How One Play Summarizes The Los Angeles Clippers’ Greatness

Key Highlights

• The Los Angeles Clippers are 16-4 since Nov. 29 with the NBA’s second-best net rating (plus-10.9) and offensive rating (126.6)
• James Harden is averaging 19.2 points (67.5 percent true shooting), 9.6 assists, 4.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.1 blocks over that span
• The Clippers are fourth in the West at 23-13 and only three games behind the top-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves

Six weeks ago, the Los Angeles Clippers were spiraling. They’d just been picked apart at home by the Reggie Jackson-DeAndre Jordan pick-and-roll combo in a 113-104 loss to the Denver Nuggets, which were without Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon.

Nearly a month into the James Harden Experiment, they were 4-7 when he suited up, 7-9 overall and 11th in the Western Conference. Harden had shown bursts — and even games — of stardom, but played (or was relegated to) onlooker far too often, especially for an offense and team needing a jolt. Following a year of tumultuous on-court play and health resulting in a first-round exit, the immediate future and title aspirations of the Kawhi Leonard-Paul George Era in Los Angeles again appeared cloudy, at best.

What’s Changed For The Clippers?

Then, the Clippers swapped Terance Mann in place of Russell Westbrook as a starter, handed Harden the reins offensively and began eviscerating everyone, partly because both former MVPs are now flourishing in their new roles.

They’ve made a simple decision to rarely lose since that moment. They’re 16-4 over their past 20 games — including 14-2 with Leonard —  and have ascended to fourth in the West at 23-13, three games back of the first-place Minnesota Timberwolves.

Their six-week resume includes victories over the Sacramento Kings (twice), Phoenix Suns (twice), Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks, Miami Heat and New Orleans Pelicans. Granted, key absences for opponents presumably affected some of these games.

Harden’s back to his All-NBA self and playing his best ball in years. Averaging 19.2 points (67.5 percent true shooting), 9.6 assists, 4.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.1 blocks, he looks like he did with the Brooklyn Nets in 2020-21 prior to his bout of hamstring issues. He’s the lead facilitator piloting an elite offense and setting the table for two premier scorers.

Only the Boston Celtics (plus-12.8, 127.5) tout a better net rating and offensive rating than the Clippers (plus-10.9, 126.6) across this run. Los Angeles finally has the offensive infrastructure it sought basically all of 2022-23. Harden’s arrival arranges the hierarchy in an ideal manner. He’s the primary playmaker and tertiary scorer. Leonard is the primary scorer and tertiary playmaker. George is a middle man as the secondary scorer and playmaker.

The podium for each role is properly allocated whereas Leonard and George were left to stretch themselves far too thin last year. It’s essentially six players for six roles rather than four players for six roles. Everything is cleaner and easier as the passing talent of the team has exploded.

It’s not solely Harden’s acquisition either. Many decisions over the past year have addressed a need for improved passing, namely adding Westbrook, Mason Plumlee and Daniel Theis. The move for Harden was just the biggest and most important.

Leonard and George, a pair of credible yet flawed initiators, don’t have to create to get to their spots much anymore. Harden will deliver it to them from the outset. That’s a massive and critical change. Scoring is all about rhythm. Harden helps them maintain that.

Why Is The Clippers’ Offense So Good?

The Clippers’ finest win of the past six weeks might have come five days ago against New Orleans, which has also righted the ship following a tenuous start to 2023-24. Entering that matchup, the Pelicans were 17-8 and healthy after an injury riddled, 4-6 start, During that time, they ranked first in defensive rating, second in net rating and eighth in offensive rating, fresh off a thrashing of the Timberwolves on the road.

Los Angeles thumped New Orleans, 111-95, and led by double-digits the final 26 minutes of the evening. Despite a poor shooting game (2-of-7, eight points), Harden was a maestro behind 13 dimes to one giveaway. Guiding the Clippers to a shiny 118.1 offensive rating, he shredded a rangy, handsy, coordinated Pelicans defense. One particularly action embodied the versatile potency of this offense and the massive imprint Harden has left since assuming duties as the engine.

To open each half, Los Angeles frequently dialed up Double Drag (also commonly called “77” or “55”) — a staggered screen usually run in early offense that gives the ball-handlers plenty of options and room to drive because the wings are vacated.

Initially, George commandeered the play with a variation I’d term “77 Flat,” given the angle at which Mann and Ivica Zubac are positioned. Herbert Jones fought over both screens and Jonas Valanciunas cut off George’s runway downhill, but C.J. McCollum was late on the tag and George lofted in a feed to send Zubac to the charity stripe.

McCollum is frozen on the backside because of the presence of Harden — who’s been much more willing as a spot-up threat the past two months and is hitting 43.1 percent of his catch-and-shoot triples — and George’s glance toward him.

A bit later, Los Angeles alters the angles, runs a more traditional rendition of “77” with Harden as the first screener rather than Mann and the Pelicans elect to switch the first pick instead of fighting over the top the entire way. McCollum is slow ducking under the screen and lacks the length to bother George, who bounds into a pull-up three.

