The Athletic: Clippers enter playoffs as NBA’s hottest staff. The objective? ‘Keep the course’

Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers secured a first-round playoff matchup with Denver after beating Golden State in additional time on Sunday.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Poise. That’s what the LA Clippers wanted to win solely their second nationally televised sport of the season.

Poise and stress are likely to go collectively. Within the 1997 film “The Satan’s Advocate,” Al Pacino’s character states, “Some individuals, you squeeze them, they focus; others fold.”

“I believe it’s essential to remain poised,” Clippers head coach Lue mentioned previous to his staff’s highway sport Sunday in opposition to the Golden State Warriors for the precise to clinch a playoff spot outright and keep away from the Play-In Match. “If you happen to’re up yelling and going loopy on the refs and going loopy within the huddles, you form of lose sight of what’s at stake. I don’t wish to be that coach that’s going loopy and doing issues out of the unusual. It’s simply give your staff confidence, give them a chilled presence within the timeouts, and that manner, they’ll go on the ground and do the identical factor. That’s simply at all times been my motto.”

The Clippers wanted that poise once they had been down 12 within the second quarter to the Warriors, as Jimmy Butler ate up LA’s second unit with Stephen Curry off the ground. They wanted it when Norman Powell struggled by way of a tough taking pictures sport, solely to discover a method to make go-ahead subject objectives to finish the second and third quarters. They wanted it when Curry scored 18 of his team-high 36 factors within the fourth quarter, giving the Warriors a 111-107 lead with lower than two minutes remaining in regulation.

The Clippers wanted poise to cease the Warriors on their last possession of regulation, when each different NBA sport on Sunday was over and different groups had been watching what was transpiring at Chase Middle. Additionally they wanted poise to by no means path in additional time and safe a 124-119 win that accomplished a regular-season sweep of the Warriors, capped a season-best eight-game profitable streak and gave them back-to-back 50-win seasons and the fifth seed within the 2025 NBA playoffs.

“We obtained down 12, I simply advised the fellows (to) keep the course,” Lue mentioned postgame. “Being down 12 is just not rather a lot for us if we are able to simply do what we’re presupposed to do, do what we’re able to doing. Our guys did that for the remainder of the sport. I believe we got here in, had the lead at halftime by one, after which it was simply form of a back-and-forth sport.”

The Clippers enter the postseason having gained 18 of their final 21 video games. They’re the most well liked staff in basketball, with the NBA’s finest offense and protection since March 6. However they had been cautious of what they’d have confronted had they not run by way of the tape Sunday.

The preparation started on the finish of Friday’s highway sport in opposition to the Sacramento Kings. A ten-point Clippers lead on the 4:57 mark evaporated to at least one level with 3.9 seconds left. Keegan Murray intercepted a James Harden inbounds cross to provide the Kings an opportunity to steal the sport, however the Clippers survived as DeMar DeRozan missed a prayer, preserving a 101-100 Clippers win.

Lue scoffed on the notion that he must be involved as a result of his staff nearly squandered Friday’s sport. He has seen his staff survive endings like that earlier than this season.

“Stop saying ‘involved’ on a regular basis,” Lue mentioned. “I’m by no means involved. Like, it’s a part of the sport. … It was an enormous win for us, so I’m not involved about something.”

That sport arrange Sunday’s win-or-sort-of-go-home heavyweight brawl in opposition to the Warriors. Every thing wasn’t on the road within the Bay; Golden State head coach Steve Kerr famous that it didn’t really feel like a Recreation 7. However the winner secured a playoff spot, and the loser would have two cracks at a Play-In Match dwelling sport to clinch.

That’s the place the issues began for Lue — and maybe the fan base of the Clippers, as nicely. This staff hadn’t misplaced a sport all April however needed to win a nationally televised highway matinee in probably the most hostile of territories to keep away from the Play-In Match. When the Clippers made the Play-In Match in 2022, they gained 42 video games regardless of Kawhi Leonard lacking all the season with proper knee ACL surgical procedure and Paul George lacking greater than half of the season with a torn ligament in his taking pictures arm elbow.

That Clippers staff had no shot at a top-six seed given the circumstances, however they’d double-digit fourth-quarter leads in Minnesota in the course of the 7-8 sport and in opposition to the New Orleans Pelicans in the course of the 8-9 sport. The Clippers misplaced each Play-In video games, the latter with out George (COVID-19) in opposition to a Pelicans staff that had six extra losses than them in the course of the common season.

“If you happen to’re 9 and 10 video games forward of the ninth and tenth seed, and then you definitely combat this difficult to get right here, you understand … after which, these groups are good,” Lue mentioned Friday evening in Sacramento, cautious of potential Play-In groups just like the Dallas Mavericks who’ve a dropping document. “These groups are adequate to win two video games. All you bought to do is get scorching for 2 video games, and also you’re within the playoffs. So, it’s robust. Form of wish to disregard the 82 video games that you simply’re enjoying in the course of the common season, and it comes down to 2 video games. Anyone can get scorching. Something can occur. It’s a troublesome scenario.”

Maybe the Clippers had a proper to be spooked. However they may nonetheless worth the 82-game season. That they had an opportunity to finish the common season whereas additionally controlling their very own playoff future. The excellent news for them is they’d a staff able to getting it performed.

