Every dog has its day and for the Los Angeles Clippers, long the NBA’s unluckiest franchise, this season might finally be theirs. It’s too soon to say for sure if the stars will align all the way to a championship, but the early signs are certainly promising.
The Clippers entered the postseason as the fifth seed in the West and have taken a 2-1 lead over the Denver Nuggets with an emphatic 117-83 Game 3 win at the Intuit Dome. It was the team’s first playoff game at their new arena which just might be this team’s good luck charm.
Los Angeles’ depth was on full display in the win, with Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Norman Powell, and Ivica Zubac all scoring between 19 and 21 points. Reserves Nicolas Batum and Derrick Jones Jr. added 12 and 10, respectively, off the bench.
Leonard appeared in only 37 regular season games after making his belated season debut last January and it took time for him to get up to speed, but the team’s patient approach is now paying off handsomely. The two-time NBA champion Leonard looks like himself once again, averaging 27.3 points on 60.8% field goal shooting, 6.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.7 steals through the first three games of this best-of-seven match-up.
In the Clippers’ Game 2 win, Leonard put on his best performance of the season so far with 39 points on 15-of-19 field goal shooting. The 33-year-old Leonard clearly still has much gas left in his tank and if he keeps on playing like this, Los Angeles will be a tough team to eliminate.
The spate of injuries suffered by Leonard since he joined the franchise in 2019 have held this team back from its full potential. Over his first five seasons with the team, the only time that he was healthy at the end of a postseason series was in 2020 when they blew a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Semifinals. Since then, his injuries have gotten the best of him before the season’s end, including their run to the 2021 Western Conference Finals.
Though the Clippers relied heavily on Harden, Powell, and Zubac for most of the regular season, their upside potential still hinges greatly on Leonard. His shotmaking ability remains elite and the gravity that he brings to the court frees up the court for his teammates. On defense, he is still one of the best defenders in the league and can ably cover any of the league’s top wing scorers.
This Los Angeles franchise has long been defined by bad luck, yet this postseason feels different. The Clippers finally have their stars healthy, the right mix of role players, and a new home court all to themselves. If Leonard can stay on the court and the rest of the team continues to click, Lady Luck might not just be visiting the Intuit Dome—she just might be its latest resident.
