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Clippers poised to exceed Tyronn Lue’s in-season challenge

March 30, 2026

The Clippers are two victories away from reaching the goal that Coach Tyronn Lue gave his team more than three months ago, when he told them the objective was to go 35-20 the rest of the regular season, which would allow them to finish with a .500 record.

That’s when the Clippers were 6-21 and appeared headed toward their first losing season in 14 years.

But Lue didn’t give up and wouldn’t let the team quit either. Now, the Clippers are 39-36, three games over .500 after going 33-15 over their past 48 games. They have seven games left to reach, and potentially exceed, Lue’s target.

“The biggest thing is a healthy Kawhi (Leonard),” Lue said after the Clippers defeated the short-handed Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday afternoon, 127-113, for their fifth consecutive victory after coming back from a 24-point deficit to beat the Indiana Pacers on a last-second shot by Leonard on Friday night.

After missing the first 10 games of the season because of ankle and foot issues, Leonard has been playing like the Kawhi of 2019. He posted his 51st consecutive game of 20 points or more with exactly 20 against the Bucks on 8-of-16 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 from 3-point range.

The seven-time All-Star is averaging a career-best 28.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists. More importantly, the 34-year-old forward has played 59 regular-season games and is on track to reach 67 – his most since 2017 when he was with the San Antonio Spurs.

But Leonard isn’t the sole reason for the Clippers’ dramatic turnaround. It’s been a collective effort since Dec. 20, when Lue issued his goal.

“Just the guys we have in the locker room, that’s what I’m most pleased about because they could have easily gave up, they could have easily gave in, and every single guy in the locker room, including Kobe Brown, (Ivica) Zubac, James (Harden), they played a big part in it as well,” Lue said, including the three players the team traded away in February.

“Just those guys being able to start 6-21 but come in every single day to get better in practice, to get better in the games, to sacrifice no matter what it took to win games. That was huge for us. It just says a lot about the guys in the locker room.”

Forward John Collins called the current group of players, which includes relative newcomers point guard Darius Garland and forward Bennedict Mathurin, “a brotherhood of guys that wanna be together, wanna win, that are happy for each other.”

Now the Clippers’ focus is on the remaining seven games and holding on to the No. 8 seed for the four-team Play-In Tournament (seeds 7-10). They could still catch Phoenix (41-33) for the No. 7 seed (the teams split the four-game season series).

The Clippers head into the final two weeks of the regular season not only looking ahead to the postseason but watching the teams behind them.

The Portland Trail Blazers (38-38) are currently the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference and, like the Clippers, have clinched a spot in the Play-In Tournament. But the Blazers could still bump the Clippers out of the eighth spot, especially if they win both of the remaining head-to-head matchups, starting with Tuesday night’s game at Intuit Dome.

The teams square off again on April 10 in Portland.

Lue said the Clippers need to lock down defensively if they hope to maintain their spot.

“Defensively, getting that identity back, we gotta be on top of our game,” he said. “… just focusing on getting back to our defensive ways and go from there.”

TRAIL BLAZERS AT CLIPPERS

When: Tuesday, 8 p.m.

Where: Intuit Dome

TV/Radio: FDSN SoCal, NBC (Ch. 4), 1150 AM

Orange County Register

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Clippers poised to exceed Tyronn Lue’s in-season challenge

TRAIL BLAZERS AT CLIPPERS

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