After five straight losses for the Los Angeles Clippers earlier this season when the James Harden trade (sixth overall) when the trade went down the original thought for a lot of people focusing on this roster was asking would this work long-term? They acquired a future Hall-of-Famer to go alongside three others in Kawhi Leonard, Russell Westbrook, and Paul George which should result in wins. But it was not that straightforward as it took time for these four to get acclimated to playing with one another. Then some adjustments had to be made.
Westbrook Adjustment
Immediately after that losing streak Westbrook went to head coach Ty Lue and the coaching staff. He requested that he be moved to the second unit and let Harden run the show with the first unit. That’s when the tide started to turn for this team as they went from last in the Pacific division to standing alone (currently) atop the division after going 15-5 over their next 20 games. A huge nine-game winning streak helped catapult this team back into contention. With seven of those wins coming against Western Conference opponents.
The health of this team has been in question coming into this season. But so far good health has been on their side. Leonard has only missed three games and George has only missed two out of the 30 possible games. Harden has been available in all 25 games for LA and has been a critical piece to this team’s turnaround.
“James’ passing ability, and his ability to create shots for everybody else outside of himself is really good,” coach Lue said during a media practice. “He’s improved our passing and he’s improved our assists total. Having the ball in his hands has cut down on our turnovers as well.”
So this team has started to find their way a quarter through the season. Westbrook has embraced his role coming off the bench. He has been the energy and effort off the bench consistently for this team. Him along with Norman Powell being instant offense. Defense has been a focal point for this team from the beginning of training camp. Coach Lue knows this team is going to have to get it done on that end regardless of how well they are playing offensively.
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