after what was essentially their training camp with harden and integration period, once terance mann was put into the starting lineup while russell westbrook runs the bench, the clippers have gone 4-1 with an impressive 19 point blowout win over the mavericks yesterday.
that starting lineup has a 117 offensive rating and a 89.5 defensive rating for a net rating of 27.5 which is elite.
they have figured out that separating harden and russ is most effective and have gone away from non-spacing lineups of russ/zubac/tucker.
theis has also been a huge addition as a backup 5 that can space the floor, rebound, playmake on the short roll and set good screens.
for the season they are now a top 6 defense with kawhi and pg playing elite defense like they did in their primes.
i truly believe the clippers can win the west and even the championship and i feel like they’re being slept on right now. kawhi is usually a slow starter and hasn’t even gotten to his peak offensive form which should scare the rest of the league when he inevitably gets going.
Their 1 L was against a very injured Pelicans, a game they 100% should have won.
2 of their Ws were against one of the worst teams in the league in the Spurs.
1 of their other Ws was against the Rockets which on its face looks like a good W but anyone that watched will tell you that the refs were incredibly bias to the Clippers that game and they still hardly beat the Rockets who aren’t exactly championship contenders.
Their last W came against the Mav’s which is probably their most legit W in this bunch but even still the Mav’s had significant injuries.
Overall, the team is very firmly still walking on eggshells and it’s way too early to start crowning them as champions.