LOS ANGELES — Clippers coach Tyronn Lue was blunt and to the point in discussing the team’s current situation. The Clippers are clinging to sixth place in the Western Conference after losing five of their past six games with 22 games left before the postseason.
Lue offered no excuses for their recent play or real solutions, either.
“Whatever path we got to take, we got to take,” Lue said. “We can’t have situations when guys are in and out of the lineup, when guys are getting hurt and banged up. We just got to stay the course.”
A path that has been bumpy since the All-Star break.
At 32-27, the Clippers are tied record-wise with the surging Golden State Warriors but own the tiebreaker after beating the Warriors twice this season, which gives them an ever-so-slim edge at No. 6 that can disappear at any moment. The Warriors were 7-3 in the past 10 games through Sunday and were set to face the Charlotte Hornets (14-45) on Monday.
The Clippers’ northern California rivals aren’t their only concern. Their upcoming schedule and the loss of starting guard Norman Powell for the next several games could be troublesome.
The team’s leading scorer (23.8 ppg) made his anticipated return to the lineup Sunday night, but he limped off the court roughly three minutes into their loss to the Lakers with a hamstring injury. Powell had missed the previous five games because of patellar tendinopathy and was scheduled for further testing Monday.
He is expected to miss Tuesday’s game against the Phoenix Suns and possibly Wednesday’s home game against the Detroit Pistons, who beat the Clippers a week ago. The New York Knicks visit the Intuit Dome on Friday night, then the Clippers finish the week against the Zach LaVine-led Sacramento Kings, who are just a half-game behind the Clippers, on Sunday night.
In addition to Powell, the Clippers also are likely to be without forward Derrick Jones Jr. (groin strain) and versatile wing Ben Simmons (sore left knee), leaving Kawhi Leonard and James Harden to carry the team.
Leonard showed concrete signs of being his former self on Sunday, battling for shots, driving inside, even taking a few falls without incident. The two-time NBA champion scored a season-high 33 points on 13-of-33 shooting and had 10 rebounds in 40 minutes, another season high.
“Just got to keep fighting. Gotta stay focused with each and every game and try to limit our mistakes as much as possible,” Leonard said about moving forward.
Lue called Leonard’s reintegration into the roster after a delayed start to the season “a process.”
“I think the last couple of games we are starting to see certain situations, certain plays that Kawhi is becoming himself (although) still just getting in the rhythm of the game with the flow of the game,” Lue said.
Harden has been in a funk recently. In six games since the All-Star break, he is shooting 34.5% from the field and 31.3% from 3-point range while playing an average of 37.6 minutes per game. In the two games against the Lakers, he shot 9 for 36 overall and 3 for 19 from behind the arc while maintaining his heavy workload.
“You definitely can see some fatigue setting in – he’s played almost every game, he’s had to carry this team for 40-45 games with Kawhi being out,” Lue said. “It’s to be expected. He’s going to go through some tough times like when he’s fatigued and he’s not going to be able to make a shot. So just being able to impact the game in other ways, by passing the basketball, by directing.
“That’s when Kawhi can do his thing and give James a chance to kind of breathe and relax a little bit. It’s a long season. And he’s been grinding after all of these games, and games we try to get him to sit, he wouldn’t sit because he wants to play. I think he gets a little tired, a little fatigued, but we just got to continue to keep fighting through it, because the schedule don’t get any easier.”
Harden shrugged off Lue’s comments, pointing instead to new players and injuries. He said “it’s not fatigue; it’s just lineups, different rotations. We just have to figure it out.”
CLIPPERS AT SUNS
When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
Where: Footprint Center, Phoenix
TV/radio: TNT, truTV, 570 AM