Trading for James Harden represented the Clippers’ acknowledgement they did not believe they had enough talent to contend for a championship, and their hope that four future Hall of Famers would be.
Constructed with the intent to overwhelm with stars, they instead showed Saturday they can still win without leaning on them.
As Harden and Kawhi Leonard struggled to make shots for a second consecutive night, the Clippers were rarely tested by the Dallas Mavericks in a 107-88 win by substituting star power for productivity throughout the rest of their roster.
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Paul George scored a team-high 25 points and Russell Westbrook, who finished with 14 points on judicious shot selection, with eight rebounds and seven assists in 25 minutes off the bench, looked like a different player than the one who struggled through a season-low 14 minutes only 24 hours earlier.