Nearly a month after the blockbuster trade that ended his tenure with the Cleveland Cavaliers, All-Star point guard Darius Garland made his debut with the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday.
It came at a huge time for the franchise, too.
The Clippers surged ahead in the fourth quarter to grab a 114-101 win over the Golden State Warriors at the Chase Center. That sliced a game off the 2.5-game deficit they trailed the Warriors by entering the night and gave them a 2-1 edge in their series with Golden State. Now, the Clippers are in position to take the head-to-head tiebreaker with a win in the regular-season finale on April 12.
With a record of 29-31, this win very well could be critical down the stretch.
Garland played a solid part in that, too. The 26-year-old hasn’t suited up since Jan. 14 while continuing to work back from injuries to the big toes on both of his feet. He had 12 points and went 4 of 9 from the field, though he had a team-high five turnovers.
While Garland came off the bench and played only 23 minutes, which was expected, head coach Tyronn Lue and Co. hope his introduction will continue to provide a jolt to a Clippers offense that, with the notable exception of Kawhi Leonard’s individual brilliance, has often been moribund since shipping out star point guard James Harden and starting center Ivica Zubac.
The Clippers have treaded water over the past month, going 5-5 since the Harden/Garland trade, but have done so largely on the strength of their defense. During the 5-5 stretch, the Clippers rank 21st in points scored per possession, 29th in made 3-pointers per game, dead last in 3-point attempts, 25th in team 3-point accuracy and 28th in assists per game.
Garland averaged 18 points, 6.9 assists and 2.4 rebounds in 30.5 minutes per game across 26 appearances in Cleveland this season, shooting 52.1% on 2-pointers, 36% on 3-point attempts and 86.1% from the free-throw line. While battling the toe injuries, Garland often seemed to lack the explosiveness, balance and shot-making prowess that made him a two-time All-Star in Cleveland, and a key cog in a Cavaliers attack that set offensive efficiency records last season. If his wheels are healthy, though, he could give Lue a potent weapon to wield as he tries to propel the Clippers through the play-in tournament and into the postseason proper.
“He’s different from James and we can play different with a faster pace,” Lue told reporters last month. “We can play him off the ball more. It’s going to be exciting. I’ve known DG for a while and having a young point guard under my tutelage, I think it’s the first time I have had one since Kyrie [Irving].”
Darius Garland made his debut for the Clippers on Monday night, nearly one month after the trade that sent him from Cleveland to Los Angeles. (Jack Gorman/Getty Images)
(Jack Gorman via Getty Images)
Leonard led the Clippers on Monday night with 23 points and eight rebounds. Kris Dunn added 16 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.
Brandin Podziemski led the Warriors with 22 points after he went 9 of 18 from the field. Nate Williams finished with 18 points off the bench, and Al Horford added 17 points. The Warriors fell to 31-30 with the loss, which was their second straight.
While it might take some time for Garland and Lue to iron out the kinks and establish a working rhythm, he seems eager to seize the opportunity in front of him in Los Angeles. In the short term, Garland gets to pair with an elite two-way wing in Leonard, who has produced at an All-NBA level this season, and see if the Clippers can’t make some unexpected noise come springtime.
And looking forward, Garland, who’s under contract through the 2027-28 season, has a chance to be a foundational figure for the next phase of the Clippers franchise, whatever that might look like.
“I’m good with the change,” Garland recently told Marc J. Spears of Andscape. “When it first happened, I was kind of skeptical. But I couldn’t turn down this opportunity to play with another Hall of Famer [Leonard] and having a ball in my hands damn near 99% of the time. […] I’m in another good situation over here in L.A., trying to do something, trying to rebuild this whole brand of the Clippers, and try to make it one of the biggest teams in L.A.”
That’s a tall task: Achieving it will require both the kind of regular-season success Garland experienced in Cleveland last season, and the brand of postseason success that neither he nor the Clippers have achieved. Whether they’ll get there remains to be seen; after what must have felt like a very long month, though, the process finally got started Monday night.
“Whatever T-Lue wants me to be, whatever position he wants me to be in, I’m going to do that,” Garland told reporters after the trade. “I’m here to win games.”