Clippers Are Destroying Teams With Kawhi Leonard-Darius Garland Duo On the Court

Not only did the Los Angeles Clippers right the ship on Wednesday by winning their third straight game following four consecutive losses, but they also made a statement for the rest of the league. Defeating an Eastern Conference playoff team by 25 points without much sweat, the Clippers showed that they are to be taken seriously. Now that both of their stars are healthy, the Clippers should be feared in the postseason.

Stats Point to a Dominant Clippers Team When Darius Garland & Kawhi Leonard Are Playing

The numbers tell the story for the Clippers. In the 346 possessions Darius Garland and Kawhi Leonard shared the court this season, the Clippers have a 130.1 offensive rating, and outscore their opponents by 23.7 points per 100 possessions, per Cleaning the Glass. This is easily the highest offensive rating by any duo in the league, per NBA.com. It is also the best net rating for any two-man lineup combination that involves two starters in the entire league.

The 130.1 offensive rating makes them the most efficient NBA offense of all-time by a significant margin, and 23.7 net rating places them among the elite of the elite. While it's important to note that the sample size is small and this type of production is unsustainable, it's impossible to deny that there is something brewing here.

Garland is currently making 51.2% of his threes on 7.6 attempts per game as a Clipper. That is not going to continue. Once that regresses to the mean, the Clippers' offensive rating is going to come back down to earth a little. The encouraging thing here is that Garland can even have a stretch this efficient after struggling to get going all season. The 26-year-old point guard is looking better than he did all season, beating his defenders one-on-one and getting to his spots. Combine that with Kawhi Leonard's unstoppable isolation scoring, and the Clippers become a very difficult team to guard.

The more surprising aspect of this is the fact that the Clippers are defending at an elite level since Garland has returned. In the lineups that have both Garland and Leonard, the Clippers have a 106.3 defensive rating, which would be the best defense in the league for the whole season. LA has high-end defensive players like Kris Dunn and Derrick Jones Jr., who can make up some of Garland's defensive deficiencies. Brook Lopez, as the defensive anchor and rim protector, has also done an impressive job cleaning up messes in the backline.

Having Garland and Leonard carry the offense, and the rest of the role players focus on the defensive side of the ball has worked for Ty Lue so far. It's still early, but all the signs are pointing towards the Clippers being a difficult team to beat in the postseason. As long as Garland and Leonard are playing, the Clippers have nobody to fear.