Adding the elite wing defenders to the likes of Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington, Terance Mann and Marcus Morris Sr. has them salivating at the potential.
LOS ANGELES — As a matter of policy, the Clippers have avoided giving details or hints about how either of their injured All-Stars – Kawhi Leonard and Paul George – are progressing as they rehab from their respective injuries. (On Thursday, the team posted and deleted a video of Marcus Morris Sr. shooting that showed Leonard in the background putting up some shots.)
Before tipoff for their fourth and final matchup against the Lakers, Coach Tyronn Lue said he didn’t have any updates: “I don’t know. Sorry.” Then, chuckling, he repeated last week’s refrain following George’s MRI for his torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow: “Feeling better, that’s the most important thing.”
The message: They’ll return when they’re ready and not before.
But that hasn’t stopped Clippers forward Nicolas Batum from imagining – and maybe salivating a little at the thought – what it would be like to add Leonard, a two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and George, a four-time All-Defensive selection, to a dangerously interchangeable lineup that includes Batum, Robert Covington, Terance Mann and Morris.
“I think about it,” Batum said, with a smile, at shootaround before his 900th career game. “I was like, imagine those two guys, RoCo and me and Mook … on defense. I mean, yeah, can be special. Very excited, actually – I mean, take your time, get 100%, don’t want to rush them back.
“But can be interesting.”
— Locked On Clippers
(@lockedonclips) March 3, 2022
Covington – who played his 11th game as a Clipper on Thursday since arriving from Portland in a trade with Norman Powell last month – is the latest addition to that potentially nightmare-inducing group of defenders.
“Man, I just go out and do what I normally do, muck up the game, be a disruptor on defense, doing what I built my name off of,” Covington said after the victory in Houston on Tuesday, when he had seven points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots.
“And here in L.A., I got more freedom to just do a lot and it’s so many different guys, and T Lue trusts me in that sense and that nature, so he knows what I’ve done throughout my career and gives me that free rein to just be myself,” Covington continued. “I’ve built my name off of being a disruptor and being a guy that does the little things that doesn’t get caught on the stat sheets. That’s the way I play. I just care about winning, and that’s the only thing that matters to me.”
In other words, as Lue put it recently: “You have two Nicos.”
Nico. RoCo.
RoCo. Nico.
“I’m glad to have him,” said Batum, whose 2 deflections per game pair nicely with Covington’s 2.4 per contest. “Because I was doing a lot of stuff for that team, like on offense and defense, all the little stuff, but I got another guy who can do it even better sometimes, so I don’t have to do it by myself anymore, we can share it. And he’s doing a great job.
“I’m so happy he’s on the team because I know what I can do for this team, do some special stuff, but when you have two guys who can do it, and don’t complain about it, because that’s what they want to do – that’s pretty cool.
“We got a couple guys around, both of us, that we don’t really care, we might combine for 10 points together but we know we’re gonna do so much more for the team, and that’s, I think, what people want and what our teammates want.”
