LA Clippers: Finals appearance obtainable with healthy team

The LA Clippers are expected to be a Finals contender. To be able to achieve that goal, this team will have to be healthy.

The LA Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers have played in classics all season. They played in another one on Thursday night. This time it wasn’t in LA it was in Florida.

Much was said about the Clippers’ mistakes but that was most likely just because of the lack of play during all these months.

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”We can’t have self-inflicted wounds and I thought we had too many of them,” said Clippers coach Doc Rivers.

While there were mistakes these two teams are top three in the league and they proved that it doesn’t matter where they play. The Lakers have now won the last two matchups which ties the season series 2-2.

We wanted to see what Paul George and Kawhi Leonard would do and they did not disappoint. George had 30 points, five rebounds and three assists. Leonard had 28 points, four assists and three rebounds.

While they came out to play it wasn’t enough as LeBron James was able to win the game for the Lakers in the final seconds. The Lakers have figured out that to beat the Clippers they have to have Anthony Davis dominate while LeBron James controls the whole game and decides it at the end.

This has been the case in the last two games. For the LA Clippers to win against this team in the playoffs they have to be at full strength.

Anthony Davis is a matchup nightmare for anybody. There is virtually nobody on the Clippers that can guard him. He is quick enough to get by his defender and the form on his shot is unblockable. In the past two wins for the Clippers, he has imposed his will on the game.

In March he had 30 points and on Thursday he had 34 points. How do you stop his offensive game? You have to make him work on defense. More looks for Marcus Morris Sr. will help stop the offensive game of Davis.

Not having Montrezl Harrell in this game hurt big time. His energy is unmatched and he would have made Davis and the Lakers work that much harder on defense.

LeBron James is one of the top three players of all-time. At this point in his career, his high basketball IQ is exemplified. James only had 16 points but he still imposed his will on the game. He had 11 rebounds and seven assists while playing tough defense (especially on the Clippers’ last possession) that helped control the Clippers star wings.

The Clippers’ two primary scorers are Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. They are also the two primary defenders on James. This will make the offense suffer which in the game the Clippers definitely did. They consistently had to make runs to try and get back into the game.

James’ knowledge of the game is something nerve-wracking to handle and if your top scorers have to deal with that all game then winning will be hard. This is where not having Lou Williams comes into play. With his microwave ability in the clutch that helps take some of the pressure off George and Leonard on offense. It also creates avenues to score for the star duo.

This game was the first real game in months and it was the biggest challenge this team will face the rest of the season. One main thing we learned from this game is that these teams will see each other again.

The focus now is playing well consistently and good play leading to wins. Building wins will build moral. Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell are the team’s next leading scorers and not having them proved costly. If a Paul George three goes down though we are saying that the Clippers should represent the West in the Finals.

Now it is time to move on and get everybody playing again.

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