INGLEWOOD, Calif. — In a must-win elimination game—staring down the Joker—the Clippers pulled an ace. Now, their season comes down to one more must-win: Game 7.
Of course, this series would come to that. It’s been a matchup of extremes—hits and misses, highs and lows.
At times, the Clippers have looked like the dominant team that went 18-5 down the stretch. At others, they’ve looked like a group still searching for chemistry, still learning each other.
Credit for Thursday’s victory can go several ways for the Clippers, starting with James Harden, who led the team with 28 points and eight assists—a complete turnaround from his previous two outings, where he managed just 15 points in Game 4 and 11 in Game 5.
Harden’s underwhelming performances had been so far from what the team needed to close out the series that he avoided the media altogether after both games. But even in the face of criticism—criticism he claimed not to have heard—Harden carried a kind of unfazed self-assurance that may be precisely what’s required to win a Game 7.
“Internally, I know what needs to be done,” Harden said. “I’ve had multiple conversations with T-Lue. Even after Game 5, he came up to me and said, ‘I need to get you more involved.’”
Much was made of his “temperature checks,” when he called players on the off day before Game 6 to gauge their mindset. The check-in appeared to pay off — his team came out ready to play, especially Harden, who had a second-quarter heat check of his own, scoring 17 points.
“Guys have games where they don’t play well during the season,” Kawhi Leonard said of Harden. “It’s just another game, so I knew he was going to be able to come back.”
It was a bounce-back performance—not just for Harden, but for the Clippers as a whole. After back-to-back losses, Lue was left searching for answers. Before the game, Lue said he was considering different lineups but didn’t tip his hand.
-His adjustments soon became clearer, going small, injecting Nicolas Batum, Bogdan Bogdanović and Derrick Jones Jr. into the rotation. The biggest shift came after halftime, when Lue started Batum over Kris Dunn to open the third quarter.
“I wanted to get to the small lineup against their second unit,” Lue said. “I thought was able to get open shots, get to the paint, and spread them out a little bit so they couldn’t just load up and take away driving lanes. The second half, like I said, going into that and seeing how effective it was—just spacing the floor—was really huge for us.”
The adjustment allowed Harden to thrive in ways he hadn’t in the previous two games. While the smaller lineup may have sacrificed some defense for scoring, it helped ease the burden on Leonard, who also found his rhythm. The strategy worked—the Clippers’ spacing disrupted Nikola Jokić, who grew visibly frustrated, even directing his frustration at the officials as Batum and others pestered him. It also gave Norman Powell the space he needed to be the consistent spark off the bench, leading to his 24-point performance.
We’ll almost certainly see this small-ball lineup again as the Clippers return to Denver for the fourth time this series. The question is when Tyronn Lue will deploy it—will he start the game with it or use it to counter the second unit? Ideally, he’ll pick the perfect moment.
On the road, Lue’s “temperature checks” will likely happen face-to-face rather than over the phone. For Leonard and Harden—the two Clippers with the most Game 7 experience—each enters with a 3-3 record in winner-take-all games, fully aware of what’s required to advance and how painful a loss can be.
No one more so than Leonard and Harden understands what it takes to advance, and they know all too well the sting of falling short. It will take the two once again both playing nearly 40-plus minutes, which both have done so four out of the six games.
“He’s been here before,” Leonard said of his teammate. And so has Leonard.
In Game 7s, Harden has averaged 21.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 7.0 assists, while Leonard has posted 21.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists. The Clippers will need every bit of that production as they face yet another potential end to their season.
“Attention to detail,” Harden said of what it will take in a must-win. “It’s like you really have to be locked in on what you’re supposed to be doing… For us, I think it’s about understanding what we’re doing as a team.”
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