5 reasons the Los Angeles Clippers are for real

4. Competent bench

So about that Clippers bench? It’s not horrible anymore. Rivers has actually put together a second unit that isn’t just a bunch of 2010 also-rans. The Clippers are getting production out of its bench for once and that’s a scary reality for the NBA’s Western Conference.

We’ve known that Los Angeles’ core four of Chris Paul, J.J. Redick, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan match or exceed every NBA team’s best quartet offering. Jamal Crawford has been an isolation offensive dynamo for years in the NBA, but the rest of the Clippers bench had left a lot to be desired. The opposition would take advantage of Los Angeles’ thin bench nightly the last few seasons.

Crawford has been good as expected. Rivers’ son Austin Rivers continues to be a decent rotational guard in the NBA, overcoming harsh criticisms of blatant nepotism. Outside of that backcourt duo, the Clippers have gotten a boost from two 2016 free agent acquisitions: point guard Raymond Felton and power forward Marreese Speights. Felton gives the Clippers another ball handler in the backcourt to run the offense. Speights is an all-around spark plug in the Clippers’ front court.

Will Los Angeles be able to keep winning with their second unit the rest of the way? Potentially, but for now, it is nice to not see the Clippers bench leak like a sieve from yesteryear in 2016-17.

The bench’s improvement has allowed to Clippers starters to play an unencumbered brand of basketball. We had not seen the Clippers play a loose, albeit confident style of basketball until this year. This makes them a team capable of winning the West in 2017.