Clippers Season Summary - Two Heroes Return, a Season that Between Expectations

A long season has ended. Although the Clippers regretfully lost the tiebreak battle and were eliminated in the first round again, the Clippers' performance throughout the season is still remarkable.

Before the season started, George left, Westbrook left, and Ka's return date was not determined after suffering injury surgery. Although he signed players such as Dunn, Jones, Batum, etc., all media still did not look forward to the prospects of the Clippers this season, which lacked the main player. ESPN ranked the Clippers at the 13th in the West, which was the most vivid portrayal of the time.

No one is optimistic about them, nor is anyone paying attention to them, because their leading stars do not play, Zuba Powell is not at the level of his level, and former All-Star Harden is at the bottom of his career. What else can people expect?

Perhaps the only thing you can expect is the strength of the team.

After an energy-filled training camp, the Clippers set sail, and they unexpectedly kept their winning rate at around 60%, staying steadily in the top six in the West. This is a result that surprises everyone. Harden, who seems to be old, has a new life. He led the team forward with everyone's doubts and denials. Powell scored the best half-time performance in his career, passing by the All-Star for the first time in his career. Zubac made an overall progress, with scoring, rebounding and assists all at career highs. He ranked second in the fastest-progress player awards selected at the end of the season, and was the biggest compliment to him throughout the season. During the days when Xiao Ka was absent, the three of them supported the team's offensive system, supplemented by the defensive system built by Dunn, the top three in the league's defensive efficiency, the defensive player Prince Jones, and Batum, who has the first rate reduction in the inside, and Van Gundy. The Clippers moved forward all the way, not only waited for Xiao Ka's injury to come back in January, but also defended the top six in the Western Conference in front of the All-Star.

Harden was also selected as the All-Star again after two years because of his outstanding performance, and used his outstanding performance to make a comeback in the first two years that he was not considered successful. He needs to prove himself so much that he has made his promise to his fans.

In addition to Harden, Xiao Ka, who has been repeatedly troubled by injuries, also needs to prove his efforts and unwillingness. The continuous absence of the playoffs put Ka under tremendous pressure. In order to finish the season healthy, he lost weight. He needed to adapt to his body, adapt to the intensity of the confrontation, and find his position in the system. He struggled for a long time, and Powell's injury made the Clippers start to bump. The All-Star Game lost 6 after 7 games, which made the Clippers fall into the playoffs. In times of crisis, Harden's 50 points in a single game awakened the team, with 18 wins and 3 losses in the final stage, and finally achieved a record of 50 wins, ending fifth in the Western Conference. This is a regular season performance that exceeds expectations. You should know that the season forecast of the Clippers will win 35 wins, which is 15 more games than expected, thanks to the efforts of everyone in the team.

Harden led the team to an excellent regular season record. Xiao Ka played healthy for the entire season, and they announced the return of the heroes in different ways.

The opponents of the Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs have a mature system. They relied on this system to win the first championship in team history two years ago. They have the first person in the world to meet with teachers, and their starting champion team is still completely retained except Pope. Although they replaced the meritorious coach Malone in the last match, they had the team who really formulated tactics. Their shortcomings are obvious, such as lack of lineup depth, but their game winning logic is still complete and reliable.

In contrast, the Clippers did not recover their state in the first half after recovering from injury. At the same time, Kat and Powell's starting rights conflict, Dunn's shooting weakness, lack of a second ball holding point, and the small size of the three defenders were not solved in the final stage of the regular season. Although the Clippers have been winning streak, most of them rely on Kat, Harden and Zuba who burned their physical strength to win. In order not to play in the playoffs, the Clippers were forced to get into strength, and it was a pity that they missed the best opportunity to run in and experiment with the lineup. The game has not yet begun, and the Clippers have actually fallen into a passive position.

Nuggets firmly grasped the Clippers' weaknesses and began to target them.

The high-level double-teamed the ball, emptyed non-space points, snatched the frontcourt rebounds, and Powell disappeared almost every away game. Faced with their own weakness, they used to extend their main time and substitute the five small players at critical moments to completely disrupt the Clippers' arrangements.

It's a pity that the Clippers have too many details in this round of the series.

G1's key timeout in the fourth quarter was not called

G4's key defensive round not substituted

G5 Harden was taken outside the game by the opponent. The team's tactical handling mistakes

G7's key rotation in the first quarter and the starting lineup that should have been adjusted long ago even though he made so many mistakes, the series was dragged to tiebreak, which shows that the team could have gone further this season.

There are too many regrets, but life has to continue. There are too many unwillingness, but the players have worked hard enough this season. We should not blame any players, they have done their best.

They want to win more than anyone else, they want to prove themselves better than anyone else, but life will never go well. Losers can leave the stadium with their heads held high because they have brought so many surprises to the fans. They have defeated themselves and they are worthy of the heroes of the stadium. They gave us a great performance throughout the season.

We also look forward to the healthy Harden and Xiaoka coming back after a complete training camp next year. The story is not yet completed, and the hero's chapter continues.