After trading for James Harden, the Clippers went through a rough patch while navigating having several ball-dominant players. Star wing Paul George said that it’s a growing pain plenty of teams with several All-Stars have historically had.
“They all went through some sort of adversity, regardless of the talent,” George said. “It’s going to take some time because you got to find how to be yourself when your usage rate isn’t going to be as high as it used to be [or] the possessions you were going to have.”
Now, Los Angeles has flipped its fortunes and holds the longest active win streak in the NBA at five games entering Thursday and has won 10 of its last 13. Janis Carr of The Orange County Register writes the Clippers are finding the “new you” in themselves by re-imagining their games and playing freely.
“I mean that’s it," said star forward Kawhi Leonard. "Just all of us just combining into the defensive end and just wanting to get things going on that end first and then letting, whatever the offense, take care of itself since we got so many scorers."
Harden made headlines earlier in the season, saying that he didn’t feel like the Sixers let him play like himself, a problem he isn’t having in coach Tyronn Lue’s system.
“[Lue] allows me to just be free, be who I am and, like I said previously, that’s not just scoring, but just me reading defenses, seeing the different game and putting Kawhi and PG in better positions or in the pick-and-roll with [Ivica Zubac] getting easy layups or [Daniel Theis] getting easy layups,” Harden said. “It is everything that I thought it would be. It’s taken a little time, but as far as me playing and the chemistry on the court … it’s getting where it needs to be.”
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