NBA Playoffs 2020: 5 reasons the Los Angeles Clippers can win it all

3. Lou Williams and company

Swamps, or wetlands, have often been viewed as wastelands for dumping agricultural chemicals and pesticides. The swamp is an archetypal setting for evil and foreboding. Washington Irving would suggest not venturing there. Ernest Hemingway would say fish it another day. All that has been said of swamps has also been said of the Los Angeles Clippers. But swamps are among the world’s most valuable ecosystems. They harvest life and protect from floods. And all the talent and ability that has drained into the Clippers roster over the years has made for one of the deepest rosters in the league, a habitat for gators and forwards alike.

Before play was suspended, the Los Angeles Clippers boasted the highest scoring and rebounding bench in the league at 51.5 points per game and 20.8 rebounds. Coaches often tighten their rotations come playoff time, but in the playoffs an off night from the starters, foul trouble, or a random injury can all strike, setting the dry tinder of a team’s chances ablaze.

A series can swing on a single game, and a single game can swing on a single quarter or possession. Not to mention the gap between the Clippers scoring potential off the bench and the rest of the league’s recognized contenders is not slight. The Washington Wizards are second in the league in bench scoring, but they are at best a bubble playoff team. The Oklahoma City Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks round out the top ten in bench scoring, but their average of 39.4 hardly compares with the mosquito swarm that rises nightly in the folding chair forest that is the Clipper bench. The Los Angeles Lakers, who are the Clippers’ primary competition in the Western Conference, average 38.9 points off the bench. LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard are both largely responsible for their teams’ successes, but they are not carrying boulders of equal size and weight. Denver, Toronto, and Houston also all have less to offer in reserve. In other words, no other team in the league is better prepared for a bad night from its starters.

The offensive advantage the Clippers boast from off the bench is in large part due to two players: Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell. The former averages 18.7 points per game and the latter 18.6. Williams, at this point in his career, is the Sixth Man of the Year Trophy. He averaged 21.7 points in the playoffs last year against the Golden State Warriors, including a 36-point effort in a Game 2 victory. He already has the respect of his peers, but a championship run could transform Williams from a folkloric dragonfly buzzing a reckless leaf boat into a referent for future playoff contenders. Harrell, on the other hand, is all swooping energy. His reach and effort like an albatross dipping below and rising above the lane’s canopy of arms. He is a crash course in persistence.

Beyond Williams and Harrell, the roster is full of individuals who average just under double digits but could offer more on any given night, and in addition to leading the league in bench scoring and rebounding, the unit is third in the league in assists and second in plus-minus.  Patrick Patterson, Marcus Morris, Reggie Jackson, and Landry Shamet round out this group of princes in amphibious disguise.

And yes, bench production isn’t everything. And yes, the Clippers as a team do not lead the league in all the same categories as their bench does. And yet one can’t help getting lost in the notion that it was the Clippers bench players who attracted the eyes of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in the first place, just as the sleepy Florida swamp surrounding Orlando once attracted the imaginative engineering of a certain American pioneer. But, unlike building a chain of amusement parks and resorts where once there was nothing but murky water and birds’ nests, building a championship contender doesn’t necessarily mean the death of what preceded it.