My Hottest Take: Kawhi Leonard's Still Got It

At the start of the season the Clippers were losing game after game with very few bright spots. Harden tried his best but no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop the bleeding. When Kawhi got back, he played well but the Clippers kept losing. Everyone thought that the Clippers’ season was over before it even really started, but Kawhi stepped up his game to a level comparable to his 2019 season

During this winning streak he is averaging 40/8/4 with four stocks on 57.3/48.6/92 efficiency. He has dropped his first-, second- and seventh-highest scoring games ever. The efficiency he has been shooting with during this stretch has been absolutely insane. He is shooting the three better than Curry, KD and Jamal Murray, is more efficient from the field than Zion, Shai and Wemby, and is the best free-throw shooter in the league. He leads the league by far in steals and is 14th in blocks. It is now safe to say that vintage Kawhi is back.

What You Need To Know: The Funniest Option will Always Happen to the Clippers

After the Clippers cut Chris Paul, the entire NBA landscape was confused. Not only were the Clippers stabbing their franchise legend in the back, but the move also made no sense from a basketball standpoint. He played very few minutes for them and while he wasn’t playing great he is a proven veteran who is known to make the teams he goes to better. When he got cut everyone said that this wouldn’t change how the Clippers have been playing.

Of course the Clippers have become one of the best teams in the league since then. They have been the second-best offensive team with a rating of 125.9 points per game and the fifth-best defense with a rating of 110.4 opponent's points per game. They have been fifth in effective field goal percentage and second in true shooting. They have been one of the best teams in the league and have turned themselves into contenders in less than a month and it's only looking up from here.

The Clippers are only the 11th seed but they have a bright future ahead of them this season. They managed to jump from all the way of the conference, to close to the play-in tournament and the Clippers' great offense and defense show no signs of stopping. James Harden has been playing great still, quietly averaging 26/5/8 on solid efficiency. Harden and Leonard both have great cases for the All-Star game this year which is the Clippers’ arena. But besides the stars, role players have been playing great as well. Brook Lopez came in for Zubac after an injury and has been playing well, even hitting nine threes in one game. Veterans like Kris Dunn and Nicolas Batum have both been playing great, shooting the ball extremely well and young players like Yanic Konan Niederhäuser, Cam Christie, Kobe Brown, Kobe Sanders and Jordan Miller have gotten playing time and stepped up to fill their respective roles.

The Clippers have one last bright spot in fact that two key players, Ivica Zubac and Derrick Jones Jr. will be returning from injury. These are two key starters for the Clippers that will make them a great team when they get inserted back into the lineup. Zubac was close to making All-NBA last year and DDJ was a highly sought after roleplayer. Their defense and offense being put back into the Clippers lineup will make them a truly terrifying team to play.

Before You Go: Key Matchups For The Clippers

While every game is important to a team trying to win, especially for a team like the Clippers, who are currently missing the playoffs, they do have some key games they should lock in on. The obvious three games in the next month are the Warriors, Lakers and Suns, their divisional rivals. Winning these games will help them win their division, meaning that if both teams have the same record at the end of the season, then the team with the better divisional record will win the tie breaker. This will be especially helpful for them because the gap between the third and eighth seeds last year were only separated by two games.

Another important game to them will be against the Nuggets. While beating them obviously improves their record and helps them to climb in standings it will also show if they have improved since last year. This is the team that knocked the Clippers out of the playoffs last year so beating them would show that this team has improved from the 2025 Clippers. Other important games would be the Pistons, Knicks and Celtics, the top three seeds from out east. Beating these teams would show that the Clippers have become true contenders and can hang with the top seeds of both conferences.

The Clippers have managed to fuel the fire of playoff hopes that seemed so close to dying at the start of the season.