Clippers have been less than the sum of their parts. Do they have enough time to get whole?

LOS ANGELES – The LA Clippers ended their first sample of 20 regular-season games with a second straight blowout loss, falling 114-104 at home against the Denver Nuggets on Black Friday. The day before Thanksgiving saw the Clippers go on the road and take a 124-107 loss against the defending champion Golden State Warriors.

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At 11-9, the Clippers have a winning record through the first quarter of the season. It’s simultaneously one they should be thankful to have considering their paltry point differential (-1.1 points per game, 21st in NBA) and disappointed to possess considering the star talent and depth on the roster.

The Clippers’ last two losses have come without Kawhi Leonard, Paul George or Luke Kennard available. That’s the two best players on the team – one of which (Leonard) has only been available for five games all season – and its best shooter.

“They’re doing everything they can to get back on the floor, and like I said, it’s frustrating for those guys as well,” Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue says of the repeated and extended absences of his best players.

Ideally, the Clippers would have gotten off to a great start this season, allowing them to manage the inevitable health-related absences in the winter months without losing too much ground in the standings. Starting 15-5, as the Clippers did in Lue’s first season as head coach in 2020-21, would have put them at the top of a jumbled Western Conference.

Instead, the Clippers have the same record through 20 games as they did last year, a season that ended in the Play-In Tournament. The only team in the shot clock era (since 1954) to win a NBA championship despite losing at least nine of their first 20 games was the 2005-06 Miami Heat, who started 10-10 before finishing 52-30 and defeating the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals.

Still, the Clippers aren’t too worried about the uphill climb they face to achieve their lofty goals.

“Not too much, but you know, a little flustered,” Clippers point guard Reggie Jackson told The Athletic when reminded of the team’s 11-9 start for the second straight season. “Not in panic mode. Just knowing how much talent we have, we wish we could figure it out quicker. But nothing to panic about right now.”

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Lineup inconsistency is a key reason why the Clippers haven’t been better. The Clippers are 4-1 when Leonard plays, but they need him more often. While Leonard is the extreme example of a player shuffling in and out of the lineup, he’s not the only one. Newcomer John Wall has been healthy, but he is on a minute restriction and has already missed four games due to the Clippers holding him out of back-to-backs. George has already missed four games this season, while Kennard has missed six.

It all has added up to a team that has been less than the sum of its parts for the first quarter of the season.

“I think it’s just tough for us because we really haven’t had a set lineup yet,” Wall told The Athletic after Friday’s loss to the Nuggets. “We’d get Kawhi back for a couple of games, (George) back for a couple games. Then guys will be missing. So like, we always got like a new lineup. I mean, it’s tough. It’s always next man up.”

Here is the Clippers’ depth chart through 20 games, with 12 players playing at least 12 minutes per contest:

Clippers depth chart (first 20 games)

It hasn’t been all bad. The Clippers are above .500. George earned Western Conference Player of the Week honors in leading LA to a 3-1 record from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6. They at least expect Leonard, George and Kennard back sooner rather than later.

“I don’t think it’s going to be long term,” said Lue of Leonard’s sprained right ankle, George’s right hamstring tendon strain and Kennard’s right calf strain. “Last year, we knew Kawhi was out for the whole season. And we knew PG had a chance to be out for the whole season, but he worked hard to get back and be ready to play. And so when PG went out, we knew we had to change our offense and change how we played, and our guys were able to adjust to that.”

“We’re not there yet. I feel pretty good about the situation right now and how guys are progressing,” Lue said Friday.

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We set a baseline Clippers projection right before the season. This is the first of four regular-season check-ins we’ll take to compare the team’s current position to its previous one.

The offense was bad and now it’s even worse

2021-22 efficiency: 109.5 points per 100 possessions (25th in NBA)
2022-23 efficiency: 107.5 points per 100 possessions (27th in NBA)

Perimeter: The Clippers have been decent on the perimeter offensively, but they were supposed to be dominant. That hasn’t quite happened. George (5.1) is the only player on the team averaging more than four free-throw attempts per game. Leonard, Wall and Powell are all down from their previous seasons of play.

Last season, the Clippers only made 38.1 percent of their midrange field goals attempts, which ranked 24th in NBA. This season, that number is up to 43.6 percent, good for 10th in the NBA on slightly higher volume. But the Clippers have gone from a good 3-point shooting team to an average one, making 36.6 percent (12th in NBA) and only 11.5 per game (20th in NBA).

Interior: Ivica Zubac is the offense’s only consistent threat inside, as he leads the team in points in the paint and second-chance points. Overall, the Clippers rank near the bottom in multiple easy basket categories: 30th in second-chance points per game, 29th in points in the paint. The Clippers are 27th in offensive rebound percentage, as Zubac (3.0) is the only player on the team that averages more than one offensive rebounds per game.

