James Harden sat idle on the Los Angeles Clippers bench through 4 quarters and an OT period as LeBron James and the Lakers broke an 11-game losing streak to the Clips that dated back to the Bubble. Winning 130-125, LeBron’s 35 points had Clips’ head coach, Ty Lue, couldn’t help but miss his newest superstar acquisition.
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When asked in his postgame interview if he saw an moment in the game where the Clippers could’ve used James’s services, Lue responded with, “Ya I saw it for 53 minutes.” This clearly alludes to the fact that Lue wanted Harden out on the floor and given that PJ Tucker, who was also a part of the 76ers-Clips deal, played 20:49 minutes, it’ll be interesting to see when Harden suits up.
With Steve Ballmer’s squad now featuring 4 future first ballot Hall-of-Famers, the expectations for the team are the highest they have been since Paul George and Kawhi Leonard joined in the summer of 2019. Their odds of winning the 2024 championship for the Clippers are now higher than the Lakers at +1300 while the latter stand at +1600 according to ‘betmgm’.
Kendrick Perkins suggests James Harden come off the bench
With James Harden leading the NBA in assists in the 2022-23 season, it feels as though the ‘obvious’ fit for him would be at point guard. However, with Russell Westbrook averaging 15.2/7.8/7 so far through 5 games, Ty Lue will have a tough decision ahead of him. Does he start all 4 of his stars or will one of them (most likely Russ if someone is benched) be benched?
Kendrick Perkins went against the grain with his take and claimed that Harden needed to come off the bench.
“Ty Lue, if I’m you, I bring James Harden in off the bench as a 6th man. Here’s the thing: the second most important player on that team is Paul George. He’s averaging 27 points right now and shooting about 53% from the field and it’s because of Russell Westbrook. It’s something about that duo.”
Westbrook’s 7 assists per game have been distributed quite evenly amongst his teammates in this extremely small sample size. However, with the way the Clippers offense works, Russ’s drive ins leads to opportunities to leak-outs on the wings by players like Paul George.
Harden on the other hand has lost a step. While he can still set up a half court offense, him directly affecting PG13’s game might not be as evident as the way Westbrook does.
Of course, when the 2018 MVP does decide to make his debut, Ty Lue will start all 4 of his guys alongside Zubac. Only if that starting 5 begins to falter will he decide to shove Russ back to the bench as the Lakers did last season.
