The Clippers' Chaotic New Starting Lineup Actually Worked
Underdog NBA tweeted: 'Lineup alert: Clippers will start Garland, Dunn, Jones Jr., Hachimura, Lopez on Sunday.'
If you read the ' starting lineup out loud to a basketball fan a few years ago, they would ask you what kind of trade machine fever dream you were having.
Underdog NBA tweeted out the Sunday starting five for Los Angeles: , Kris Dunn, Derrick Jones Jr., Rui Hachimura, and Brook Lopez. That is not a cohesive basketball unit. That is a group of guys who met in the parking lot 20 minutes before tipoff.
But against all odds, the parking lot crew actually got it done. Going into Sunday, the were riding a miserable seven-game losing streak and sitting near the absolute bottom of the Western Conference standings with a 1-7 record.
Then they rolled out this chaotic five-man group and casually dropped 139 points on the to finally stop the bleeding.
Garland is basically the only thing keeping this offense from turning into a complete rock fight. He is averaging 21.2 points and 7.1 assists over his last 10 games, and he cooked the Pelicans for 24 points and 10 dimes. Lopez turned back the clock to chip in 20 points of his own.
From a betting and fantasy perspective, trying to predict this rotation is a great way to lose your mind. Garland is the only safe volume play, while everyone else on the roster is just taking turns riding the variance wave depending on who gets the hot hand.
The real test comes next when they pack up this experiment and head out to play the . We will find out very quickly if this lineup is an actual solution or just a dead cat bounce.