“Definitely frustrating” - James Harden doesn’t mince words amid Clippers' failure
The LA Clippers' 2024 season, featuring James Harden and Paul George, which showed moments of great potential, concluded Friday night in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs with a defeat to the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks outshot, outhustled and outplayed the Clippers in Game 6, winning 114-101.
Following another early playoff departure, with Kawhi Leonard sidelined for four of the six games against the Dallas Mavericks, the LA Clippers are left pondering what could have been had their roster been at full strength.
After Friday's loss to the Mavericks, James Harden expressed how the team felt after the loss:
"It’s definitely frustrating for an entire group that had a pretty good regular season and had high hopes coming into the postseason."
To have a strong regular season only to be unable to field their top five players together in the postseason must have been truly frustrating.
Kawhi Leonard was sidelined for 12 of the Clippers' final 14 games due to inflammation in his right knee, which had undergone surgery for an ACL tear in the summer of 2021.
In the two games he managed to play against the Mavericks, Leonard did not perform to his usual standards. The two-time NBA Finals MVP scored 15 points on 7-of-17 shooting in Game 2.
In Game 3, he managed nine points on just seven shots and grabbed nine rebounds over 25 minutes, but he also committed four turnovers, his highest in a game since Feb. 23.
James Harden, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard showed success when healthy
When Leonard, Harden and Paul George were all in the Clippers' lineup this season, they ranked among the top teams in the NBA. They achieved a 26-5 record from Dec. 2 to Feb. 5, despite Leonard missing four games in that period, and recorded the league's third-best net rating over those 31 games.
The Clippers' 51 wins in the 2023-24 season matched the fifth-highest single-season win total in Clippers history. However, they have not made it past the first round of the playoffs since their Western Conference finals appearance in 2021.
As the Clippers prepare to inaugurate the $2 billion Intuit Dome next season, Leonard's latest postseason absence serves as a stark reminder of the team's ongoing need for elite support around him in the coming years. The next few months will chart a costly course filled with both immense potential and significant risks.