2024-25 Knicks Opponent: Los Angeles Clippers

09/14/2024 08:00 AM

Will Inglewood turn the Clippers into Los Angeles' No. 1 franchise?

Once and for all, the Los Angeles Clippers will have their own home. It took them years—decades, even—but the Clips will host games inside the cavernous Intuit Dome from this season on while their posh neighbors the LA Lakers keep sole possession of the Crytodom.

Anyway, don't forget we're talking about the lowly Clippers here. A new arena won't change anything about the franchise, other than they playing basketball in Inglewood instead of Los Angeles proper. That's basically it if you don't consider they will also try to keep fans entertained with a humongous display hanging from the roofs—you gotta hang something in the absence of banners, don't you!?

The brass honored the Clippers' history this summer by low-balling Paul George and letting him go, keeping instead an aging core built around Kawhi Leonard and James Harden that is probably more cooked (and banged up) than not. Just between these two, the experience adds all the way up to 27 NBA seasons, and if you throw Nico Batum and P.J. Tucker into that equation, you'd be talking about 56 campaigns worth of pro-ball experience.

Also for y'all Knicks fans out there eager to enjoy a couple of Russell Westbrook's Brick Shows: he ain't a Clip no more. Ugh...

Clippers' 2023-24 Record: 51-31, 4th in the Western Conference. Tyronn Lue kept his magic wand working for the greater part of the season mostly after enduring a hellaciously tough start to the campaign. The Clips fell into a hole early going 3-7 for the first 10 games of the year and losing six consecutive games between Nov. 1 and Nov. 14 in a stretch to forget. After that, however, things clicked for the Clippers as their superstar foursome found the right way to play, going 48-24 the rest of the way and even putting up a winning streak of as many as nine games just a short month after that putrid start. This being the Clippers, they stank as they always do and lost to the Dallas Mavericks, 2-4, in the first round of the playoffs. Some things never change.

Knicks' record against Clippers last season: 1-1

• November 6, 2023: Knicks won 111-97
• December 16, 2023: Clippers won 122-144

Welcome to the travel machine, folks, where you can embark on fantastic trips such as the one involving the Knicks and the Clips.

When the Los Angeles mob visited New York at the start of November they were still so lost that the Knickerbockers trounced them with gusto, beating them by 14 points with a healthy squad featuring the likes of—get ready for what's coming—RJ Barrett, Quentin Grimes (both starters), Immanuel Quickley, and Isaiah Hartenstein. Ah, the memories...

Those were the classic Knicks of years past, with Barrett dumping a solid 26 points on LA's foreheads and Randle scoring 27 himself. Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo were still unknown to the broader NBA world, though they scored 10 and 12 respectively. And Mitch was a beast, cooking himself a 13-15 to go with four steals.

All four Clippers superstars scored in double digits, ranging from 10 (George) to 18 (Kawhi) points scored. This loss marked the second L of the Clippers' largest losing streak last year.

The second affair between these two squads came a bit over a month later with the Knicks already missing one of the many bodies they lost as the year advanced: Mitchell Robinson was unavailable and Jericho Sims took his place in the starting lineup.

No trades had been consummated yet but the Clippers had already broken out of their mini-slump, making for a much tougher contest in which they absolutely destroyed New York in California.

With Westbrook already a member of the Clippers' second unit, Lue found the right lineup a few days before facing the Knicks and by the time they met, there was nothing the New Yorkers could do to prevent, let alone stop, the carnage. George dropped 25, Kawhi added 36, five more Clips scored 10+ points, and Ivica Zubac had all the paint to himself putting up a 13-11-2-1-2 line filled to the brim.

The Knicks weren't bad at all, mind you, scoring 122 total points with Brunson and Randle each scoring 22 and the pairing of DiVo and Barrett going for 18 each. As nonsensical as it is looking back at those times, I-Hart had a 12-10-2 outing off the pine, playing nearly 30 minutes as Sims' main reliever. Sims, for what's worth, scored 7 points in 18 minutes grabbing a couple of boards. Thibs!

Fun facts: Ryan Arcidiacono played 2:46 missing his lone shot (a long-range three) while DaQuan Jeffries and Taj Gibson (yes) played 6:26 each.

Clippers' offseason moves:

In: Nicolas Batum, Derrick Jones Jr., Kevin Porter Jr., Kris Dunn.

Out: Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Mason Plumlee, Daniel Theis

Clippers Projected Depth Chart:

PG: James Harden / Kris Dunn / Bones Hyland
SG: Terance Mann / Norman Powell / Kevin Porter Jr
SF: Derrick Jones Jr. / Cam Christie
PF: Kawhi Leonard / Nicolas Batum / P.J. Tucker
C: Ivica Zubac / Mo Bamba

Can getting rid of Russ be considered an addition by subtraction? Other than that mildly positive development, the Clippers are worse this year than they were last season, if only on paper. Yes, Batum and Jones are good players with tons of experience and enough to even make the cut as starters depending on how Ty Lue builds his rotation, but losing PG13 is going to hurt. Badly.

At the end of the day, the only positive on that front might be the fact that the Clippers at least opened some shots and touches for their two remaining superstars by removing George from the rotation. Other than that, Lue's going to have to come up with more and more tricks to make it all work before KL/JH hit their—quickly approaching—expiring dates.

Knicks / Clippers 2024-25 Schedule:

• Friday, Mar. 7, 2025: Knicks at Clippers, 10:30 PM ET
• Wednesday, Mar. 26, 2025: Clippers at Knicks, 7:30 PM ET

Knicks' projected record against LA Clippers this season: 1-1

Am I afraid of the Clippers? No. Do the Clippers have two players that can win them any game, any time, any way they want? You hell bet.

The same as it was the case last year, I envision these two splitting their couple meetings. You never know when Kawhi or Harden can have one of those days in which everything falls for them. You knew back then that Russell Westbrook was going to hurt their chances no matter what, but that's no longer going to be the case with Russ hooping in the land of South Park.

Also, this year will have Clippers and Knicks meet on the total opposite end of the schedule compared to last campaign, with both matchups coming at the tail end of the regular season—the 61st and 70th games in the Knicks' schedule, to be precise—and with the trade deadline and everything it could mean on the rearview mirror.

The Clippers are a good-not-great time, and the Knicks are probably some sort of the same thing. Give 'em a split in March and call it a year because odds are New York finds it hard to reach the Finals, but straight nil the Clips make it all the way there.