Since at least February 2008, the “40 before 20” theory for legitimate contenders has been attributed to Hall of Fame head coach Phil Jackson. It’s a simple baseline: elite teams should win 40 games in a season before they lose 20. Every one of Jackson’s 11 championship teams reached that mark in the regular season, including the two with Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue on them in 2000 and ’01. Lue’s 2016 Cavaliers reached 40 wins before 20 losses as well. And after Sunday night’s 124-105 win against the Timberwolves, Lue’s Clippers are 40-19.

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Lue has cited Jackson often as a coaching influence. He has mentioned Jackson on several topics, from discussing using post-ups as the “first rule of penetration” to Jackson being the best at staying poised on the sideline. But Lue had not learned of “40 before 20” before his team reached that benchmark.

“But thank you for telling me!” Lue said Sunday night.

In the previous 50 seasons in franchise history, the Clippers reached 40 wins before 20 losses only twice, including last season. Both instances were big disappointments and the coach’s tenure ended with the team.

Clippers 40 before 20 seasons

Now, this is Lue’s first season as the head coach of the Clippers. He’s about as safe as a head coach can be. And despite the “40 before 20” mark not being an explicit goal of his, Lue is happy about where his team is at.

“It means a lot, especially with all the things we’ve gone through this season,” Lue said. “All the injuries, the ups and downs. Like I said, we got a great chance for our young guys to really develop. Terance Mann, Luke Kennard. (Ivica Zubac) playing more minutes, heavy minutes. Just being able to find that rhythm, like I said, keep building habits throughout the course of the season. And I think each month we’ve gotten better and better. So we gotta just continue to keep building the last 13 games of the season.”

The Clippers joined the Jazz (42-15) and Suns (40-16) as the only teams in the 40 before 20 contender group so far this season. No other Western Conference teams can make it, with last season’s conference finalists Denver (36-20) and Los Angeles (35-22) already at 20 losses. In the Eastern Conference, the 76ers (39-18) can reach 40 before 20 with a win in one of their next three games, while the Nets can get there by winning both of their next two games. Last season, six teams reached 40 wins before 20 losses:

2019-20 40 before 20 teams

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that suspended and altered the 2019-20 NBA season, the 72-game schedule has been littered with interruptions and bereft of consecutive days off. The consequences are sure to play into this postseason. Out of all the teams that have ever won a championship, only 16 of 74 (21.6 percent) did not reach 40 wins before 20 losses. Even for most of those teams, the road to a title goes through an established list of contenders; that’s the history of the game. Here’s a glance at those 16 champions, and the number of teams that those champions had to go through in the postseason that did meet the “40 before 20” criteria (gray notes pre-shot clock era, red marks post-ABA merger, green marks post-merger/3-point line era):

Champions that lost 20 before 40th win

As seen above, only three teams since the NBA established the three-point line in 1979 have won a championship without meeting the “40 before 20” mark (7.3 percent of 41 seasons before this one). In a sign of how much the league has changed, each of the last 14 champions has met the “40 before 20” mark. Now, not all of those teams were known for great 3-point shooting.

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Which leads to the reason why the Clippers got to the “40 before 20” mark this season: they’re in the mix for being the most accurate 3-point shooting team in NBA history. After making a season-high 21 3s (out of 42 attempts) against the Timberwolves, the Clippers are now shooting 42.1 percent from 3 for the season. Only 10 other teams in league history have made at least 40 percent of their 3s for a season, and four of them did so between the 1994-95 and 1996-97 seasons, when the line above the break was shortened from 23 feet, 9 inches to 22 feet all around (the league kept the corners short when reverting to the original distance in the 1997 offseason).

Here is a glance at the 40 percent 3-point teams in league history, their average number of attempts as a team, the number of shooters making at least 40 percent of 100 3-point attempts, and what they did in the postseason (teal marks shortened line era):

Best 3-point shooting teams, percentage

Only the 72-10 Bulls that Jackson coached won a championship while making 40 percent of their 3s for a season, and that team shot from a shortened line. The 73-9 Warriors were a game away, but Lue’s 2016 Cavaliers rallied from 3-1 in the NBA Finals. Now Lue’s team is trying to utilize record-level shooting to fulfill their contender status.

“It’s the same thing we’ve been harping on all season, is making your teammate better,” Lue said after Sunday’s game that saw the Clippers go to 14-0 when they make at least 50 percent of their 3s. “Give up a good shot to get a great shot, moving the basketball. And like I said, these guys have truly and clearly bought in, and it starts with (Paul George) and Kawhi (Leonard) and the job they’ve done being scorers and being able to score one on one anytime they want but also making their teammates better.

“That’s what’s taking us to the next level right now. Like I said, we want to continue to do that. Kawhi had a good shot, he passed up for an extra shot for Twin (Marcus Morris Sr.) in the corner. Kawhi was wide open. Those things are infectious, and you want to play like that. And it’s fun playing that way.”

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George’s streak of 30-point games ended at five games since he and the rest of the starters weren’t needed after building a 38-point third-quarter lead Sunday night. But he did have a game-high 23 points while making 4 of 7 3s, and George provided insight on what it’s been like playing with a great team made up of great shooters.

“I mean, we just got high IQ players and we got unselfish players,” George said. “No one’s out here looking to get numbers or looking to pad stats or looking to get their own. Like, everybody is — we bought in. That’s really the key to it. We bought into team basketball, and we know where we’re trying to get to. To get there, we need everybody. And so the more everybody’s involved, the better we are in the long run.”

Ultimately, the Clippers’ success will come down to several more factors than their shooting. They will have to defend the 3 about as well as they shoot it against a team like the Jazz. They will need to continue defending the midrange and floater attacks from the Suns. If they get out of the West, they would need to deal with the half-court defense of the 76ers or the Nets’ ridiculous offense. The Nuggets and Lakers loom as teams looking to possibly go on a run like the 1995 Rockets. But the Clippers have done well to balance their shooting with other key components that make up a legitimate contender, and that is now officially reflected in their record entering this week.

“When everyone’s touching it, when everyone’s getting shots, when we’re attacking the basket, making the right play, as I said, we’re a tough team to beat,” Lue said. “Our guys are understanding that, and since the All-Star break, I really like where we’re at right now and how we’re playing and how we’re executing on both sides of the basketball.”

(Photo of Kawhi Leonard: Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

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