LOS ANGELES — One by one, the starting lineup arrived inside Crypto.com Arena.
There was All-Star forward Paul George, in a trucker hat and yellow jacket. Fellow All-Star wing Kawhi Leonard in a blue hat. Center Ivica Zubac, in a polo. And point guard Reggie Jackson, sitting along the baseline in a sweater and backward hat. In all, five Clippers responsible for key roles in the team’s three consecutive wins entering Thursday sat out injured, the team expressing cautious optimism Thursday night that all but Zubac, who suffered a bone bruise in his left knee, could return as soon as Saturday.
In their place, a lineup that had spent just three possessions together became the starters, a new look that raised what by now have become familiar questions for the perpetually incomplete Los Angeles Clippers: On a night when the Clippers look nothing like the team they hope to be come the postseason, relying on rotations that might never be paired together again, what is there to be learned, and what counts as progress?
