The Los Angeles Clippers, not the Lakers, are the league’s superior team

Breaking down the Los Angeles Clippers

1. Strength of schedule

The Los Angeles Clippers have currently played the third most difficult schedule in the NBA. Of the Clippers 13 wins, 10 have come against teams .500 or better.

It’s already been noted that the Clippers have been wildly shorthanded for nearly all of this season, so to sustain such an impressive record despite being up against the 3rd toughest schedule in the league, is quite the feat.

2. Minutes distribution

It has been discussed that the current success of the Lakers can be met with equal skepticism considering the load LeBron and AD have needed to carry in order to squeak past bad teams. The opposite has been true for the Clippers, as they have made preservation of their superstars a point of emphasis.

While LeBron is 8th in the league in minutes per game, Kawhi currently sits at just 53rd. Paul George’s 29.0 MPG rank 92nd, placing his minutes in an even more manageable position than Kawhi’s. Perhaps even more important than the light load of minutes per game has been the number of games actually played.

Kawhi Leonard has played just 13 of LAC’s first 18 games, and Paul George just 7 of those. Despite that, the Clippers find themselves just two wins behind a Lakers team that is playing their stars all night every night.

For the Clippers, it is easy to see why not only will this level of success be easily sustainable, but it will also drastically ascend. They have needed very little from their new superstar duo, but it is only a matter of time before very little is no longer all they get.

Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are starting to get healthy, and have won their first four games as a pair. Their support cast has held it down in the times one played without the other, and that squad has risen their level of play to new heights each time they’ve been called upon.

The supporting cast for the Clippers is what separates them beyond any of the points previously made. The bench for LAC once again leading the league in scoring, at 51.7 PPG. The depth of the Lakers simply can’t say the same, as their bench is averaging the league’s 10th worst scoring clip at just 34.6 PPG.

This gives a clear explanation for why so much has been asked of LeBron and AD here in the early parts of the season. The Lakers simply can’t score when those two are off the floor.

Don’t take my word for it, let’s take a look at the stats.