During the 2018-19 NBA preseason, all of the focus in Los Angeles seemed to be on LeBron James and the Lakers. But with the Lakers sliding out of playoff contention, the Los Angeles Clippers have taken center stage not just as the best team in the city, but the hottest team in the league.

The Clippers have won 11 of their last 12–including six in a row–and have officially clinched a playoff spot after climbing to the sixth spot in the Western Conference standings.

When head coach Doc Rivers' team traded star forward Tobias Harris to the Philadelphia 76ers on Feb. 6, it was assumed that they would grind through the rest of the season, maybe earn a playoff spot, and then gear up to land a max contract in free agency.

Instead, the Clippers have responded by going 15-5 since the trade, with Lou Williams playing some of the best basketball of his career off the bench and Danillo Gallinari continuing to fly under the radar despite having his finest season yet.

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And Rivers? He might be named the NBA's Coach of the Year when all is said and done, but he thinks his team is only just getting started:

With just seven games left in the regular season, the Clippers could possibly jump all the way to the third seed in the West.

They have the same record as the fifth-seeded Jazz (who own the tiebreaker), and are two games back of the Rockets (the no. 4 seed) and 2.5 games behind the Portland Trail Blazers, who just lost Jusuf Nurkic for the season due to a gruesome knee injury.