Clippers look ahead to playoffs after win over Suns that encapsulates their season
PHOENIX — The Clippers returned home from their final trip of the season early Wednesday morning carrying with them both a prize and a challenge.
The prize is a top-five finish in the NBA’s Western Conference standings and the playoff berth that goes with it. That’s hardly a novel achievement though: The Clippers have finished in the top five in the conference 10 times in the last 13 years.
Which brings us to the challenge. Because for all that regular-season success, the Clippers have made it as far as the conference finals just once in franchise history. Now, however, there’s a feeling in the locker room that this could be the year when that history becomes … well, history.
“We found a way to win in the regular season. But, you know, we just didn’t have any luck in the playoffs,” said center Ivica Zubac, who has gone to the playoffs four times with the Clippers, losing in the first round twice. “But we’re good enough. We got what we need.
“I think this year is the year.”
Zubac said that after Tuesday’s 105-92 win over the Phoenix Suns, a game that was a 48-minute microcosm of the Clippers’ entire season.
Paul George scores 23 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter to help wipe out a 26-point deficit halfway through the third quarter Sunday afternoon.
Injury riddled all year, the team played again Tuesday without its leading scorer in Kawhi Leonard and its top playmaker in James Harden. A team that has stubbornly refused to pull together a full game all year also did that again, playing brilliantly in the first half, holding the Suns to 10 points in the first period — the first time it has done that in nearly two decades — and taking a season-high 37-point lead in the second quarter. Then it was dreadful in the second half, committing 12 turnovers and giving up 35 third-period points, allowing the Suns to draw within seven.
But it also showed grit, another team trademark, with Russell Westbrook, starting for the first time since November because of the injuries to Leonard and Harden, finishing with 16 points and season highs in both assists (15) and rebounds (15). That made him the first Clipper to finish with at least 15 points, rebounds and assists in a single game while extending his NBA record for career triple-doubles to 199.
Five other players also scored in double figures including Paul George, whose game-high 23 points gave him more than 18,000 for his career, becoming one of just seven active players with at least 18,000 points, 5,000 rebounds and 3,000 assists.
“This locker room is extremely talented. So we don’t rely on one person, we kind of pick each other up,” George said. “So who’s in, who’s out, we still have a job to do. And that’s just how we go about it.”
Of course they’re even better with Leonard, who has missed five games because of inflammation in his right knee, and Harden, who is dealing with inflammation in his right foot. And those are the kinds of injuries Zubac said has kept the Clippers from making long playoff runs in the past.
“We would have made that run if we were healthy the last few years,” he said. “We had good teams.”
So now, with the advantage of clinching a playoff berth with nearly a week left in the schedule, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue has the luxury of resting players in the team’s final three games.
“We’ve got to be smart going into the playoffs,” he said. “So we’re just taking it day by day.”
Maybe. But Westbrook said it’s also time to switch focus because, he needs to remind no one, what the Clippers have done in the regular season means nothing in the postseason.
“The time is now,” he said. “Obviously we have to do a better job of just consistently playing the way we need to play, finding ways to better win basketball games. Because that’s what the playoffs are about. Teams will make runs.
“It’s our job as a team to stay together, stick to our principles.”
The Clippers did that Tuesday, defending so well in the first quarter the Suns missed nine their first 10 shots and shot just 10.5% from the floor, missing all four three-point ties. Then after letting Phoenix back into the game midway through the fourth period, the Clippers went back on the gas again, with George scoring six straight points to help push the lead back to 13.
The win was the team’s 26th on the road this season, matching the franchise record.
“Our guys found a way to do it, found a way to win,” Lue said. “I’m proud of our guys and what we were able to accomplish.”
The team’s biggest accomplishments, however, may be yet to come.
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