SAN FRANCISCO — Tyronn Lue didn’t want Darius Garland’s first minutes with the Clippers to come in the shadow of Kawhi Leonard. That meant the uniform wasn’t the only thing new for the 26-year-old guard Monday night in his Los Angeles debut.
Garland scored 12 points in 23 minutes in a 114-101 win against the Warriors — off the bench.
It was Garland’s first time taking the court since the Cavaliers sent him to LA for James Harden, his first game at all since Jan. 14, and the first time since his sophomore season — 2020-21 — that the two-time All-Star’s name wasn’t announced among the starting lineups.
“It’s whatever. I wanted to fit in so I didn’t want to disrupt anything or anything that we had going on because we had been on a good little run,” Garland said of his reaction when Lue informed him he wouldn’t start initially. “It was kind of weird at first, I told him it felt weird at first. But after I got going a little bit, it was cool.”
Garland checked in for the first time with 4:48 left in the first quarter and didn’t get his first bucket until shortly before halftime. The Warriors blitzed him and forced three early turnovers.
“Steve Kerr always got something up under his sleeve,” Garland said. “So probably after the first trey ball I made I was like OK, all right, I think I knocked the cobwebs off a little bit.”
Garland’s health is one reason why the Cavaliers were comfortable trading him away for another guard 10 years his elder in Harden. He hadn’t played since spraining his right big toe against the 76ers six weeks ago and had surgery on his other big toe over the summer.
Before tipoff, Lue said he wanted to see Garland “find his own rhythm, his own timing and just try to run everything through him” without Leonard. The Clippers were at their best in the moments both were on the floor.
In their first possession together, Garland drove to the rim, drew contact, and got to the foul line. Not long after, Golden State crashed the paint, and Garland kicked it out to Leonard for an open 3.
“From penetration, they pulled in, and then he was able to make the right play,” Lue said. “It’s gonna take some time to get our rotations, who plays well with who, but tonight was a good start.”
Leonard, who led LA with 23 points, said the Clippers newcomer “looks very promising out there.”
“He is very active defensively when guarding some of their centers in the post. I enjoyed his whole performance tonight.”
As Garland got going, so did the Clippers. They erased a 17-point deficit before halftime to claim a convincing win over the team directly ahead of them in the Western Conference standings. The win closed the gap between LA and Golden State to 1.5 games.
While the Warriors continue to battle attrition, Lue has a new toy to play with in LA.
“A guy can push the pace, can run pick-and-roll, can get to where he wants to get to on the floor, can run a lot of different options where he can come off pin-downs, he can come off pick-the-picker actions,” Lue said. “We can just use him a lot of different ways.”
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