Kawhi Leonard needed only three quarters to lead the Clippers to a Game 1 win over the Denver Nuggets. It’s the latest example of his presence lifting a team’s status.
It’s difficult to doubt the LA Clippers‘ personnel and its potential. Yet coming into this Western Conference semifinals series against the Denver Nuggets, we still hadn’t seen the fully-intact, healthy Clippers play championship-quality basketball for a sustained stretch of time longer than 10 days after the All-Star break and before the March suspension. Of course, this doesn’t mean the Clippers can’t win a title — the talent is undoubtedly there — just that there tends to be more empirical evidence of dominance before a team is anointed as an elite championship contender. If Game 4 of the first-round series victory over the Dallas Mavericks marked the beginning of the Clippers‘ case for title favorites, then their 120-97 Game 1 bludgeoning of the Nuggets continues that drive. A team that was advertised during the preseason as a two-way monster that could dominate on both ends of the floor posted a true shooting percentage of 65.6, while holding the normally high-octane Nuggets to only 51.1. Editor’s PicksIt took 13 months, but the Clippers finally got their first real testNBA world reacts to OG Anunoby refusing to turn the 0-2 into the 0-3 hole 1 Related One quick scan of the Clippers‘ roster is eye-popping. They have defensive stoppers all over the floor, and a pair of two-way superstars, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, who can draw blood from a stone in the half court. When fully healthy, this is a team that counts Patrick Patterson and Rodney McGruder as its 11th and 12th players on the roster. Yet during the regular season, the Clippers utilized the third-most starting lineups in the NBA. George started the season inactive while recovering from shoulder surgery. Throw in Leonard’s careful load management program and some midseason acquisitions, and the Clippers were never quite whole. Banking on a team with such a thin record of success might be irrational exuberance.
