James Harden speaks on the Clippers turning the ship around, and why they never lacked for confidence
There is no team hotter in the NBA than the Los Angeles Clippers. They are 14-3 in their last 17 games after beginning the season 6-21.
The Clippers are now in tenth place in the West, a game better than the Memphis Grizzlies for the last Play-In spot.
On Thursday, the Clippers defeated their in-state rival Los Angeles Lakers, jumping out to a 64-47 lead at the half before holding on to secure a 112-104 victory.
Early in the season, the Clippers either couldn't get into games after other teams jumped out to a lead or couldn't maintain leads when they got up in the first or second quarter.
James Harden Weighs In
After the game, James Harden spoke to the media about the Lakers mounting a comeback, but the Clippers managing to fend them off, something that didn't happen early in the season.
Harden said he didn't have an immediate answer, but admitted, "When things weren't going great, we still had the confidence. We saw some light. We were getting up double digits and then letting them slip away."
"That's a start right there. If teams were just blowing us out from the beginning of the game, then it's hard to find anything, but we had a little light and over these last few weeks we kind of found ourselves and who is playing in the rotation and what we like to do and don't like to do on both ends of the ball."
Harden had a rough shooting night against the Lakers, going 6-21 for just 18 points. He did contribute in other areas, grabbing seven rebounds to go along with ten assists. He also turned the ball over seven times.
The New Rotation
With an injury to Bradley Beal that ended his season, Chris Paul being dismissed from the team, Derrick Jones Jr being in and out of the lineup, an injury to Bogdan Bogdanović, and the general health of Kawhi Leonard, Ty Lue had to turn to some new faces.
Jordan Miller and Kobe Sanders have carved out key rotation minutes for the Clippers during this recent stretch, helping the team turn things around.
Against the Lakers, Miller played 25 minutes, scoring 14 points. On the season, he's averaging 8.4 points and three rebounds in 18 minutes per game.
Sanders played 24 minutes against the Lakers, scoring 11 points. Sanders has appeared in 36 games, averaging 20 minutes a night and contributing with 6.8 points and 2.4 rebounds.