The Clippers are an embarrassment even if they win

The Clippers once mattered only because an angel named Chris Paul gave the franchise permission to dream of something bigger. His arrival in 2011 – after the fiasco of his blocked move to the Lakers, vetoed by David Stern, and just as Donald Sterling was being pushed into a deserved exile over racist comments – reshaped the smallest team in town. Paul lived every bit of that chaos, then carried the Clippers to six straight postseason appearances through 2017, when he left for Houston. It was the era of Lob City, of alley-oops, of a point guard who elevated Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. Of dunks, highlights and assists that still live in the league’s archives.

Bye bye Chris Paul

Yet none of that protected the playmaker in the final season of his career, a season he’d already announced would be his last. During their swing through the Eastern Conference and just hours before visiting Atlanta to face the Hawks, the Clippers sent Paul home and released him, offering the shameful line that he “is not to blame for the team’s current situation.” And just like that, they cut loose their all-time assists leader – second in NBA history behind John Stockton – who also ranks sixth in points, second in steals, ninth in field goals made, fifth in three-pointers and a long list of other marks. His résumé, even without a championship and despite a shaky ending, is nothing short of legendary. He remains one of the greatest players to never win a title, and one of the finest point guards the game has ever seen.

None of that, however, seems to matter to a Clippers team sinking through a structurally and competitively disastrous season. On one side sits the investigation into Kawhi Leonard and Steve Ballmer over alleged off-books payments. On the other sits a dreadful record in the Western Conference basement, the oldest roster the league has ever seen and a franchise that has become a collector of aging stars while clinging to a past that never truly arrived. Their lone conference finals appearance came in 2021, and their insistence on keeping a stale project alive has left them with players far removed from their prime. The only one still performing at a high level is James Harden.

The Clippers then played a forgettable game in Atlanta, the kind that attracts no interest, and as often happens in moments like this, they won 115–92. It was a team display unlike anything they’d shown in recent days. Conveniently for anyone looking to pin blame on a nearly inactive Paul, Harden delivered 27 points and 9 assists, Leonard added 21 with 6 rebounds and 5 assists, and five visiting players scored in double figures. The team shot close to 50 percent from the field and handed out 29 assists to just two turnovers. There wasn’t much resistance on the other side: Trae Young sat out, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker led Atlanta with 21. Still, a win is a win – one of the few they’ve managed this season – though it does nothing to erase the mess of the past few days. And no one seems to know what comes next for Chris Paul. What a way to go out.

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Atlanta Hawks

Stats

7 Nickeil Alexander-Walker
5 Dyson Daniels
18 Mouhamed Gueye
33 Caleb Houstan
3 Luke Kennard
27 Vít Krejčí
14 Asa Newell
17 Onyeka Okongwu
10 Zaccharie Risacher
2 Keaton Wallace
12 N'Faly Dante
30 Eli John Ndiaye

Stats

	Min	Pts	TR	OR	DR	Ast	Los	Rec	Blk	S1	S2	S3	RF	CF	Val
7 Nickeil Alexander-Walker	30	21	5	1	4	3	1	1	0	5/7	5/11	2/7	0	2	0
5 Dyson Daniels	34	15	3	1	2	2	3	2	0	3/3	6/11	0/2	0	2	0
18 Mouhamed Gueye	22	0	6	0	6	0	1	1	0	0/0	0/2	0/0	0	5	0
33 Caleb Houstan	5	3	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	0/0	0/0	1/2	0	0	0
3 Luke Kennard	20	11	5	1	4	2	1	0	0	0/0	1/1	3/4	0	1	0
27 Vít Krejčí	21	5	3	0	3	1	3	1	1	0/0	1/1	1/6	0	2	0
14 Asa Newell	18	11	1	1	0	0	2	1	0	1/1	2/3	2/3	0	0	0
17 Onyeka Okongwu	33	7	9	2	7	5	2	0	0	0/1	2/6	1/6	0	3	0
10 Zaccharie Risacher	33	11	3	0	3	3	1	2	0	2/2	3/7	1/4	0	0	0
2 Keaton Wallace	19	8	2	0	2	4	1	1	0	0/0	1/4	2/5	0	2	0
12 N'Faly Dante	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
30 Eli John Ndiaye	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0

Los Angeles Clippers

Stats

33 Nicolas Batum
24 Kobe Brown
12 Cam Christie
20 John Collins
8 Kris Dunn
1 James Harden
2 Kawhi Leonard
11 Brook Lopez
14 Yanic Konan Niederhauser
4 Kobe Sanders
19 Jahmyl Telfort
40 Ivica Zubac

Stats

	Min	Pts	TR	OR	DR	Ast	Los	Rec	Blk	S1	S2	S3	RF	CF	Val
33 Nicolas Batum	19	6	3	0	3	2	1	0	0	0/0	0/0	2/4	0	2	0
24 Kobe Brown	12	3	5	2	3	1	1	1	0	1/2	1/2	0/0	0	1	0
12 Cam Christie	16	4	5	1	4	0	0	1	0	0/1	2/4	0/1	0	2	0
20 John Collins	32	15	9	3	6	1	1	2	1	3/3	6/10	0/3	0	2	0
8 Kris Dunn	20	8	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	0/0	4/5	0/1	0	4	0
1 James Harden	36	27	4	0	4	9	1	3	0	0/0	6/10	5/14	0	2	0
2 Kawhi Leonard	35	21	6	3	3	5	3	2	0	6/6	6/14	1/7	0	0	0
11 Brook Lopez	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
14 Yanic Konan Niederhauser	2	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
4 Kobe Sanders	27	17	3	1	2	4	2	1	0	5/5	3/4	2/2	0	3	0
19 Jahmyl Telfort	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	1	0
40 Ivica Zubac	33	14	17	3	14	5	3	0	0	2/3	6/8	0/0	0	1	0