The Clippers finish well inside when they get there, but only the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers average fewer paint touches per game than the Clippers (17.6, per NBA Advanced Stats). This was a weakness last season and has not improved thus far.

Control: The Clippers have fallen off in a bad way here compared to last season, when the team ranked 14th in turnover rate (which measures the percentage of Clipper possessions that end in a turnover). Through one quarter of the season, the Clippers rank 26th in turnover rate, 26th in assists, and 28th in assist-turnover ratio. Miscues and a lack of offensive rebounds is why the Clippers have the 27th offense in the league. It’s why opponents have generated 121 more shooting possessions than the Clippers this season (an average of 6.1 per game).

George has led the team in turnovers per game with 3.6 this season. Wall has been an asset, leading the Clippers with 5.4 assists per game, while Jackson averages 4.4 assists per game. The Clippers have too many players in the rotation with more turnovers than assists, with the trio of Zubac, Powell and Kennard topping the list. Leonard is missed the most here.

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The defense is different – and mostly better

2021-22 efficiency: 109.5 points per 100 possessions (eighth in NBA)
2022-23 efficiency: 108.3 points per 100 possessions (second in NBA)

Pressure: The weak link of the defense, as the Clippers have gone from 15th in opponent turnover percentage last season to only 25th through the first quarter of this season. Only George (1.6 per game) and Wall (1.1 per game) average more than 1.0 steals per game this season. The Clippers don’t generate easy points, ranking 25th in points off turnovers per game and 21st in fast-break points.

Interior: The Clippers have been solid defending the rim to start the season, and they are much better on the defensive glass as well. Last season, the Clippers were 27th in defensive rebounding percentage; that ranking has improved to 13th. The Clippers are fifth in field goal percentage allowed and in field goal differential inside of six feet. They are great at defending without fouling as well.

Zubac is having a career-year as a shot blocker (1.8 blocks per game) and rebounder (10.8 rebounds per game, 7.8 defensive).

Perimeter: The best thing the Clippers do when defending the perimeter is that they keep opponents off the free-throw line. Only the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks yield a lower free-throw attempt rate this season, and that partly makes up for LA’s subpar takeaway output. The defense keeps everything in front of them without gambling and being reckless.

Opponents are making a high percentage of midrange field goals against the Clippers (45.3 percent, 26th in NBA), while teams are making more 3s against the Clippers than last season as well (12.1 3s allowed, 14th in NBA). But the Clippers have also been one of the better pick-and-roll defenses to start the season, allowing only .940 points per possession (ninth in NBA) in all pick-and-rolls including passes, per Synergy.

The most-used lineups need more Leonard … and Kennard

2021-22 efficiency:
R. Jackson/A. Coffey/N. Batum/M. Morris Sr./I. Zubac (106.4 offensive efficiency, 119.9 defensive efficiency in 221 minutes)

R. Jackson/T. Mann/N. Batum/M. Morris Sr./I. Zubac (114.4 offensive efficiency, 104.0 defensive efficiency in 181 minutes)

2022-23 efficiency:
R. Jackson/P. George/L. Kennard/M. Morris Sr./I. Zubac (110.8 offensive efficiency, 95.9 defensive efficiency in 95 minutes)

R. Jackson/P. George/N. Powell/M. Morris Sr./I. Zubac (94.2 offensive efficiency, 125.3 defensive efficiency in 73 minutes)

An unfortunate key similarity between last year’s most-used lineups and this year’s so far is the complete absence of Leonard. At least George is back this season; he wasn’t in the team’s two most common five-man lineups last year, either.

The Clippers abandoned the experiment of Powell starting during a four-game losing streak early in the season, determining that Powell should focus on being the Sixth Man of the Year. But Kennard’s absences have also been a missed opportunity for both him and the team, as only George and Leonard have a higher plus-minus than Kennard’s plus-24 to start the season. Kennard’s shooting usually is the attribute that gets him on the floor, but the Clippers have been 6.2 points per 100 possessions better defensively with him out there to start this season.

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Overall, the Clippers still have a high ceiling and unrealized potential, but this first quarter of the season has left them significantly behind, in large part due to the absences of the team’s stars. All Lue can do is take the management of the team like the injury status of his missing players: day-to-day.

“We have great leadership in the locker room, and our coaching staff has great leaders as well,” Lue said. “Sometimes, it’s just — it is tough to win games when you build your offense around two key guys and they’re out. Sometimes, it’s going to be tough to score. So we understand that and so we just try to generate as many easy baskets as we can.

“But our main focus is building the right habits and defensively, every night being locked in and being great defensively. Because you can’t control making shots every single night. And so, that’s what we, what we’re focused on, just building the right habits and like I said, hopefully those guys come along, pretty fast. But, like I said, it is what it is.”

(Top photo of Luke Kennard, John Wall and Kawhi Leonard on the bench: Harry How / Getty Images)

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