After a run of eight victories in nine games, that includes a win over the best team in the Eastern Conference, the revived Los Angeles Clippers will now test themselves against the best in the West.
The seventh-place Clippers will match wits with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday at Inglewood, Calif., in a duel against a team on an even better run with 12 victories in their past 13 games.
While the Cavaliers had the NBA’s top record when the Clippers (40-30) fashioned a 132-119 home victory on Tuesday, it is the Thunder that are on top of the league now. In fact, the Thunder (58-12) clinched the top playoff seed in the Western Conference on Thursday.
Los Angeles superstar Kawhi Leonard missed the first three months of the season with knee discomfort but has made up for lost time. He has averaged 26.6 points with 7.4 rebounds over his past five games.
Starters James Harden and Ivica Zubac continue to be productive, while trade-deadline addition Bogdan Bogdanovic has been a revelation since he was acquired from the Atlanta Hawks at the trade deadline.
“Unbelievable basketball player, even better guy,” Harden said of Bogdanovic. “He gets it, he understands it and he fits in with what we’re trying to do.”
Bogdanovic has averaged 12.8 points in 18 games with his new team, including 17.0 points over his last five games, while shooting 74.4 percent from the floor in the stretch and 15 of 19 (78.9 percent) from 3-point range.
“Everybody (is) contributing in their spots,” said Leonard, who has helped the team move one game behind the Golden State Warriors for the No. 6 seed entering Saturday. “If you’re playing 10 minutes or the whole game, everybody is collectively putting in the effort for the win.”
Seamless play is nothing new for the Thunder, who have now earned the Western Conference’s top seed the past two seasons. And their dominance over the Clippers goes back even further.
Oklahoma City is 3-0 against Los Angeles in 2024-25 and is 8-2 over its conference foe the past three seasons.
The Thunder clinched the Western Conference when the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday. They went out and celebrated Friday with a 141-106 home victory over the Charlotte Hornets.
Former Clipper Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points against the Hornets and leads the NBA at 32.9 points per game. Another former Clipper, Isaiah Hartenstein, scored 12 points with 10 rebounds.
Oklahoma City’s second-leading scorer Jalen Williams (21.3 points) has missed the last five games with a hip injury, while Lu Dort has missed the past three games with his own hip issue.
“The best signal to us is the fact that no matter who we’re putting on the court, we kind of look the same on both ends of the floor,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said, according to ClutchPoints. “We’re playing to a certain standard and playing a certain way, and that’s with different lineups, but it’s also with guys being out.”
The Thunder are starting a brief two-game visit to California with a game at Sacramento on Tuesday. The team will return to Oklahoma City to play six of its next seven games at home, where the team is 30-5 this season.
Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue has missed five of the past seven games with back pain as assistant coach Brian Shaw has led the team.
–Field Level Media
