The Los Angeles Clippers ride a five-game winning streak into a potential play-in round preview on Tuesday, as they welcome the Portland Trail Blazers to Inglewood, Calif., for the first of two late-season matchups between the teams.
Los Angeles (39-36) moved to the right side of .500 and within striking distance of the Western Conference’s top play-in seed over the last week. The Clippers scored their fifth win in nine days on Sunday with a 127-113 defeat of Milwaukee, pulling them within 2 1/2 games of seventh-place Phoenix.
Battling for postseason positioning down the stretch underscores a dramatic turnaround for a Clippers team that sat at 6-21 on Dec. 18.
“The biggest thing is a healthy Kawhi (Leonard),” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said of the midseason turnaround.
Leonard is averaging a team-high 28.2 points per game and his 1.9 steals per game leads a defense that ranks 10th in the league in points allowed (112.5 ppg).
“And then, just the guys we’ve got in the locker room. That’s what I’m most pleased about,” Lue added. “They could have easily gave up, they could have easily gave in, (but) every single guy in the locker room — including Kobe Brown, (Ivica Zubac) and James (Harden), they played a big part in it as well … sacrificed, no matter what it took to win games.”
The trio of Brown, Zubac and Harden were traded in deals that brought Bennedict Mathurin and Isaiah Jackson to Los Angeles by way of Indiana, and Darius Garland from Cleveland. Each of Mathurin, Jackson and Garland have played significant roles down the stretch.
Mathurin scored 28 points in Sunday’s victory, giving him 68 points in three games since returning from a four-game absence due to a toe injury. Garland’s 15-point, 11-assist effort on Sunday was part of a standout stretch amid the winning streak, kicked off with a 41-point, 11-assist outpouring against Dallas on March 21.
The rejuvenated Clippers corps looks to hold off Portland, the team currently slotted into an opening-round play-in matchup with Los Angeles as the No. 9 seed.
The Blazers (38-38) are winners in three of four after a 123-88 rout of Washington on Sunday. The blowout was a rebound for Portland following a 100-93 defeat against Dallas on Friday, a game that was tied for the Blazers’ second-lowest scoring performance of the campaign.
Before that, the Blazers notched 134-99 and 130-99 blowouts of Brooklyn and Milwaukee. The Blazers try to carry the momentum into Los Angeles, for what Toumani Camara told reporters was a crucial matchup.
“We’re fighting for the eight spot, and we play them two more times before the season’s over,” Camara said. “It’s the most important game for us right now, looking at (the schedule).”
The Clippers visit Portland on April 10 in the penultimate date of the regular season for both teams.
The Blazers are 0-2 against Los Angeles this season, but have not seen the Clippers since the dramatic roster overhaul made before the trade deadline. In the last meeting on Dec. 26 — a 119-103 Los Angeles win — Deni Avdija’s 29 points, nine rebounds and nine assists for Portland countered Leonard’s 28 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
Avdija, who made his first All-Star Game appearance this season, leads Portland at 23.8 points per game. Jerami Grant, averaging 18.6 ppg, has picked up some of the scoring slack with 21.4-ppg scorer Shaedon Sharpe out since early February with a lower leg injury.
Blazers coach Tiago Splitter told reporters on Sunday that Sharpe has not yet returned to on-court activities.
