INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The Los Angeles Clippers have dealt with roster turnover, the James Harden and Ivica Zubac trades and real questions about whether this group could stay in the playoff picture, but Wednesday night at Intuit Dome felt like a team that knows what it wants to be.
Los Angeles jumped all over Toronto from the opening tip and never looked back, cruising to a 119-94 win that gave them their third straight victory and improved their record to 37-36.
The Clippers closed the first quarter on a 23-9 run to build a 36-22 lead, and from there it was all Los Angeles.
Garland Is Making This Offense Different
The biggest takeaway from this game was Darius Garland, who went 9-of-16 from the field and 5-of-9 from three on his way to 24 points and six assists.
Just days ago he dropped 41 against Dallas, and now he followed that up with another efficient showing that is starting to give this backcourt real identity.
Tyronn Lue talked after the game about how much Garland's range opens things up for everybody else.
"Darius gives us more space, more spacing on the floor," Lue said. "When a guy can shoot from that far out, you have to close out higher."
That spacing showed up all night, and Garland capped it with a 35-footer at the third quarter buzzer that took the air out of any Toronto comeback hopes.
Garland has looked more and more comfortable since arriving from Cleveland, and nights like Wednesday are exactly what the front office envisioned when they made the deal.
Kawhi Doing What He Does
Kawhi Leonard led everybody with 27 points on 9-of-19 shooting and six rebounds, and he is now averaging 28.3 points on 50.4 percent from the field this season.
When asked about what playing alongside Garland does for his own game, Leonard kept it simple.
"You're just on the radar... everybody has to shrink the paint," Leonard said.
He was getting to his mid-range spots all night with room to operate, and that version of Kawhi is one of the hardest covers in basketball.
The Leonard-Garland pairing has given this team a two-man punch it hasn't had in years, and when both guys are rolling like this, Los Angeles looks like a team nobody wants to see in the play-in.
The Bench Was Just As Good
The depth showed up Wednesday, with the bench combining for 52 points led by Bennedict Mathurin's 23 on 7-of-14 shooting along with six assists, and Brook Lopez, who scored 11 of his 14 points in the first quarter while also swatting five shots.
Isaiah Jackson was perfect from the field at 6-for-6 with 12 points, six rebounds and two blocks, and Kris Dunn didn't score at all but still finished with a game-best plus-20 alongside four assists and two steals.
What It Means Going Forward
The Clippers remain a half-game ahead of Portland for the eighth spot in the West with nine games left and visit Indiana on Friday to try and make it four in a row.
This is a different team than the one that started the season 6-21 and traded Harden in February wondering what came next.
Three straight wins, a healthy Kawhi, a confident Garland and a bench that can bury you if you are not paying attention feels like a group that is starting to believe it belongs in the postseason conversation.