Leonard felt like Friday’s sport in Sacramento was notably tough when it comes to not getting calls whereas he navigated the protection. There was a second late within the sport the place he was despatched tumbling to the ground with no name, left to bellow “foul!” His face nonetheless had an open wound by Sunday.

However Leonard’s handled worse. This time final 12 months, he wasn’t at full energy following an All-NBA marketing campaign due to his knee. He didn’t debut this season till January. However on Sunday, he scored 33 factors whereas the Clippers outscored the Warriors by a game-high plus-minus of 17 factors in Leonard’s 47 minutes and 25 seconds performed.

“It’s nice,” Leonard mentioned of getting again to the playoffs in any case he’s been by way of. “Now, gotta keep the course and be capable of really feel how I’m feeling now and attempt to preserve that shifting. Like I mentioned, I wish to have a wholesome offseason, and that’s what I’m making an attempt to do.”

Powell didn’t have his finest sport, scoring solely 11 factors on 4-of-13 taking pictures from the sphere and lacking 5 of six 3s. However his 3-pointer to beat the halftime buzzer ended a stretch that noticed Leonard, Harden and Curry all make 3s within the last minute of the primary half. Powell’s sweeping hook gave the Clippers a lead going into the fourth quarter.

All the sport, Powell felt the encouragement from his teammates.

“I used to be a bit of annoyed with how I used to be enjoying at that second,” Powell mentioned Sunday. “(Harden) got here to me and advised me none of that issues; I’m a fantastic participant, simply proceed to remain targeted within the second till the subsequent play. However that’s what staff is. You elevate one another up, you cheer one another on and determine how one can get a win.”

The first defender on Curry was Kris Dunn, a former lottery decide who needed to discover his manner again into the NBA after accidents slowed his development. Dunn, drafted fifth by the Timberwolves in 2016, has solely performed in 33 minutes in the course of the playoffs. He was in a position to keep poised defensively on a day Curry had eight turnovers.

Now, Dunn will get to contribute to a playoff staff.

“These gamers are too nice on this league, Steph and others,” Dunn mentioned after compiling three steals in 35-plus minutes at Golden State. “You simply obtained to maintain a combating mentality. Maintain making an attempt to make it robust on them and, you understand, make some massive performs.”

Whereas Dunn will miss out on an opportunity at an All-Defensive staff choice due to league guidelines (Dunn performed in 74 video games, however reached 20 minutes in solely 53 of them, 9 brief to be eligible), Ivica Zubac went up in opposition to Defensive Participant of the Yr candidate Draymond Inexperienced and put his last stamp on a banner 12 months. LA’s heart had 22 factors on 11 of 16 subject objectives and recorded his twenty ninth 20-point sport of the season. Zubac had solely 16 20-point video games in his first eight NBA seasons mixed.

Moreover, for the tenth time this season, Zubac completed a sport with zero private fouls. He additionally outrebounded all the Golden State beginning lineup, 17-14.

However Zubac was extra in awe of Harden’s accomplishments. Harden, who drained 5 3-pointers for the sport, put the staff on his again in additional time, scoring 12 of his game-high 39 factors within the additional interval. He gave his staff the lead for good with a moonshot of a 3-pointer over Butler.

“James hitting these 3s, the second he hit over Jimmy. I felt prefer it was within the air for like 5 seconds,” Zubac mentioned. “It was enjoyable, man. Huge-time gamers … a sport like this, excessive stakes, I really feel fairly assured.”

The Clippers now have greater issues to play for. A staff that wasn’t even projected by Las Vegas to win 40 video games stays a top-five staff within the Western Convention for the fifth time in six years. They get to face the Denver Nuggets in Recreation 1 of the playoffs Saturday afternoon, a staff that options MVP candidate Nikola Jokic and former Clipper Russell Westbrook. However Denver additionally simply fired championship head coach Michael Malone, who led the Nuggets to a semifinals win over the Clippers within the 2020 bubble after the Clippers had a 3-1 lead with earlier head coach Doc Rivers.

Final 12 months’s Western Convention fifth seed was the Mavericks. They went on to beat the Clippers within the quarterfinals and advance to the NBA Finals after getting into the postseason because the NBA’s hottest staff. It’s been a profitable season for the Clippers, however there is no such thing as a manner they’re content material with that. Leonard has had an excessive amount of time taken away from him. Harden has made the playoffs every year since being drafted in 2009, with a championship the very last thing lacking on his résumé. The Clippers have had 14 straight profitable seasons and not using a finals look.

Poise led them into the playoffs. Why cease now?

“Now it is time to get to work.” pic.twitter.com/P38jCe3q7I

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) April 15, 2025

“We wish to go a bit of additional,” Zubac mentioned. “Our objective was clearly to make the playoffs, however we’re not completely happy or no matter. We’re completely happy we obtained in with out being within the Play-In, since everybody doubted us. It feels good to show everybody fallacious. Individuals saying we’re going to win 30 video games, 35, no matter. To win 50 video games … it feels good, however we obtained some extra work to do.”

Regulation Murray is a workers author for The Athletic masking the LA Clippers. Previous to becoming a member of The Athletic, he was an NBA editor at ESPN, a researcher at NFL Media and a contributor to DrewLeague.com and ClipperBlog. Regulation is from Philadelphia, Pa., and is a graduate of California College of Pennsylvania and the College of Southern California. Comply with Regulation on Twitter @LawMurrayTheNU