We were warned. Chacun de cest. Leonard Kawhi. George Paul. Bryan Westbrook. I’m fairly certain that a few ball boys added their voices. It was going to be difficult to fit James Harden into the Clippers starting lineup. “There will be a process involved,” Westbrook stated. Coach Tyronn Lue of the Clippers hinted at some growing pains for Harden hours before he made his debut against the Knicks.
“We understand that it’s going to take a lot of hard work,” Lue said. “It’s not going to happen overnight.”
Alright, Lue was correct.
On Monday, the Clippers suffered a 111–97 loss in the second half to drop their first game of the Harden Era. In a load-managed thirty-one minutes, Harden scored 17 points. Of his nine attempts, he made six, and of his four threes, two. He had two turnovers compared to six assists.
He and Ivica Zubac had good chemistry, as he was able to dish out pick-and-roll passes to the Clippers’ center, which resulted in open shots.
However, the Clippers were awful, especially in the second half and fourth quarter, when they trailed 35–21 and let the Knicks shoot 65% from the field. With 4 and a half minutes remaining, Lue pulled his starters after witnessing his team cough up an excessive number of offensive rebounds (18 in total) and commit an excessive number of turnovers (22 overall, which resulted in 35 Knicks points).
Naturally, the Clippers are not in a panic. Not a good idea. Working as an alpha on a team with three other alphas was always going to be difficult for Harden, who hasn’t played in a live setting since May of last year. Lue highlighted the advantages following the game.
The first-half defense by Los Angeles, which limited the Knicks to 37.5% shooting and 21.4% from three, pleased him. He was pleased with the Clippers’ second-half transitional attack. The way Harden guided the second unit and set up offense for L.A.’s substitutes pleased him. With time, some of the errors will be corrected, such as Harden’s kicking pass to the corner where Norman Powell and P.J. Tucker were standing.
What needs to be fixed is obvious. On Monday, the ball hardly moved at all. Almost all of Los Angeles’ offensive output came from a single pass. Occasionally, none. This season, the Knicks have played decent defense, but the Clippers have made things easy for them.
Lue instilled in his players during training camp the necessity of cutting whenever Leonard or George broke free from a pick-and-roll. Lue stated that they will have to make more space and spend more time at home with Harden.
Even though they are down one game to 76, the Clippers still think they are something special. With L.A.’s offense, Harden pointed out the “unlimited possibilities” that will eventually come together. Lue used the word sacrifice a lot on Monday. Lue uttered, “Minutes, shots, touches.”
“We can be a really good team if they do that.” Although the Clippers were thoroughly outrebated 48–31 on the boards, Lue thinks the team’s strength in rebounding at the wing positions will eventually compensate for their lack of size.
