The Clippers bench couldn’t contain its excitement. 

With about 90 seconds left in a recent game at Dallas, Kawhi Leonard spun to his right, blew past Grant Williams, took a step to his right, then a step to his left, brought the ball from one side to the other, and finished with a left-handed layup to give the Clippers an eight-point lead.

As Kawhi was finishing his move, the Clippers bench erupted. Bones Hyland lept from his seat, Daniel Theis faked the same layup with his left hand, Ivica Zubac braced for impact, and Russell Westbrook pantomimed the Eurostep move with a cheerful grin.

This was LA’s ninth-straight win, a streak that was snapped in Thursday’s loss to the Thunder on the second night of a back-to-back, and the team’s first game without Kawhi this season. But the streak came at the right time for a Clippers team that was 8-10 before it, and was the subject of much debate after a polarizing trade for James Harden. 

But what the win streak, Kawhi’s layup, and his teammates’ ensuing jubilation showed is that, whatever the Clippers are doing, it’s working.

The Clippers are 17-10, having climbed to fifth place in the West standings, above the Lakers, Suns and Warriors and just a game-and-a-half behind the defending champion Nuggets. Over the last 10 games, they have the league’s third-best net rating (plus-8.9, behind only the 76ers and Celtics) and the league’s top offense (a blistering 125.2 points per 100 possessions).

After losing their first five games after acquiring Harden from the 76ers in November, the Clippers are 14-4 since. There are many reasons for the improvement – Ty Lue’s decision to replace Westbrook with Terance Mann in the starting lineup, Harden playing himself into game shape and time to gel – but none are more impactful than Kawhi’s world-class play.

Before missing the Clippers’ second game in two days on Thursday, Kawhi had played in each of LA’s first 27 games this season. The various leg injuries appear to be behind him, and he hasn't looked this agile and strong, for this long of a time, since his first year with the Clippers in 2019-20. 

On the stat sheet, Kawhi’s career-best True Shooting percentage (63.1) bears this out, but so does the eye test. 

Kawhi has regained full access to his bag. Eurosteps, pull-ups, fadeaways, step-backs and turnaround jumpers in isolation. All the stuff that fueled Kawhi’s take-over in the 2019 playoffs with the Raptors en route to a championship. 

As Jared Dubin said in a recent edition of his “Last Night in Basketball” newsletter, "It doesn't really matter how much traffic there is around him either. You can send extra defenders. You can force him middle. You can force him to the baseline. It doesn't matter. He's just going to make the shot anyway."

If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s exactly how the league felt when Kawhi averaged 30.5 points on 49% shooting in the 2019 playoffs. Remember this?

Among players averaging at least three isolation possessions per game, only three others are generating more points per chance than Leonard (1.19). One of them is his teammate Harden, who is creating a league-leading 1.35 points per isolation possession. The others are De’Aaron Fox (1.21) and MVP favorite Joel Embiid (1.21).

Kawhi is shooting 52.6% on fadeaways and 51% on turnaround jumpers, according to NBA.com’s database. Both are career-best rates, exceeding even what he did in his three consecutive All-Star seasons from 2018-2021.

As a team, the Clippers are running more than ever. They are getting out in transition at their highest rate since Leonard and George joined the team. Part of the reason for that is the health of their stars and a full season with Westbrook, but they are still running even with the notoriously methodical Harden at the helm. 

The Clippers recognize the problems they cause for opponents when they run. Harden is still one of the league’s best passers and, in Kawhi, Westbrook and George, he has the deepest receiver room in the NBA. Kawhi is a freight train going downhill, George is a knock-down shooter opposing defenders can’t leave, and Westbrook streaks down the floor to find openings in the defense like Wes Welker in the slot.

Playing in the open floor also mitigates some of the Clippers’ clunkiness in the halfcourt. The first few games after the Harden trade were an uninspired series of your-turn-my-turn possessions yo-yo-ing between Harden stepbacks and Kawhi post-ups. (LA posted an offensive rating of 108.2 in those games, which would rank 26th for the season.)

It’s less clunky in the halfcourt now. Lue has turned the reins of the offense over to Harden, and Kawhi and George have settled into (slightly) lower usage roles. Harden has logged overtime hours with centers Zubac and Theis to work on pick-and-roll chemistry and Lue carves out time each game for Harden to run the offense without his star wings on the court to demand the ball. Likewise, Leonard and George get plenty of time to operate without Harden in Lue’s staggered rotations. 

But, most importantly, the Clippers are dominant with all three on the floor, out-scoring opponents by 10.5 points every 100 possessions with Leonard, George and Harden in the lineup, per Cleaning The Glass. 

With Harden at the wheel on offense, it allows Leonard and George to ratchet up the intensity on defense. Kawhi is averaging the most steals per game since his last All-Star season and, while he’s not quite at the Defensive-Player-of-the-Year-candidate level he was at during his final years in San Antonio, he still anchors a formidable defense that is holding opponents to just 93.5 points per 100 possessions in the halfcourt this season.

The combination of a strong halfcourt defense, elite one-on-one offense and championship experience of Lue and Leonard is a formula that makes the Clippers legitimate contenders in the West.

With the Clippers, a healthy dose of skepticism is always advised, but if they can stay healthy and drama-free the way they have over the last month, then the pieces will be in place for a run at the Finals.