The Los Angeles Clippers have tied the best of seven series 2-2 with their win over the Mavericks In Dallas this past Sunday with Paul George (33), and James Harden (33) combining for 66 points. This now makes the Clippers 2-0 in this series without the help of Kawhi Leonard and some are starting to speculate if this team is better off with sitting Kawhi out the rest of this series due to his health. Kawhi missed the final 8 games of the NBA regular season due to inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee. When Kawhi missed game one of the series, Clippers still found a way to get the job done without their star defender. They defeated the Dallas Mavericks 109-97 even with Luka Doncic (31) and Kyrie Irving (33) combining for 65 total points.
With the Clippers taking a 1-0 lead in their series against Dallas the question was now will LA have one of their best players back on the court? Leading up to game two, Kawhi Leonard was listed as questionable up until game time to where he was upgraded to active for game two. The Clippers would go on to lose at home 96-93 and head to Dallas with the series tied at one a piece. With Kawhi back in the lineup for game two, the Clippers had a very poor shooting percentage of 37% from the field, making only 8 out of their 30 shots from three point range. Kawhi Leonard shot 0-5 from three and shot 40%, and seemed like he was desperately trying to get back in his rhythm, but struggled after missing a significant amount of time. The Dallas Mavericks showstopper duo in Luka and Kyrie played 40+ minutes each combining for 55 points in their game two win with big help from their newly acquired power forward P.J Washington.
Washington was traded from the Charlotte Hornets to the Mavericks on Feb 9, and since then has added an element to the Mavericks offense, including putting up a very efficient 18 points shooting 50% from the field and knocking down 3 shots beyond the arc in game two. After the game Kawhi reported on how he feels about his knee saying “I felt good, We still got more games to play and more time to get better. Just trying to get back into a rhythm”
Going into game three the expectation was to see Kawhi closer to being back in his normal rhythm. The Dallas Mavericks came out extremely defensive heavy and seemingly “overwhelmed” the Clippers from the tip off to the end of the 4th quarter. Tensions ran high in the first half due with Westbrook deemed making excessive contact while trying to block Dallas guard Josh Green, which became a flagrant one call. The Clippers just like in game 2 seemed to have another very poor shooting performance shooting 9-35 from three point range and holding Paul George (7) and Kawhi Leonard (9) to just single digit scoring. Many have started to speculate if Kawhi was healthy enough to compete on the floor for this series due to his lack of performance the last two games. That along with Clippers guard Russell Westbrook getting ejected in 4th quarter (due to a hard foul on Luka and pushing PJ Washington in the chest), set the Clippers up for failure. Even with a poor shooting performance from the Dallas backcourt Luka and Kyrie, the team’s defense helped them dominate the LA Clippers in their game three 101-90 win taking a 2-1 lead in the series.
In Game 4 the Clippers geared up to steal a game in Dallas and carry momentum with them back to Crypto arena. Kawhi was ruled out pre-game with inflammation in his knee which was not great news for a team heading into a must win game to stay alive and not go down 3-1. Luckily the Clips rallied back strongly, propelled by a lights out shooting night (including 62% from 3) on their way to a 116-111 win in Dallas. LA built up a 31 point lead in the game thanks to Paul George coming back with a chip on his shoulder and James Harden continuing to show he can score just like he did in his Houston days down the stretch.
This makes it seems that the Clippers should probably look at bringing Kawhi off the bench with the second unit, in collaboration with Russell Westbrook. When Kawhi is in the starting the line up the rest of the team has forcefully tried to get the 6 time all star to flow back in their offense, leading them to slow down their offensive pace and flow. Kawhi also does not seem to be 100% while he is on the floor, he is not being as aggressive with the ball as he normally is. The Clippers have to go back to LA with the series tied 2-2, so far both wins are without Kawhi. Should the Clippers look at bringing in Kawhi off the bench or even let him rest the series until he is fully 100% healthy? With the series tied 2-2, this could easily go either way, and could very quickly get out of hand for the Clippers with the wrong choice.
Photo Credits: Los Angeles Times
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