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Over the summer, the Los Angeles Clippers received praise from NBA die-hards for building a roster featuring intriguing young talent and, perhaps more importantly, the flexibility to make big moves in the future. With that said, expectations for the 2018-19 version of Doc Rivers’ team were modest, as Las Vegas projected the Clippers for a sub-.500 mark in the loaded Western Conference. After 19 games, however, the Clippers look the part of a playoff-bound entity and, when looking at the numbers, nothing appears fluky about the team’s strong play.
Through games on Nov. 25, the Clippers boast a top-10 offense and a defense that is solidly above-average. Los Angeles probably isn’t quite as good as their 13-6 record would suggest but, in the same breath, the peripheral numbers indicate that the Clippers are playing at approximately a 50-win level and it isn’t as if the team has coasted on the strength of an easy schedule. In fact, ESPN’s strength of schedule metric shines a light on just how difficult the sledding has been, and the Clippers already own victories over teams like Milwaukee, Houston, Portland and Golden State, which are impressive even factoring in some of the injuries those teams are dealing with.
Perhaps the biggest holdout when evaluating the Clippers is the lack of a top-tier star and, if we’re being honest, that probably does limit the team’s immediate ceiling. However, Los Angeles is receiving stellar contributions from Tobias Harris (21.5 points, 8.7 rebounds per game), Danilo Gallinari (18.6 points, 6.0 rebounds per game), Lou Williams (17.8 points per game) and Montrezl Harrell (15.8 points, 7.4 rebounds per game) in the early going. The work of Harrell, in particular, has been a revelation on both ends of the floor, and the Clippers are also coaxing high-level play from 2018 lottery pick Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
In projecting forward, it may be hard to see the Clippers finishing with a better record than teams like Houston, Oklahoma City or even Denver. That doesn’t mean, however, that Los Angeles isn’t a team to be reckon with, as this is a deep and competitive group that is well-coached and capable of knocking off just about any team on any given night.
Just how much love should we give the red-hot Clippers in this week’s DIME power rankings? Let’s find out.