The Los Angeles Clippers started this season as they finished the prior one, stumbling, looking lost and struggling to beat a team that wasn’t better than them. It happened with the Denver Nuggets in the bubble and it happened with these Lakers now.
Of course, the Lakers are a very respectable team without LeBron James and Anthony Davis but one would expect the Clippers to beat them when they don’t have their two biggest players, especially knowing that they have Kawhi Leonard and Paul George on the court.
These two are the ones that have carried the blame for their loss last season and these two aren’t any different. The players have broken the silence and explained that they’re not looking for results now, just getting things on track ahead of the new NBA season.
Kawhi Leonard, Paul George open up after losing two games against LeBron James, Anthony Davis-less Lakers
Kawhi claimed that they’re just getting used to each other again and trying to find chemistry before the start of the season. The 2020/21 NBA season starts next Tuesday and they still have work to do.
“We just [want to get] continuity, really,” Kawhi Leonard explained, via Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints. [Build] the team chemistry. We want to make sure everybody knows our plays, the different ballhandlers bringing it up. Just pretty much playing hard and want to build our habits right now. That is what we got to do. That starts here … We’ve turned the ball over too much. We have some things to clean up.”
Paul George spoke about Tyron Lue’s decision to implement two practices in one day in an attempt to get guys together and build chemistry as fast as possible. With players like Luke Kennard and Nicolas Batum out of action for almost a year and the start of the season so close, it was the best decision for the coach.
“Well that’s really where chemistry is built, in practice,” Paul George claimed. “Learning one another, learning coverages. I think practice is a lot of uncomfortable, puts you in a lot of uncomfortable situations, you have to learn to play through it. The saying where they say practice makes perfect, it’s not cliché. Practice (inaudible) games easier. And that is just the point where we got to get to (with) practice, we’re drilling that, you know it’s game time, we drill something so hard we know to do in the game.”
If they were to pick between losing games now against the Lakers or in the postseason, the Clippers would be happy with these two results. They are entering a big season where they’ll need to prove their doubters wrong after the collapse they suffered last season in the playoffs.
Leonard and George know they are very important for this team and won’t rest until they turn things around and win that longed-for title for the Clippers.