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Clippers set sights on Warriors and Play-In Tournament

April 14, 2026

INGLEWOOD — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr called the Clippers salvaging their season nothing short of remarkable. Former Clippers skipper Doc Rivers, who on Monday stepped down as the Milwaukee Bucks’ coach, used the word “impressive” to describe the job Tyronn Lue has done in turning a 6-21 start into a postseason finish.

And Dallas coach Jason Kidd said, “It’s not sometimes how you start the marathon, but how you pivot. He’s got this group to believe in and now they’re playing real good basketball.”

Certainly better than anyone expected.

The Clippers dug themselves out of an early hole and a modest late-season skid to reach the postseason as the ninth-seeded team will face off against the 10th-seeded Golden State Warriors in a Play-In Tournament game Wednesday night at the Intuit Dome.

It’s been a long season and a longer road to get here, and no one is ready for it to be over in this elimination game. The Clippers (42-40) are the first team in NBA history to finish with a winning record after being 15 games below .500 at any point in the season.

“Just make sure that nobody’s ready to go home … squeeze as much out of this season as we can,” Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard said of his approach to the game. “Just go out and play, have fun and play hard and let’s see what happens.”

Lue, who has guided the Clippers to this point with equal measure of faith and composure, said the team needs to focus on Wednesday’s game – not look ahead to a second Play-In game or a first-round series or backward to what has transpired. Stay in the moment.

“We’re prepared and first our mindset is we got to win tomorrow,” Lue said after Tuesday’s practice. “Our mindset has to be on Golden State. They are a great team. There is a lot of history behind this team and Steve Kerr is one of the best coaches in the league. So, we got to be prepared for Golden State and take it from there.”

The fact that the Clippers are this close to the playoffs is impressive and remarkable. Few would have thought that the team could have overcome the obstacles it has faced this season, from looming investigations to injuries to internal friction to winning more than 40 games.

“We never expected us to be in this situation in the beginning of the season,” Clippers forward Derrick Jones Jr. said. “Things happen, so we got the hand we were dealt, so we had to play with it.”

The 2025-26 season started with high expectations and a healthy Leonard, who showed early on he could still play at an elite level. James Harden appeared ready to reclaim his place as leader and facilitator and the Clippers brought back legendary point guard Chris Paul and signed veteran Bradley Beal.

For a moment, all the pieces were there.

But five games into the season, Leonard was sidelined with foot and ankle injuries. A week later, Beal needed season-ending surgery for a fractured left hip. On the surface, that would be enough to send any team’s season sideways.

For the Clippers, the season went into a downward spiral.

“Kawhi misses 10 straight games. The next game, Bradley Beal gets hurt and he missed the rest of the season, and we couldn’t get over the hump,” Lue said. “We’d be in a lot of close games, but we couldn’t finish, we couldn’t win. And we weren’t as good defensively.”

The Clippers weren’t just losing, they were underperforming, slow and old. The oldest team in the league lost 14 of its next 16 games after Beal’s injury and added five more losses after a victory against the Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 3.

Months later, Lue still couldn’t pinpoint why the team couldn’t get over the injuries, something that happens to every team.

“I don’t know. We couldn’t win. I mean, it was hard,” Lue said. “You lose two important parts to your team. It was hard for us. … We just weren’t good enough to get the wins.”

Off the court, journalist Pablo Torre launched an ongoing investigation into Leonard’s dealings with Aspiration, a green finance company, and whether his contract circumvented salary cap rules. Then there was the Paul dust-up that led to the future Hall of Famer being dismissed from the team before that win in Atlanta. He was eventually traded months later.

So was Harden for Darius Garland. So was center Ivica Zubac for Bennedict Mathurin.

With the roster cleared of distractions, Leonard healthy and a return to defensive intensity, the Clippers began winning, fulfilling Lue’s edict of finishing the season by going 35-20, a challenge he gave them before playing the Lakers on Dec. 20. It was the start of their comeback season.

“Ty had a lot to deal with,” Rivers said. “Ty uses my term a lot – clutter. He called me and he’s like ‘this is a lot of clutter.’ He had a lot of clutter early on but looks like it’s coming together.”

Lue first needed to get his team to buy into his vision and believe they could dig out of the mess. Maybe the Clippers wouldn’t be playoff contenders, but at least they would be a respectable .500 team.

“We didn’t give up, we didn’t give in, and we’re just going to run through the tape and see what happens,” Lue said.

“When you’re 6-21, it’s kind of hard to enjoy, but our guys were still in it. Zu (Zubac), James (Harden), Kawhi all went to another level and we never gave in. … It was all the guys in the locker room.”

And now that the Clippers are here, Lue said they don’t want to stop: “We came [too] far to let go of the rope now.”

PLAY-IN TOURNAMENT

Who: No. 10 seed Warriors at No. 9 seed Clippers

When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.

Where: Intuit Dome

TV/radio: Prime Video

Orange County Register

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Clippers set sights on Warriors and Play-In Tournament

PLAY-IN TOURNAMENT

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