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Behind Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and James Harden, the Los Angeles Clippers ended a six-game losing streak on Friday night, defeating the Houston Rockets, 106-100.
The matchup came after the Clippers decided to move Russell Westbrook to a bench role and start Terance Mann in his place. With Harden finally becoming the singular playmaking guard in the starting lineup, the Clippers did what head coach Tyronn Lue said they would: play around James Harden.
Paul George got the night started scoring 13 points in the opening quarter and Harden closed it out with a four-point play that essentially shut the door on the upset-hopeful Houston Rockets in Los Angeles.
“He played great,” Kawhi Leonard said of James Harden’ night. “Seven assists, three turnovers. That’s a great ratio right there with as much as he has the basketball. Yeah, I mean I said this before about somebody else but y’all know how good he is.”
Harden finished the night with 24 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists, on 8-of-11 shooting. He finished a team-high +21 in 34 minutes of action for the Clippers en route to his first home victory as a member of the Clippers.
JAMES HARDEN 4-POINT PLAY FOR THE LEAD!
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) November 18, 2023
“We still got a long way to go, but obviously, it felt good to get a win,” James Harden said after the win. “You can’t take those for granted, but still, like I keep saying, it’s a building process and I could see a lot of improvements on both ends of the ball that we can correct and get used to and things like that. But all in all, good win, we just need to continue to get better and get ready for our next game.”
While it was the first win for Harden as a Clipper and the first win for the Clippers in nearly three weeks, it was also the end of the longest losing streak of Kawhi Leonard’s career in high school, college, or the NBA.
Coming into this season, the longest losing streak of Leonard’s career on the NBA level was four consecutive games. That was eclipsed within the first month of the season and pushed as far as six games, with the Clippers failing to win a game from November 1st until November 17th.
It's On The Players
The streak was a source of knowledge and learning for Kawhi Leonard, who says the Clippers know what they have to do to win.
“I learned before just losing games. We just keep being repetitive with our mistakes as far as boxing out and not doing rotations, turning over the ball. If we keep doing that consistently, we will lose games. You know, tonight I think we had 10 turnovers in the first half or something and we finished with 12 so we kind of turned it around in that second half so that was a good thing, but we still got a lot to work on.”
Tyronn Lue and the Clippers coaching staff have certainly caught some heat over the last few weeks as they try to navigate the different lineup and rotation possibilities they’ve been given.
Leonard believes that, at this point, it’s on the players to go out and perform.
“You got to be able to bury the teams when we go up 10 and not make it a close game coming from behind,” Kawhi Leonard added. “And it's just on the players you know what I mean? You go only get coached so much until that light switches in your head or it never does and then you see the teams fail. So we got to figure out who we want to be.”
In just six games, James Harden is averaging 16.5 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game on 51.6 percent shooting from the field and 38.7 percent from beyond the arc.
He’s insisted that he’s slowly getting back into ‘James Harden shape,’ but it’ll be dangerous when he does find his rhythm with this new team.
“Every day I'll continue to get better,” James Harden explained. “Every game I'll continue to get better. And with that being said, helping our team as well. I mean obviously I want to play well, but I think my contribution to the team is playing well, scoring a basketball and making it easier for everybody else. So the more I get comfortable, I mean it's only been the week and a half. I mean the more I get comfortable, the more fluent or offense will be.”
Russell Westbrook, who came off the bench for the first time as a member of the Clippers, finished with just eight points, three rebounds, and two assists on 2-of-9 shooting from the field in 17 minutes of play.
Terance Mann, who replaced Westbrook, finished with one point, six rebounds, and three assists in 21 minutes as a starter. Paul George also played 40 minutes for the second consecutive game, something Tyronn Lue says he plans to monitor.
Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, James Harden, and the Clippers now fly to Texas where they’ll face the San Antonio Spurs. They'll look to build on their first win with Harden against rookie superstar Victor Wembanyama.
