It's Friday in the NBA, and that means it's time for ... seven things I liked and disliked, from the James Harden blockbuster, to an already-ahead-of-schedule Victor Wembanyama to a different dynamic duo in Dallas.
Happy NBA season!
Jump to Lowe's Things:
Harden on LAC | Wemby's search for space
Giddey's premiere skill | What's up with the Bucks?
Sharpe's breakout | Nembhard's float game
Luka and Lively's magic
1. The LA Clippers go all-in, again, for James Harden
The Clippers feel so much like a failure -- having traded so much for three playoff series wins in four seasons -- you sometimes forget the evidence is emphatic that for at least the first two seasons of the Paul George-Kawhi Leonard era, this was a championship-level team with both stars healthy.
Scoff if you'd like. The "if healthy" qualification applies to every team, and the Clippers wagered everything on two players whose bodies have betrayed them over and over. George's injuries in L.A. have been more nagging and unconnected, but most of Leonard's were isolated to his right leg and knee.
Both look healthy now as the Clippers have started 3-2 -- with Harden yet to play a game. George is operating at peak boss levels: 29 points on 56% shooting and menacing defense all over the floor. Leonard doesn't look quite as physically dominant, but he has been very good -- even rushing up the floor more often as the Clippers take on Russell Westbrook's end-to-end ferocity.
They could have won the title in both 2020 and 2021. They were healthy in the Orlando, Florida, bubble. Some teams thrived in that environment. Some teams wilted. The Clippers disintegrated, melting away against a Denver Nuggets team that was tougher and more resilient. The Clippers at that point had never made the conference finals, but they surrendered against Denver with the half-hearted arrogance of a team that assumed long playoff runs were its birthright. We'll have other chances.
The next year might have been their best shot. The Clippers rallied to defeat both the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz in the playoffs. The untested Phoenix Suns and sometimes jittery Milwaukee Bucks awaited. But Leonard tore his right ACL midway through the Utah series. He missed the next season; the Clippers missed the playoffs.
Last season was the first in which the evidence wavered that the Clippers were stone-cold contenders as long as George and Leonard were healthy. Leonard missed most of the first six weeks but roared to life over the final 45-plus games -- looking like a top-five player again. Still: George and Leonard played only 38 games together. The Clippers in their shared minutes outscored opponents by 8.9 points per 100 possessions -- very good, but not as otherworldly as that margin in their first two seasons. Other superstar duos -- including Denver's -- lapped them. Just as Leonard amped it up to playoff gear, he got hurt -- the right knee again.
Key supporting players aged to the fringes of the rotation: Nicolas Batum, Marcus Morris Sr., Robert Covington. The Clippers suddenly looked weaker at both the top and bottom of the roster.
This is why they showed interest in Harden from the moment he requested a trade on June 29, and why they eventually parted with three valuable draft assets -- one unprotected pick and two swaps -- and three rotation players for him when no other team would even return the Philadelphia 76ers' calls. The Clippers' brass was telling you what it thought about the team: We aren't good enough to win four playoff series anymore, no matter what.
Are they now, with three of the highest-usage ball-pounders in the league in Leonard, Harden and Westbrook?