PORTLAND – The Los Angeles Clippers have lost four of their first five games of the season including an embarrassing 111-92 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers this past weekend.
(Courtesy of NBA)
The blowout loss comes just four days after the Clippers stomped on the Blazers at Staples Center in a 30-point rout for their first win.
There have been two common themes to the Clippers’ issues through these first weeks of the season, Paul George has been fantastic and everyone else has been inconsistent at best.
It’s as if PG-13 has been Gladys Knight with the rest of his supporting cast doing their impersonation of “The Pips.” Without star forward Kawhi Leonard available, George has taken on the starring role averaging 27.6 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.6 rebounds on 50 percent shooting and 37 percent from three-point range.
The question coming into the season was if George was propelled into the number one role to fill in for Leonard, who would emerge as the new number two? The answer is nobody so far.
Guys like Reggie Jackson, Eric Bledsoe, Ivica Zubac Luke Kennard, Terrence Mann, and Nicolas Batum have had positive moments to start the year but none have emerged as a clear co-pilot to George. Marcus Morris remains in-and-out of the lineup with a knee injury as has center Serge Ibaka with a back injury.
While George is holding up his end of the bargain, these other role players have not.
There could be a few reasons to explain that. One of them is the team is struggling to consistently make shots from beyond the arc. They shot 41 percent as a team during the 2020-2021 season, and so far shooting just above 30 percent to start this season.
Another explanation is now that opponents have seen enough film of how the Clippers execute minus Leonard in the lineup, defenses are focusing more on those role players like Jackson, Mann, and Kennard and making them work harder to score.
Not to mention their defense has also been inconsistent without Leonard and Patrick Beverley there to set that tone. That’s another area head coach Ty Lue will have to address.
The Clippers will be a competitive team this year and eventually figure some things out but their margin for error is thinner, because they are down a star player in a competitive conference.
While George is filling in admirably as that starring act like Gladys Knight, somebody else will have to emerge and be more than just a “Pip.”
