Perhaps some of this can be blamed on the suboptimal spacing resulting from LA’s insistence on starting Russell Westbrook next to its three high-usage stars — allowing teams to keep an extra defender in the paint and gum up any pick-and-roll. Memphis started Jaren Jackson Jr. on Westbrook, and he was largely unconcerned with Russ firing away from the corners. The Clippers evened up the 3-point scoreboard late by playing five smalls in their fourth-quarter run and inserting Norman Powell for shooting, but it’s unclear if that is sustainable for an entire game.

Yet in those game four games, the Clippers aren’t much better or worse with Westbrook off the court, and for the season, his impact stats are strongly positive. The same can’t be said of Harden, with one number in particular sticking out — a comatose 98.0 pace factor in his minutes. The Clippers have long needed to play faster and were finally getting there in the opening games of the season, but now they’re back in the mud.

“He’s being too nice,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said about Harden, and there might be a kernel of truth to that given his piddling 17.7 usage rate. Nonetheless, he seemed unusually unable to gain advantages off the dribble Sunday, even when he had seemingly favorable matchups.

That included one particularly sad sequence where he couldn’t get a shot off against Santi Aldama, gave up the rock, got it back and, on his second try, barely got off a contested 3 that was way short. Also notable in that sequence was that the Grizzles never felt compelled to send help; three years ago, that was an emergency double-team.

How Clippers fans should feel about that play, and the Harden move in general, largely rests on the knife edge between whether you consider Harden “rusty” or “washed.” Harden clearly isn’t in peak basketball shape right now but also looks slower and less shifty and explosive. How much of that is fixable in the coming days and weeks?