Another former NBA player has joined Marcus Morris in not taking Oklahoma City as the championship pick.
The Thunder have had an amazing season and should enter the playoffs as the second-youngest team in league history with the No. 1 seed out the Western Conference. OKC has been great with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but is there a team that could upend its aspirations of winning an NBA Championship?
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Morris has the Los Angeles Lakers coming out the west, but Kendrick Perkins has another team in Los Angeles (Calif.) as the threat. He explained his team to ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt on Wednesday.
“It’s a team in LA and it’s not the Lakers.”@KendrickPerkins on the Clippers being OKC’s biggest threat right now ???? pic.twitter.com/FiuF7o71zT
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“It is the Los Angeles Clippers,” Perkins said about the biggest threat to OKC.
“This is a team that has one of the best coaches in the game in Tyrone Lue, this is a team that has James Harden who has been balling all season long, and now they have Kawhi Leonard who is looking healthy again. He is looking like the Kawhi of old.”
Perkins also added the veteran leadership around Harden and Leonard.
Kawhi Leonard records third 30-point game since returning to the Clippers
“Watch out for the Clippers,” he said to Van Pelt. “I actually have them as my sleeper in the Western Conference.
The 2008 NBA champion compared Leonard to Jordan with him being healthy.
Leonard averaged 25.5 points per matchup in March, including three games of 30 or more points. “The Klaw” had 28 points, three rebounds, three blocks, and two steals in Clippers’ 114-98 victory on Wednesday over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Los Angeles (44-32) is tied with Minnesota (44-32) in terms of record, but the T’Wolves are the sixth seed in the Western Conference. The Clippers need to win out and have Minnesota drop a couple of games to switch spots in the standings.
Leonard has LAC playing its best at the right time.
Stephen M. Smith is a writer for Ball Exclusives. You can follow him him X via @CoachingMSmith.
