INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The LA Clippers have taken all season to reach full health for their rotation. They finally achieved that last week when they were able to put Kawhi Leonard, Ben Simmons, Norman Powell and Kris Dunn on the floor together for the first time. Even then, the Clippers weren’t truly whole, as head coach Tyronn Lue’s back and shoulder pain intensified to the point where he had to miss time.

But even Lue came back for Sunday’s home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, with the Clippers seeking a chance to establish their longest winning streak of the season at six games. It looked like LA was well on its way toward that milestone when it led 36-24 early in the second quarter.

The Thunder wound up coming back and got enough stops down the stretch to beat the Clippers 103-101, ending LA’s win streak at five games and completing a regular season series sweep. The Thunder escaped the Clippers despite MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s worst shooting performance of the season (7-of-29 on field goals, 24.1 percent) and the absence of Chet Holmgren and All-Star Jalen Williams. Alex Caruso’s 3 with 1:37 left was the final lead change, while the Clippers had critical turnovers from James Harden and Powell, paired with missed jump shots by Powell and Leonard while trailing by one.

It would be nice if all the Clippers had to worry about were the standings, as their chance to get back in front of the Golden State Warriors for sixth place with three weeks to go was squandered, leaving them with a 40-31 record and back behind the Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves at eighth in the West. Unfortunately, the status of Harden is concerning because of a moment early in the third quarter.

After Dunn rebounded a missed 3 by Caruso, Harden tried to drive right after an Ivica Zubac screen while being guarded by Luguentz Dort. As Dort pursued Harden through Zubac’s screen, he contacted Harden’s left quadriceps, sending Harden hopping in pain. The basketball play resulted in a Cason Wallace steal. But as Harden hopped on his right foot, he rolled it and crashed into the sideline opposite the Thunder bench, staying down long enough to require a Clippers timeout.

Harden stayed in the game after the timeout, making sure to express his displeasure with official Nick Buchert about the non-call in front of him. But it was a struggle for Harden, as he made it to 35:25 but had more turnovers (six) than field goals (4-of-14) for the first time all month.

In the postgame locker room, Harden walked gingerly to his seat, sliding his leg along. He could put his left shoe on but needed to leave and come back to get the right shoe on. Then, Harden addressed what was left of the assembled media.

“Uhhhhh, I’m all right,” Harden said.

When asked what happened, Harden asked me if I saw what happened.

“You didn’t see the play?” Harden said, before describing what happened. “I rolled my foot. So I got bumped, I got kneed in the thigh. And I was hopping, and I rolled my foot. And it’s in the middle of my foot, yeah.”

That was a concerning statement. Harden has been incredibly durable with the Clippers, but the last time he had a multi-week injury was in November 2022 while with the Philadelphia 76ers. After Harden played 35:04 in a home loss to the Washington Wizards, it was revealed that he strained a tendon in his right foot, the same one that he injured Sunday night. Harden missed 33 days with that injury.

When Harden was asked to clarify what was bothering him the most, he confirmed again that he rolled his foot. I asked him if it was something he had suffered before.

“Yup,” Harden responded.

Does it go away quickly?

“We’ll see,” Harden said.

And with that, the Clippers hop on a plane to play their final games outside of the Pacific time zone, as they play a four-game trip that hits the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic. The Clippers have beaten all four of those teams at Intuit Dome, including a riveting 132-119 defeat of the Cavaliers Tuesday night. But Harden not being available for even one of those games would require the Clippers to do things that they haven’t done yet.

The first item on that list is win a game without Harden in the lineup. He has only missed three games this season. The Clippers are 0-3 in those games. The last time Harden missed a game was Jan. 2 at Oklahoma City; Leonard made his season debut two nights later.

The Clippers are built differently now. They don’t have backup guard Kevin Porter Jr., who was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for the contract of MarJon Beauchamp, who was waived to promote Jordan Miller from a two-way contract. That transaction was made to give the Clippers some flexibility entering this offseason, as Porter Jr. could have been on the books next season, and because the Clippers acquired Bogdan Bogdanović from the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Terance Mann and the contract of Bones Hyland. The Clippers continued their February moves by signing Simmons after Brooklyn bought out the remainder of his contract.

Harden was LA’s All-Star this year, a ceiling raiser who has made others around him better while waiting for Leonard to return to peak form. Leonard is back playing All-NBA level basketball in March, and Sunday night was his ninth 20-point game of the month after having only three 20-point games each in January and February. Zubac has dominated this season working with Harden, while Powell was nearly an All-Star as well.

But no player runs more isolations than Harden. Only 10 players run more pick-and-rolls than Harden as the ballhandler, per Synergy. And even at age 35, Harden plays 35 minutes per game. Missing him for even a game would be difficult. An extended absence would be perilous with the Play-In Tournament starting in 23 days and the first weekend of the postseason underway in 27 days.

The Clippers are all too familiar with not being at full strength in time for the playoffs. Last season, Leonard’s right knee gave out right at the turn of April. Two seasons ago, Paul George had his right knee upended by Dort in a Clippers home game in March against the Thunder. Three seasons ago, Leonard was out all season, while George and Powell came back in the final weeks of the season. But that 2021-22 Clippers team was the eighth seed, and it did not survive the Play-In Tournament.

The hope is that Harden will be fine. After all, as much as Lue and the team try to save Harden from overuse, Harden is notoriously stubborn about resisting rest.

Or, as he put it Sunday night: “No, I’m playing,” Harden said about not talking to the coaching staff about his status. “If I’m not okay, I sit down.”

And then Harden shuffled out of the locker room.