James Harden found it “kind of weird” to play in his first game of the season after not participating in the LA Clippers‘ training camp, but he had no issue realizing the potential he, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Russell Westbrook have as a team.
“Endless opportunities,” Harden remarked.
While the New York Knicks spoilt Harden’s long-awaited Clippers debut on Monday night by winning 111-97 at Madison Square Garden, the team was focused on the future and what they thought would be exciting times to come.
In 31 minutes, Harden made six of his nine shots, scoring 17 points and dishing out six assists. After being traded from Philadelphia last week, he said it felt weird to play in his first game for the Clippers without having gone through training camp or the preseason.
Harden remarked, “I feel kind of weird out there.” “But simply not getting to play in a preseason game, be a part of the entire training camp, or anything like that. It was just winging it as we were simply [being] out there. Try to base it on my intuition as a basketball player and my experiences over the past few years or something similar. I simply went outside to play the game, think about it, and try to make it simpler for other people.”
With center Ivica Zubac, the Clippers started their four stars together. All four players scored in double figures, with Leonard recording a game-high 18 points, but the Clippers frequently appeared to be out of sync as they tried to gauge each other’s strengths.
They mishandled the ball 22 times, which resulted in 35 points for the Knicks. They gave up eighteen offensive rebounds and were outrebounded 48–31. They also failed to come up with any stops in the second half, allowing the Knicks to score 69 points after the break.
To make matters worse, the Clippers’ second unit may have taken a serious hit. Julius Randle struck backup center Mason Plumlee so hard on the side of his left leg that two Clippers employees had to help him off. Due to a sprained left knee, Plumlee was declared out of the game in the third quarter. He will get more testing on Tuesday.
Harden may need to work on the second unit more. Harden was given the starting lineup by Clippers coach Ty Lue, who also had the point guard manage the second team.
Despite Lue’s assertion that Harden grew weary in his first game action of the season, the coach noticed qualities in Harden that he found appealing. Early on in their pick-and-roll, Harden found Zubac with a precise bounce ball that spun around a defender and drew a foul inside.
Lue remarked of Harden’s playwriting, “I thought overall just orchestrating.” “He was incredibly skilled at making the appropriate plays, passes, and pick-and-rolls. He will need some time to be in shape for the game. Although we acknowledge that, it was clear that he was present on the floor.”
Lue believes that after ten games, he will know more about how this will function and what he might need to adjust.
Leonard praised Harden, saying, “He did a good job his first game in a while.” And in terms of conditioning, it takes time for him to get his feet under him. However, he performed a fantastic job for me, engaging everyone in pick-and-roll.”
Before the match, Lue declared that he had prepared a script detailing how he would space out his stars using the second unit and rotate “a thousand times.”
Certainly wasn’t in his plans to have to substitute his starting lineup for the remainder of the game with 4:25 remaining and the Clippers down 104-88.
Lue, though, declared that he wouldn’t overreact and that “I’m not going to panic right now.” He watched his stars making sacrifices and being determined to see this through.
After making 8 of 13 shots, Westbrook finished with 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. However, George’s scorching start to the season came to an end with 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting.
Nevertheless, he left Monday night with a great sense of optimism.
“When it comes down on the talent aspect, this was one of the [most] talented teams I’ve ever played for,” George commented. We will resolve it. First encounter. Fun, but with a lot of moving parts. There was a lot of hope for the future as we were playing on the court with those individuals.