Two different coverages, two different alignments, two fruitful outcomes.

By and large, though, Harden was the star of this action. George’s inclusion is to highlight the malleability of Los Angeles’ stars, his ancillary creation and the value of Harden as someone who conflicts defenders on and off the ball. Previously, the Clippers’ fifth starter — whoever it was — didn’t bring that same level of shapeshifting.

On Harden’s first opportunity, he wiggles inside the arc while McCollum ducks under both screens. New Orleans doesn’t switch because it doesn’t want Zion Williamson stuck against Harden, and Jones is glued to the strongside corner with George. Valanciunas is in deep drop and McCollum cannot close down the space for a pocket pass. Ingram is worried about Leonard (45.6 percent on catch-and-shoot threes) in the weakside corner, so he doesn’t tag Zubac’s roll inside and the big fella crams one atop Valancinuas’ crown.

Remember when McCollum didn’t tag because of his concern for Harden in the weakside corner? Welcome to another dilemma, New Orleans. New star, same hellish burden.

In the second half, Mann chips McCollum a couple times to leave him trailing over the top and Valanciunas stays in drop. This time, with George (44 percent on catch-and-shoot threes) in the weakside corner  — a third star joins the soirée over here! — Jones creeps inside, likely cognizant of the two Zubac chances from the first quarter. As soon as Jones slinks in, Harden whips a skip pass to George, who extends the lead to 16.

After all the debacles drop coverage elicited, New Orleans traps Harden. It decides somebody else must spoon-feed the Clippers buckets. Williamson jumps out near half-court for the double-team and Mann is left to navigate a 4-on-3 scenario. Valanciunas picks him up, Ingram meets the diving Zubac and Mann — who’s long thrived playing off the gravity of Los Angeles’ stars — finds Leonard for the stationary bomb (shout out, Zubac, for the little pin-in screen on Ingram, too).

Eventually, the Pelicans scrap all of that. They want to keep the ball in front of them, so they’re going to switch. Dyson Daniels is in for Williamson and guarding George. Jones is on Zubac, with Valanciunas stashed on Mann, who’s by far the worst scorer and perimeter shooter on the floor (26 percent from deep this year, 36 percent for his career). No easy rolls into space, no unimpeded drives to the paint, stay solid and maintain the defensive shell.

Los Angeles sees all of this. It knows what’s happening. Leonard replaces Mann as the first screener and McCollum immediately switches onto him. Harden barely uses Zubac’s pick and stretches out the spacing. He drops a pass off to Leonard around the nail and saunters toward the corner. The virtuoso scorer comfortably gets where he wants against the mismatch and rises for a rhythmic pull-up.

The Pelicans’ deficit is now 20 and they’re without answers. They tried to prevent one sort of advantage and surrendered another version. That is what Los Angeles does.

Because of Harden’s playmaking and gravity, Leonard, George and Zubac caught the ball in cozy spots every time and converted. The rate of assisted makes for those three Clipper mainstays are their highest marks during five seasons of the Leonard-George Era. Heck, the last time Harden was assisted this much was 2013-14. Leonard hasn’t been assisted like this since 2015-16. George hasn’t received this type of table-setting since 2017-18.

All of them greatly needed this. They and the Clipper are better for it.

While Harden, Leonard and George are all of (somewhat) similar statures, they’re such contrasting offensive players. Harden is the crafty ball-screen conductor with off-the-bounce shooting and driving chops. Leonard is a tank of man, a domineering isolation scorer who’s nearly impossible to prevent from reaching his spots. George is a dynamite shooter who is excellent flowing around off-ball screens and moonlights as a slippery pick-and-roll operator.

The defensive archetype capable of slowing all three methods of creation probably requires some Frankenstein-level building to discover. And it’s not just landing one player to do all this. It’s having three different dudes who can stymie one of them that are simultaneously playable together in high-leverage situations.

New Orleans has Jones, Daniels and Naji Marshall, but playing them at the same time is a death knell for spacing. That left the likes of Ingram and McCollum to assume substantial defensive assignments, and McCollum paid the price.

On Monday, Grayson Allen took Harden for stretches; it didn’t end well. The Phoenix Suns roster Josh Okogie, Keita Bates-Diop, Yuta Watanabe and Jordan Goodwin. But the last three have bounced in and out of the rotation all season, and Phoenix can barely afford to play two of them together, let alone three — not to mention none of them are All-Defensive Team stoppers.

It’s incredibly challenging for opponents to configure lineups that both quell Los Angeles’ Big Three and keep afloat (or prosper) offensively; a mismatch is likely to arise somewhere. That will remain the case throughout the year.

The struggles an elite defense like New Orleans endured encapsulate all the hurdles this lethal Clippers attack presents — a juggernaut unit driven by a trio of star veterans complementing each other to grand heights.