PHILADELPHIA — If a team were to participate in the late November matchup between Los Angeles Clippers And Philadelphia 76ers with a 10-7 record, you’d think it would be the 76ers. After all, they are the ones who have the center Joel Embiid2023 most valuable player and point guard Tyrese Maxeythe most improved player in 2024. Philadelphia was the only team this offseason to add a 2024 All-Star without giving up one, as the forward noted. Paul Georges left the Clippers to join the 76ers via unrestricted free agency.

Meanwhile, the Clippers entered the season with low expectations. They were criticized for not paying George and for not trading George. Kawhi Leonardthe 2024 All-NBA selection, has suffered from knee pain since the beginning of April. James Harden35 years old, played more regular season and playoff minutes than anyone – except Cyborg LeBron James – since their draft in 2009. The Clippers have the NBAThis is the longest current winning streak at 13 straight seasons, but they haven’t won a playoff series since reaching the 2021 Western Conference Finals. If Los Angeles had only won three games in five weeks, some people might have felt validated by the low expectations.

The Clippers already showed in Week 3 that they weren’t sweating George’s departure. Former Sixth Man of the Year nominee Norman Powell mobilized to start the season and dominated George in the latter’s return match at Intuit Dome. Powell was absent for the rematch in Philadelphia on Sunday. George and Embiid too. Leonard is not traveling, and even when the Clippers return home and take a few days off, he is not expected to return to practice.

But the Clippers decisively beat the 76ers 125-99 to sweep the regular season series and extend what is now a season’s best five-game winning streak. Ahead of a back-to-back, the Clippers managed to rest the entire starting lineup in the fourth quarter while holding off the former 76er. Nicolas Batum35, throughout the second half, ensuring that no player reached 30 minutes before their move to the Boston Celtics. The Clippers embarrassed the 76ers, going up by 31 points exactly 31 minutes before the Philadelphia Eagles kicked off “Sunday Night Football.”

Yes, the Eagles game starts in 31 minutes and the Philadelphia 76ers are down 31 points. pic.twitter.com/VblDbpfubu

– Law Murray (@LawMurrayTheNU) November 25, 2024

How can a team with depressed expectations and missing key players outperform to such a pronounced degree a team with higher expectations and also missing key players? Well, it helps to know that at the start of the season you have to play a certain way – the right style of basketball, if you will.

The Clippers understood that Leonard would be out and built their style of play around Harden and a high defense coordinated by assistant Jeff Van Gundy. This allowed head coach Tyronn Lue to address his team’s deficiencies with the relative luxury of roster consistency.

“It’s tough any time you lose your best player — we all know that,” said Lue, who has had several seasons of disappointing results when it comes to player availability, as well as seasons in which player consistency The alignment from week to week was non-existent. “But coming into camp and knowing we weren’t going to have Kawhi for a lot of the beginning of the season, we just knew what our team was going to be. After the first five or six games, we figured out what our rotation was going to be, how we wanted to play, which guys fit well with who. And so it’s been good for us – like, you know, no guys coming in and out, in and out.

The Clippers are 11-7. They’ve had a double-digit lead at some point in all but two games this season. The first game they didn’t have a double-digit lead was two Mondays ago at Oklahoma City Thunder. Lue responded by promoting the defender Kris Dunn in the starting lineup in place of the small forward Terance Mann.

The third starting lineup Lue needed was when Powell injured his hamstring last week, allowing the Clippers to start small forward. Amir Coffey and use the emerging small forward Jordan Miller as a rotating part. The only other rotation change during the season, personnel-wise, came when former 76ers center Mo Bamba was ready to return from his knee injury last weekend. Bamba took the place of two-way contract center Kai Jones in the second string, and the Clippers won each of their first five games with Bamba in the lineup.

“I think NBA players are habit freaks,” Bamba said before leaving the visitors’ locker room at the Wells Fargo Center Sunday night. “We like to know what we’re getting into. We’ll make it work as we make it work. It’s good when you know what’s going on, you know how well you’re playing or not. I think it builds camaraderie, you know, in what you do when you’re on the field.

James Harden scored a team-high 23 points in Sunday’s win over his former team. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Having Harden as the leader and primary playmaker of Los Angeles’ offense was something that was valued when he arrived to the Clippers a year ago. But the conversation was different in November 2023, when the Clippers were 3-7 and the 76ers were 8-1. It took the Clippers a while to figure out how to play. This season, with fewer future Hall of Fame talents surrounding him, Harden sees how the Clippers are progressing and likes the results.

“We’re coming in and we’re figuring out who we are,” Harden said after compiling game-highs of 23 points and eight assists in his second game in Philadelphia since last year’s trade. “Understanding that to have a chance of achieving anything, we know we have to do it every night. And that’s the most exciting part. And then one thing about this team, we’re all happy for each other. Literally, it could be anyone’s night, any night. No one will be upset; everyone will be happy for each other. And things won’t always be perfect for winning games. But even when we lose, we’re still happy for each other. Good things will happen most of the time.

HARD3N gets us started in Philly pic.twitter.com/wLV1YW7FIn

-LA Clippers (@LAClippers) November 24, 2024

The team the Clippers built contrasts with last season’s top-heavy team that benefited from the relative health of Leonard, George, Harden and the former backup. Russell Westbrook until Leonard’s knee failed before the playoffs. It was a reaction to the Clippers’ 2022-23 season that saw Lue break down repeatedly due to Leonard and George’s difficulty playing together for more than a few games at a time during the first half of the season. But this Clippers team is more talented than the 2021-22 team that didn’t have Leonard all season and lost George for three months to a torn elbow ligament. Lue led this team to a 42-40 record, along with the 76ers’ current backup point guard. Reggie Jackson serving as the primary playmaker.

“If we could have a small chance of (Leonard and George) coming back, then our goal was to find a way to get to the playoffs, and then we’ll find a way to go from there,” Jackson said. said the 2021-22 Clippers in the 76ers locker room before Sunday’s game.

The 76ers now face roster inconsistency and the challenges it imposes on everyone. Head coach Nick Nurse has already started 11 players across nine lineups, none for more than four consecutive games. Four 76ers played more than Maxey, eight played more than George and 10 played more than Embiid. This takes its toll, especially with the added drama coming out of the Philadelphia locker room.

“It’s definitely not ideal and not that easy to deal with, but it’s part of the job, right?” » said the nurse before Sunday’s defeat. “Continuity doesn’t come with constant comings and goings, constant injuries and things like that. But we must continue to work to achieve this.

Embiid, Maxey and George have only played six of Philadelphia’s 778 minutes together this season. The 76ers had worse results trying to put good lineups on the court — with George, Embiid and Maxey missing time — than Lue ever had with George and Leonard missing time.

Even now, the Clippers are exceeding expectations without being at full strength. The winner of Monday night’s game in Boston will have the longest active winning streak in the league. But Lue will appreciate when he can bring Leonard back to join a team benefiting from the preparation to play without a star.

“We managed to have one team,” Lue said. “We know who’s going to play every night. So that was helpful. But, you know, we definitely need him back, that’s for sure.

(Top photo of Derrick Jones Jr. reacting after dunk on an assist from James Harden: Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)