Five months into a Clippers season that has sometimes felt like a slog, feeling less like joy than a constant examination under a microscope of their own championship expectations, the impression imparted on forward Nicolas Batum after Monday's practice, the team's first with its three new additions, was notable.
New backup point guard Bones Hyland was a burst with the ball.
Backup center Mason Plumlee's size balanced the Clippers' rotations.
Veteran guard Eric Gordon could defend players far bigger than his 6-foot-3 frame — and shoot over them too.
"It's gonna be easy," Batum concluded Tuesday morning, "to play basketball with those guys."
If that first practice had shown glimpses of why the organization believed its trade-deadline activity had fortified its playoff rotation, the first game showed more.
With Kawhi Leonard making seven 3-pointers to tie his career high en route to 33 points, and Norman Powell scoring 24 points off the bench, the Clippers looked, for three quarters, like a team that might have another gear to hit, leading Golden State by as many as 18 points before beating the Warriors, 134-124.
The new additions' contributions did not leap out of the box score. Hyland scored six points on six shots, with four rebounds and five fouls. Gordon had seven points on seven shots, with three rebounds and three assists. And Plumlee finished with eight points, five rebounds and three assists. But each passed the eye test at times.
Shortly after Plumlee checked in late in the first quarter, the big man sporting a black eye stopped a drive by Jonathan Kuminga at the rim.
A drive by Hyland finished with an assist under the basket to Plumlee. When Batum snuck up behind a Golden State rebounder, popping the ball loose, it found its way to Hyland, who sank a 3-pointer then smacked his right hip as if holstering a pistol.
Hyland's speed, which caused even Batum to take notice during their first practice Monday, was the obvious selling point of his trade. But with a 6-foot-9¼ wingspan, the 6-3 guard also affected the game with three offensive rebounds, his last with three minutes to go in the third quarter leading to his layup to push the lead to 96-87.
Gordon, who said he felt comfortable acting as a point guard, showed it with his drive and assist for a Powell basket that held the lead at 118-106 with seven minutes left.
The Clippers finished with eight turnovers, their fifth game with single-digit turnovers in their last seven games, a marked improvement.
Even though the Clippers were coming off three days off and Golden State had played only 24 hours earlier, and even though the Warriors were without the injured Stephen Curry, and even though the backcourt duo of Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole had made a combined one of nine 3-pointers, the Clippers still trailed at halftime, 65-61. The culprits were multiple: allowing 42 second-quarter points, and Golden State seven more rebounds and 12 more free throws. The combination turned a promising opening quarter into more of the same inconsistency that had defined the first iteration of this roster, before the trade deadline.
Any deadline that results in as much rotation upheaval as the Clippers' requires a grace period. Yet while coach Tyronn Lue is typically patient with making lineup changes, preferring to let lineup combinations play out over sample sizes of about 10 games, the coach acknowledged he doesn't have that kind of time anymore.
Only 22 regular-season games remain.
"I think you're looking at five or six games and just kind of see what we have and how we want to play and who fits with who," Lue said.
On the other side of that evaluation period could be the answer to whether the Clippers feel they need to fill their last open roster spot with a traditional point guard. Paul George and Marcus Morris Sr. on Friday openly campaigned for adding former Lakers guard Russell Westbrook should he receive a buyout in Utah, and Batum said Tuesday he also would welcome Westbrook. Batum recalled being perceived as the "worst player in the NBA" after being waived by Charlotte in 2020, only to have his reputation rehabilitated during productive seasons with the Clippers, and said that experience wouldn't allow him to discount Westbrook's value.
"The team is different," Batum said, "so maybe it's a better situation for him."
The answer the Clippers provided during a 44-point, zero-turnover third quarter and furious beginning of the fourth — with Powell charging through the paint for a right-handed dunk, followed by his 3-pointer, and Gordon drilling a 3-pointer for emphasis and an 18-point lead — displayed why the team's front office was bullish in its deadline moves could create a better situation for the team come the postseason.
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