After losing their first six games following the acquisition of James Harden, the Clippers have since won 18 of 23, including the last four in a row, to improve their record to 21-12. With the team firing on all cylinders, it hasn’t been lost on Harden that the critics who were decrying his fit in early November have been quiet as of late.
“Fit is great, I knew that from the beginning and it’s one of the reasons why I wanted to be a part of this,” Harden said, per Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. “Obviously it didn’t start off well. It gave people so much to talk about in a negative way, and now those people that were talking are nowhere to be found. Like, literally nowhere to be found. Which, we knew that was going to happen.”
Viewed as a title threat when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George teamed up in Los Angeles in 2019, the Clippers have won just three playoff series in the past four seasons as Leonard and George both dealt with injuries. But with the two forwards healthy this season and Harden bringing a new element to the roster, they’re looking like a legitimate contender again.
Asked by Melissa Rohlin of FOX Sports what winning a championship would mean for his legacy, Harden said it would be “very important.”
“It’s been like that. I always want to give myself a chance to win. I know how very difficult that is,” Harden said. “There’s only one team standing at the end of the year. So, I’ll continue to keep trying to do that.”
Here’s more on the NBA’s two Los Angeles teams:
- Clippers two-way center Moussa Diabate, who was hampered in December by a hip issue, appeared in his first NBA game in over a month on Monday, logging three garbage-time minutes in a victory over Miami. However, it sounds like he won’t play again for a while — the team announced that Diabate, who had six blocks in a G League game on Tuesday, is out due to a metacarpal fracture in his right hand, tweets Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. The club has yet to provide a recovery timeline.
- With the Lakers slumping, Mirjam Swanson of The Southern California News Group wonders why the team hasn’t turned to the lineups that were successful last season, including either Jarred Vanderbilt or Rui Hachimura alongside Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, and D’Angelo Russell. Injuries have been a problem, but the club hasn’t used either of those lineups even when everyone has been available — those two groups have played just three total minutes together in 2023/24, says Swanson.
- While head coach Darvin Ham is clearly facing pressure to turn the Lakers‘ season around, a “high-ranking” team source disputed the idea that he’s on the verge of being fired, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic. Amick adds that assistant Phil Handy is frequently brought up as the possible next man up if the Lakers do eventually decide to make an in-season coaching change.
With a better coach, the Lakers surely would have been better off these last few seasons.
The thing is the team made the WCF, so that made it hard to fire him.
But I think the Lakers making it there last year didn’t have much to do with Ham.
But to get over the hump, better coaching would definitely help. They have a lot of good players, but the offensive schemes and plays suck. Lack of effort too. And bad rebounding.
Local media is reporting that negotiations are in progress with Michael Jordan to be brought in as new Lakers head coach. Jordan sold his majority ownership of the Charlotte Hornets this past summer and indicated an interest in coaching at time, looks like he might now get his chance.
Source – I made this up
Most elementary school basketball players could come up with better rotations than Darvin Ham. He’s an absolute idiot. LeBron needs to be surrounded by guys who can shoot and he needs a secondary playmaker out there.
A lineup of Reddish, Vando, Prince, LeBron, AD has 0 playmaking outside of Bron and virtually 0 shooting outside of Prince.
It’s absolutely pathetic watching someone who clearly doesn’t understand the game like Ham doesn’t come up with ridiculous lineups non stop
Ham gotta go
Words cannot describe the disappointment by NBA fans when inevitably one of these 3 goes down for 2+ months or heading into May
Could it be that Lakers are just not that deep? Blaming Ham’s rotations seems like media posturing. If half their guys are injured/inconsistent who is he supposed to play. Not sure there’s a secret formula here…
The secret formula is having a good front office that signs good players instead of pinning hopes on people like D’Angelo Russell
The roster is built by Lebron and Rich Paul, really not much Ham can do.