been really good for us. It’s been a few things for us that we’ve been able to change and get better at since our last Knicks game in New York.”

Those changes and more were on full display Saturday as the Clippers beat the Knicks in every quarter and won 144-122. The Clippers extended the NBA’s longest active win streak to seven games and improved their record to 15-10 ahead of a week in which they’ll face three playoff-caliber opponents on the road.

It was another game in which the Clippers picked apart a team quarter by quarter. But this one was more notable because of how bad the offense was in New York with Harden and Russell Westbrook starting together last month and how the Clippers made improvements in specific areas:

1. Scoring in the paint

The Knicks are a pack-the-paint defense, though that task is easier when center Mitchell Robinson is available. That was the case last month when the Clippers visited, as they were held to 38 points in the paint.

But Robinson is out due to ankle surgery, and Zubac led an opening quarter onslaught on the Knicks’ interior defense. LA scored 20 of its 60 paint points in the first quarter Saturday. The highlight was Zubac receiving a pass from Harden in the lane and dunking on Knicks center Jericho Sims so hard that Zubac got his entire bench on their feet.

“It was all right,” Lue said of Zubac’s dunk, with a sly grin. “It was OK. He should have a lot more though.”

2. Drawing fouls

The Clippers attempted only 16 free throws last month in New York, making 14 of them. Kawhi Leonard did not have any despite attempting 16 field goals, while Harden only drew a lone 3-point shooting foul.

It’s hard to draw fouls against the Knicks, who entered Saturday’s game ranked fifth in free-throw rate allowed. But the Knicks lost their minds in the second quarter, sending the Clippers to the line 22 times, with the Clippers making 19 of the free throws.

Harden led the parade of free throws in the second quarter, going 5-of-7. The free throws dried up after halftime, with the Clippers going just 2-of-4 in the final two quarters. For the night, the Clippers made 28 of 34 free throws, outscoring the Knicks by five points from the line.

3. Playmaking while limiting turnovers

This has been the most striking change for the Clippers. Last month in New York, the Clippers had more turnovers (season-high 22) than assists. The Clippers allowed a season-worst 35 points off those turnovers. The blame was widespread, as Zubac (five), Westbrook (four), George (four), Norman Powell (three) and Bones Hyland (three) all had more than two giveaways. In the first 16 days of November, a period in which the Clippers were 0-6, the Clippers ranked 24th in turnover percentage and 28th in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Turn to the first 16 days of December, and the Clippers rank eighth in turnover percentage and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio. After a 77-point first half Saturday, the Clippers retooled the offense even further to compile a 10:1 assist-to-turnover ratio in the third quarter. Harden once again had a hand in the improved ball control, as he finished the game with 12 assists and only one turnover.

LA tied a season high with 36 assists, but unlike the season opener against the Portland Trail Blazers that saw the Clippers have 18 turnovers with 36 assists, the Clippers had only nine turnovers Saturday. The only Clipper who had more than two turnovers was Joshua Primo, who had three in garbage time of his first NBA game in more than a year.

Leonard is benefiting from the improved passing. Last season, 40.6 percent of Leonard’s field goals were assisted. This season, 54.5 percent of Leonard’s field goals are assisted, his highest mark since his last season with Tim Duncan in San Antonio (2015-16). A strong candidate for Western Conference Player of the Week, Leonard ended a supremely efficient week by scoring 36 points on 12-of-16 shooting in 30:14, resting the entire fourth quarter. These days, Leonard gets screens from George and Zubac and catches and shoots following Harden passes.

“Just playing,” Leonard said when asked about the biggest progression the Clippers have made since the New York trip. “Obviously, players have to get used to the guys on the floor. We still are as well. The coaching staff as well has to figure out rotations … what plays to call. It’s been a group effort overall.”

Even beyond the offense being so much better now than in November, the Clippers showed the Knicks how far they have come.

Terance Mann wasn’t able to play in New York, as it was the last game of his season-opening injury absence due to a sprained ankle. Now Mann is starting, and both of the 3s he hit Saturday night were during a go-ahead 20-5 run over the last three and a half minutes to end the second quarter. That stretch turned a close game in which the Knicks led into a second half in which the Clippers were up by double digits for the entire time.

Paul George returned from a one-game injury absence and scored a game-high 19 of his 25 points in the second half. Now George is ready for a road trip that features one of his favorite NBA cities (Dallas) along with both of his previous NBA teams (Indiana, Oklahoma City).

“It was great,” George said of returning after missing his first game of the season. “The day off, my body really needed it, benefited it a lot. You know, I think it was just (a) quick little check engine came on. So took that game off to kind of just get back right. And I felt good going into tonight.”

George’s absence also opened the Clippers’ eyes further to what backup forward Amir Coffey was capable of. Coffey scored 18 points Thursday against the Golden State Warriors while filling in for George as a starter. With George returning, Coffey was rewarded Saturday with a rotation spot in place of rookie power forward Kobe Brown. Unlike the green Brown and 38-year-old veteran P.J. Tucker, Coffey is in the prime of his career and in his fifth season with the Clippers.

“Amir has always been one of my favorite guys.,” Lue said after Coffey played 16:46 off the bench, hitting a corner 3 in the fourth quarter that ended the night for Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle. “The year when PG and Kawhi were out, just seeing the steps he took every single game of getting better and better. And he was a big reason why we were 42-40 that season. … I’ve always had confidence in Amir and just with the players we have, and the guys we’ve been acquiring, he’s been the guy that’s always had to wait and be patient. But the biggest thing about Amir is he stayed patient, but he continued to keep putting the work in, and when we call his number, he’s always ready to play.”

The Clippers have not won eight straight games in a season since 2015-16, when the Clippers had a 10-game win streak that started on Christmas. This is the team’s eighth seventh-game win streak since January 2016.

“Honestly, we’ve been locked in. Everybody’s playing at a high level. We’re taking care of the ball. Our defense has been great. And our attention to detail has been great,” George said. “All of those really have stood out, from the game that I missed until tonight into the streak that we’ve been going on.”

The comeback win over the Warriors was a major turning point to begin the month. The Clippers got monkeys off their backs in beating the Nuggets and winning on the road in Utah. This past week established that the Clippers could take care of business at home. Now the Clippers have to show they can continue to win games while facing the top-10 offenses of the Pacers, Mavericks and Thunder before returning home to host another top-10 offense in the Boston Celtics. All of them rank higher offensively than the Knicks, the league’s eighth-best offense and the highest ranked offense the Clippers have beaten during this seven-game win streak.

“We’re a defense-first team, and we’ll watch film, see what they like to do, prepare for them and do our best,” Zubac said about the road ahead and re-establishing the defense. “We know Indy is a great offensive team, and then you got Dallas and OKC, some great offensive teams. But we got some good defenders on this team and guys with high IQ that read very well on defense that can make plays. It’s going to be a great test for us.”

(Photo of Kawhi Leonard: Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)