The Clippers enter this yr’s playoffs with the best expectations since Kawhi Leonard and Paul George joined forces forward of the 2019-20 season. The Tyronn Lue-led squad has the third-shortest odds to win the NBA Championship, behind solely prohibitive co-favorite Celtics and Nuggets.
Nonetheless, the Clippers’ postseason aspirations might be dealt an early jolt by a championship longshot. If the playoffs have been to start out in the present day, Los Angeles would draw the No. 4 seed and face fifth-seeded New Orleans (+6600, t-Fifteenth shortest odds) within the first spherical — a matchup that threatens to ship them residence early.
On Friday night time, the Pelicans accomplished a 3-1 regular-season sequence win over the Clippers, and with it, the head-to-head tiebreaker that might decide residence benefit if the Pels can shut their two-game deficit within the Western Convention standings.
With the win, the Pelicans additionally prolonged their latest dominance of the Clippers to 11-4 over the last 15 games. Whereas Zion Williamson wasn’t round for a few of these 11 wins attributable to accidents, he is been the important thing to the Pelicans’ three wins over the Clippers this season, averaging 29 factors on 54.8 p.c capturing.
The Clippers, regardless of having elite wing defenders of their ranks, have struggled to match up with Williamson’s fast first step and skill to get to the rim. On Friday, Lue tried all the things from placing Leonard, George and Terance Mann on Williamson. Nothing labored, as Williamson bulldozed his technique to the rim for 34 factors.
After the sport, Lue admitted his group needs to find a way to overcome its Zion problem.
“Zion, I believe down the stretch of all three video games they’ve gained this yr, he is dominated us the final six minutes of the third and the entire fourth,” Lue stated. “So, we have to concentrate to element and perceive what we need to do.
“…When the sport is on the road, and it is a shut sport, he all the time takes over down the stretch.”
Lue and the remainder of his teaching employees will seemingly research a whole lot of tape on Williamson over the following month, particularly if the present standings maintain. The third-seeded Timberwolves are three video games forward of the Clippers and the sixth-seeded Kings are 1.5 video games behind the Pelicans.