Tuesday was not going according to plan for the LA Clippers before the game even started.
The team already knew that it would start its road miniseries against the winless Oklahoma City Thunder without Paul George (non-COVID illness) and Marcus Morris Sr. (personal). The plan was to play Kawhi Leonard on Tuesday in Oklahoma City and then rest him Thursday night in the second game.
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Leonard went through the shootaround and reported stiffness in his surgically repaired right knee. The Clippers decided to hold Leonard out Tuesday night and have him return to California on Wednesday. Though Leonard would have wanted to play, the team decided not to take any chances.
It’s a long season. Leonard is already being managed in unconventional ways: not starting games and playing about three seven-minute shifts once he enters midway through the second quarter. It was already expected that Leonard would not play games on zero days rest. It was surprising to see the Clippers activate #LateScratchSZN so early.
But that’s the key — it’s early. Leonard wants to play. He has said this repeatedly since training camp. He said it again after the Clippers lost in wire-to-wire blowout fashion Sunday night at home against the Phoenix Suns. The Clippers’ goal is to win a championship, and that likely requires Leonard to progress toward a full workload over the course of the season. There are a lot of fans (and media fans) who believe this is a simulation on NBA2K, where players have no complications on a return to performance timeline.
Leonard dealt with all of these issues earlier in his career. He missed almost the entire 2017-18 NBA season due to right quadriceps tendinopathy. He did not play on zero days rest in his only season with the Toronto Raptors, which led to a second Finals MVP award in 2019. Leonard chose to come to the Clippers in 2019, where he continued to not play on zero days rest in his first season with the team. Leonard played six games on zero days rest in 2020-21, but also missed nine of the last ten games that April to manage right foot soreness. Unfortunately, Leonard would suffer a partially torn ACL in his right knee in the 2021 postseason and miss the entire 2021-22 season rehabbing.
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When I asked Leonard in camp what the similarities and differences are between his comeback now and his comeback in 2018-19, he mentioned that missing a year was the obvious comparison while being focused on getting game reps.
“But this is just a different situation from me getting traded to one team (from) another, and how that rehab process went for me,” Leonard said last week. “It’s been very different going through that and having the team behind my back and moving forward. They want what’s best for me. I’m seeing the same faces. So that’s like the differences, pretty much.”
There will be backlash for Leonard missing games because, for some reason, observers feel like Leonard should shorten his season or career to play 25 minutes in Oklahoma City. But the reality is that the Clippers will protect Leonard if they perceive any preventable risk of him playing. He will not play Thursday night in Oklahoma City, and on the upcoming home back-to-back to end the month, I would expect Leonard to play Monday night against the Houston Rockets instead of a Sunday matinee game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
In the meantime, we have to talk about the Clippers team that was without Leonard, George, and Morris. The game was televised in Los Angeles on KTLA, the first time the team has been on over-the-air television since 2009. But the team looked like the Clippers that played on KCOP in the 1990s, losing 108-94 in a game they trailed by as many as 26 points.
The Thunder had lost each of their first three games this season and were missing last year’s lottery pick Josh Giddey, along with two of this year’s lottery picks, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren (out for the season). Former Clipper Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who beat the Clippers with a buzzer-beater the last time he saw them in Oklahoma City, was available despite initially being ruled out with a hip injury (the opposite of #LateScratchSZN).
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Gilgeous-Alexander would rip the Clippers for a full line of 33 points (11-of-22 field goals), five rebounds, eight assists (only two turnovers), three steals, and three blocks, while making both 3-point attempts and all nine free throws. As a team, the Thunder shot blanks: 38.2 percent from the field, 13.3 percent from 3. NBA teams had lost 26 straight games in a row with those marks or worse since the last win, achieved in November 2016 by the Memphis Grizzlies against the Minnesota Timberwolves (Stathead).
Sometimes it’s not a make-or-miss league. The Clippers didn’t shoot well (42.2 percent field goals, 32.3 percent 3s), but they shot better. What they did not do is shoot enough, which is crippling the Clippers this season. The Thunder won both the takeaway battle (19-6) and the offensive rebound battle (21-7). That’s a ridiculous 27 more possessions for the Thunder than the Clippers in a game decided by 14 points. The younger Thunder played harder and smarter than the veteran Clippers.
The lack of first-half focus was alarming, though it was equal opportunity bad with neither team reaching a double-digit lead before halftime. But from the Clippers’ end, you could see they didn’t have it together, and the turnovers were the worst part.
Terance Mann filled in as George’s replacement. Mann has had better moments, as he had the worst assist-turnover ratio of his career (0:4).
The lack of focus revealed itself later in the second quarter, with Robert Covington inbounding to Luke Kennard. The only problem was that Kennard wasn’t expecting it, and Tyronn Lue watched in disbelief as the Clippers committed an unforced turnover in their own backcourt.
This wasn’t a turnover, but it might as well have been, as Ivica Zubac did not realize how much time was left on the clock while sending the ball toward the rim from 73 feet away. Fortunately, that didn’t cost the Clippers to end the first half.
"I'm not quite sure what that was." 😅😂 #Shaqtin pic.twitter.com/qBRiv7h1r9
— Shaqtin' a Fool (@shaqtin) October 26, 2022
The silliness continued into the second half as well, though Tre Mann’s third-quarter steal off Reggie Jackson was notable for the fact that the Thunder couldn’t capitalize because the sideline mop crew was in the paint. The mop crew didn’t get the memo that the Clippers will donate the basketball early in a possession.
But overall, the turnovers destroyed the Clippers, and they’re not forcing nearly enough themselves. For the game, the Clippers were outscored 23-3 off turnovers in Oklahoma City. The Clippers are tied with the rebuilding Utah Jazz for the most turnovers per game in the NBA (17.5), and the Clippers trail the Jazz and every other team in turnover percentage (17.4). During a five-minute 21-0 third-quarter run that ultimately decided the game, the Clippers had five turnovers, all of them of the live ball variety, such as this easy Gilgeous-Alexander score off another Jackson giveaway.
“Our careless turnovers — you don’t mind the ones we’re being aggressive attacking downhill,” Lue said after the game. “But we just can’t have the casual turnovers and the non-thinking turnovers. So we got to be better with that. … I thought we did some good things. But we just got to continue to keep getting better. And when you’re short-handed like that, the small things mean a lot. When you’re missing Kawhi, PG and Marcus, all the small things add up.”
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It’s not like the Clippers did not respect their opponent. John Wall said Sunday night that fellow Kentucky alum Gilgeous-Alexander is “talented, very gifted” while saying, “You got to go out there and compete every night.”
Coach Lue took it a step further prior to Tuesday’s game.
“They have a young team. That doesn’t mean they’re not talented,” Lue said. “They’re a talented young team. We’re not playing great as well. So we can’t talk about playing down. We might be playing equal.”
The Clippers have the NBA’s lowest-scoring offense, and only the Los Angeles Lakers have a worse offensive efficiency rating. The defense gets the fewest points off turnovers per game (10.0). If the Clippers aren’t careful Thursday, then they won’t be playing equal anymore with the neophyte Thunder. They’ll be looking up to them in the Western Conference standings. And they’ll be doing so with their best player not in a position to help until possibly after the weekend.
(Photo of Clippers’ Reggie Jackson taking a shot over Thunder forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl: Alonzo Adams / USA Today)
