NBA regular season continues to play, although there is no Clippers game today, but the results of other Western Conference teams have had a significant impact on their rankings and situations. Among them, the Mavericks' home defeat to the Cavaliers with a score of 122-134 has given the Clippers hope to return to the top 6 in the West and stabilize that position.
The Clippers are not far from returning to the top 6!
After the Mavericks lost, their record came to 20 wins and 15 losses, falling to sixth in the West, and they only lead the Clippers by 0.5 games. The Clippers currently have 19 wins and 15 losses, and they just won one less game than the Mavericks in one less game. The key is that the situation of these two teams is completely different. On the Mavericks side, their core leader Doncic still needs to be absent for a long time, and it is not clear when he will return. Irving is absent due to illness in the short term. This kind of injury and illness of the absolute core leader within the team will definitely have a huge impact on the Mavericks' record ranking, which is also the reason for their continuous decline in ranking. It seems that the Mavericks will find it difficult to stop the downward trend in the short term. In contrast, the Clippers are completely opposite.
First of all, in terms of schedule, the Clippers face the Hawks at home tomorrow, and it should be noted that the Hawks lost to the Lakers away today. Regardless of the outcome of the game, the Hawks will be playing back-to-back tomorrow with physical problems. The Clippers are well-rested and ready, and tomorrow they will welcome the return of important personnel. According to NBA reporter Shams, Leonard plans to return in the game against the Hawks. Harden also rested earlier, and the Clippers officially announced in advance that he will play in tomorrow's game, while Mann also confirmed his return. That is to say, tomorrow's Clippers will be the first time this season that they have a full squad in terms of the core lineup, plus they are at home, so the victory of this game is something that must be won from a certain perspective.
Is Leonard's return too hasty? Leonard's situation is indeed awkward!
On the surface, the Clippers seem to have seen the moon through the clouds, as they have maintained a winning rate of over 50% during their toughest period and maintained a ranking around sixth in the West. For this, we must give enough respect to the Clippers' players and coaching staff. With Leonard's return, the Clippers' defense will definitely become stronger, continuing to improve on their already top 5 defensive efficiency in the league, which is terrifying. Moreover, the Clippers' power outage problem on the offensive end will also be improved with Leonard's return, bringing some hard-solving ability, and the overall offensive efficiency of the team will also be improved, which is a foregone conclusion. However, looking back at Leonard's return reports and decisions over this period, things don't seem that simple.
Remember when Shams reported that Leonard would return before Christmas. But at that point, his return was delayed by about half a month, which is nothing, after all, Leonard underwent knee surgery, so being cautious about his return is not a big deal, and there's nothing wrong with waiting until he's fully recovered to return. But today's report on Leonard's return is intriguing. First, there was an official statement from the Clippers, note, it was a message released by the Clippers themselves. They set Leonard's participation in the injury report as "absent." That is to say, under the circumstances where reporters previously reported that Leonard was basically confirmed to return, it seems that the Clippers internally believe that Leonard has not yet reached a completely healthy state.
But just a few hours later, Shams reported that Leonard had confirmed his return, which makes people speculate whether Leonard chose to return because of pressure. After all, he has been talking about his return for some time, getting fans excited, then delaying his return time, and after confirming his return, saying again that he could not play. After the Clippers officially announced that Leonard was absent, this message was unsurprisingly attacked, criticized, and ridiculed by fans. If it is because of the pressure to choose to return, then this can indeed be understood as Leonard not being 100% healthy, which will definitely bring hidden dangers to the Clippers in the future, and at the same time bring additional difficulties to the coaching staff in arranging Leonard's load management.