The Clippers are no different than every other team in the league when it comes to dealing with this year’s wild NBA schedule.

“The schedule is not just affecting us but everyone.” said Head Coach Vinny Del Negro. “We have to manage the practice time, the injuries, the schedule, so it’s tough. But we just need to take it one game at a time.”

With the condensed schedule, the Clippers have already found themselves playing four games in five nights, and the dreaded back-to-back-to-back games, all while trying to incorporate a new core to the team. These should be the ingredients for an underachieving team that’s searching desperately for time to gel together. But that’s not been the case. The Clippers are coming out of the organized chaos playing as if they have done it all before and most importantly, they’re winning together.

“We do have new pieces, but actually, what we have is experienced pieces” said the five-time all-star, Chauncey Billups. “It’s good to have pieces like us, already familiar with the timing and rhythm of different sets that are in place.”

Out of the 16 teams in the league that are playing over .500 basketball, the Clippers are the only ones that have three new starters on the team. That type of overhaul of a starting lineup is expected to take some time before things begin to click, no matter how talented the team is. Let’s take the Miami Heat as an example. When the Heat put their “Big Three” out on the court for the first time last season, they started the season 9-8. Mind you, this was with a full training camp, the usual practice time and a standard NBA schedule. So how are the Clippers producing the way they are under these circumstances?

“When you bring in guys like myself, Chris and Caron - guys that have experienced a lot of thing and guys that know how to execute different plays – that alone is going to speed up any process.” said Billups. “But we’re adjusting to the situation. Practice time is valuable, so a lot of times we end up actually practicing in games on different things we want to see if we can execute. That’s just how it is.”

With the veteran leadership already in place, the roster is also intertwined with younger players that will eventually benefit the Clippers during the rough patches of their schedule. The Clippers average players’ age is 27.7 year old. To put that in perspective, that’s younger than teams like the Lakers, Boston, Dallas, Portland, Chicago and Miami. The young legs will be relied upon for every team in the league, but the Clippers arguably have the best power forward-center combo in the game, and both are under 24 years of age.

An example of how this team has been taken over by pure leadership was displayed on January 30 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Coming off a pick-n-roll, Blake Griffin threw what may have been one of the best dunks of all-time against the Thunder’s enforcer, Kendrick Perkins. Amidst all the madness going on after the play, Chris Paul and Billups kept their composure and had a word with Griffin.

“For me being a point guard, I try not to get to excited. Me and Chauncey walked up to each other and said ‘Wow’, but with a young team, you need to keep everybody locked into the game.” said Paul. “You can’t let him do all that crazy stuff and get too excited.”

That’s only one case in point of the on the court guidance the Clippers now have set in stone. No matter how condensed the NBA schedule is, the unparalleled leadership is what’s getting the Clippers to rise through the unusual circumstances and that what will carry them the whole way through.

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More: Looking to the Road Ahead | The Numbers Game: Holding Down the Paint

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