INGLEWOOD — That old, all-too-familiar, haunting refrain: If only they were healthy, the Clippers would …
… would what?
Would’ve, could’ve been a contender?
A reasonable assumption, considering Kawhi Leonard’s track record of multiple NBA championships and multiple NBA Finals MVPs when healthy – and the grand canyon he leaves in a lineup when he’s missing from it.
Don’t need to remind Clippers fans, but for the uninitiated or anyone who might have forgotten: There was 2021, when they reached their first and so far only Western Conference finals, but got no further without Leonard, who was felled by a torn ACL during the second round.
And then there was the stunning heartbreak each of the past two postseasons. The torn meniscus that cost Leonard the final three games in the Clippers’ first-round series loss to Phoenix in 2023. And then, last year, when knee inflammation stopped him after he tried to play in Games 2 and 3 of the Clippers’ first-round defeat against Dallas.
And every time, the same sad song: If only the Clippers had had their best player …
Well, now, for once the Clippers can thank their lucky stars, because they have had a healthy Leonard and his new co-star James Harden – and yet! Going into Game 6 of their best-of-seven first-round series against the fourth-seeded Denver Nuggets, they were facing another first-round playoff exit, same as before.
After getting throttled in Denver in Game 5 on Tuesday, 131-115 – no thanks to a meek 11 points from Harden and a ho-hum 20 from Leonard – they showed up to work Thursday night at Intuit Dome facing the same disappointing fate. Just this time it was with a pair of healthy stars, who were 26-11 this season when they both played, but who were looking at a third consecutive loss – and checking out early for summer vacation. Again.
Womp-womp. What a letdown. After the Clippers overachieved all season with perhaps the best supporting cast Leonard has had in L.A. – and enjoyed, at last, a real home-court advantage at Intuit Dome, they’d backed themselves all the way up against the other wall, the proverbial one where one loss meant another early exit, but without any excuses or place to point blame beside themselves.
But … wait a minute. It turns out these healthy stars weren’t ready to “go home” just yet, as Harden said after he scored a team-high 28 points – the most for him in an elimination game since 2020, when he had 30 in a second-round loss to the Lakers in the Orlando bubble – to help the Clippers to a 111-105 win that forced a Game 7 in Denver on Saturday.
No, this tantalizing series – by far the best of all the first-round pairings in the NBA this spring – means too much to these guys.
“I’m enjoying every game,” said Leonard, who finished Thursday with 27 points on 11-of-22 shooting. “I’ve been on the sidelines the last couple of years in the playoffs. I don’t take it for granted. I just try to cherish every moment and thank God for being able to play.”
And so they came out Thursday aggressively, playing with fearlessness to match their Nuggets counterparts; because you need Kawhi and a real plus-one if you’re going to dance with the likes of Nikola Jokic and Playoff Jamal Murray.
The Clippers needed Leonard’s efficient 39-point explosion to win Game 2. They needed Harden’s best version of himself, his 20 points and nine assists in their cool Game 3 win, and then his scoring output and his eight assists Thursday to stave off that same old, tired ending for at least one more game, or maybe longer. (And to offset the predictable playoff stall-outs that are, at this point, part of driving the Harden bargain.)
Because it turns out it’s true, what we’ve been thinking this whole time: If only the Clippers were healthy … they are pretty dang formidable.
On Thursday, that version of the Clippers forced us – again – to reassess everything we thought we knew about this back-and-forth series.
Big Ivica Zubac defended perennial MVP candidate Jokic just about as well as anyone could, holding him to 5-of-14 shooting as his primary defender, per ESPN. With his light touch, Nicolas Batum left his fingerprints all over the game. And Norman “Pow-Pow-Powell!” – as they introduce the former UCLA Bruin at the Intuit Dome – punched in with 24 points. Those other Clippers so clutch in complementing their catalysts’ contributions, they not only fended off Jokic and his accomplished crew but reminded us how scary-good a team they can be … when whole, when healthy.
“James did a great job of setting the tone early, scoring the basketball, getting downhill, making the right play,” said Clippers coach Tyronn Lue, who is glad to have Leonard to lean on. “Kawhi was just kind of steady throughout the game.”
Despite having been interrupted by injury so many times, on Thursday night Leonard logged his 30th playoff game with 20 or more points as a member of the Clippers, tying him for the second-most in franchise history with Blake Griffin and behind only Chris Paul, who had 31.
Harden, 35, played 47 minutes and will do it again Saturday if needed, he said between a couple of big yawns postgame: “Got to. Have to. Have to. It is what it is. It’s a part of it. Whatever the team needs. If it’s 47, 48, overtime, whatever. I’m gonna do it.”
Or as Leonard put it: “Just go out there and have fun.”
And when the Clippers’ Fun Guy is out there, plugged in and running, it’s a win for us all – including, actually, Nuggets fans. And Lakers fans. All real basketball fans among us. So said Jokic: “If you like basketball, like a really true fan of basketball not like fame basketball, like really like details stuff, I think this is the games that you should watch.”
And now, onto Game 7, after which the survivor of this great series will be rewarded with a second-round date against 68-win top-seeded Oklahoma City, the young Thunder having aged some since sweeping Memphis out of the playoffs back on April 26.
The prospect of beating the NBA’s other MVP candidate, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – once the Clippers’ rookie phenom before he was traded for Paul George, in essence to secure Leonard – will be a tall task, to be sure.
But after years of dreaming of all the places they could go if only they were whole and healthy, I know how the Clippers would greet that challenge. They’d be thinking: ‘Whi not?