Clips Plan on D: No Paint, shoot 3's all we want

[spursfaninla]

Clippers showed their hand on defense: TP will not score in the paint off the pick and roll, BUT we will get as many open 3's as we want.

How will that play out? I think it makes it harder for us to win, tbh. I think it is worth the risk on their part.

Our 3pt shooting was largely facilitated by the Clipper's strategy to stop penetration, especially by TP: pack the paint, throw extra defenders at him, and pray we miss our 3's.

This team has so many good 3pt shooters, we will take those, and make many.

They made a bunch of 3's as well, but that is beside the point.

This team's bread and butter is the pnr. Clippers defended the roll, as well as TP getting to the paint really well. I think TP and Paul can largely guard each other, which also help. The point is, the Clipps effectively neutralized TP as a scorer.

Now, Duncan, Manu, Green and Leonard all scored more than their averages, which made up for it.

I think the clipps will adjust even more to try to stop penetration by Manu, and then we will become even more dependent on the 3. I am concerned if we lean too readily on the 3 TBH. It should be a natural part of the attack, but there comes a point where "luck" comes into play, and you go cold from the outside. When that happens, if the clippers have cut out the points in the paint, it could be trouble.

[Marcus Bryant]

Perfect defense to throw at the league's top 3 pt shooting offense.

Thanks Vinny.

[san antonio spurs]

I was more worried by the spurs turnovers tbh...
Regarding the points in the paint, many easy layups were missed

[100%duncan]

I think we are not relying on our 3 that much, it's just that they give us wide open looks and we should take it, it would be stupid not to. I think many people think of it this way because they give us looks and we convert them. It's not like the guys forced those 3's, it came from good ball movement and an uncoordinated defense.

[Marcus Bryant]

Or, expecting a good jumpshooting team to go cold is not a winning strategy.

[100%duncan]

Or, expecting a good jumpshooting team to go cold is not a winning strategy.

Yup. LA teams saying hi.

[DMC]

Vinny's excuse for losing "we missed shots".

Mike D's excuse for losing a few years back "we just missed shots"

Pop's excuse for losing last year "they kicked our asses, we couldn't defend"

Coaches that think like 3rd year players are not going to get far in the playoffs. You don't lose because you missed shots, but because you couldn't stop the Spurs from scoring 108 points in the playoffs. The Clippers scored enough points to win a playoff game, if they played a lick of defense.

[DAF86]

We got a big load of pts in the paint, tbh.

[spursfaninla]

Another thing I noticed; we scored 42 points in the paint tonight, largely from Manu drives, putbacks by Leonard and Green, and TD in the post. Splitter and Diaw also each made 2 baskets in the paint.

So, motion and stopping offensive scoring off offensive rebounding is where the Clipper's D also really broke down.

TD really killed them in the post.

[Knoxxx]

Certainly we can sustain a fairly high 3 PT percentage if they are wide open looks. Probably not 50%, but 40 seems reasonable.

Yes there is a chance we have a cold shooting game from 3 and the Clips sneak a win. Appears unlikely that will be due to LAC defense though.

Bottom line they played our pace, our game, our everything.

Splitter quit making silly passes and takes layups we win by 20.

[Marcus Bryant]

Clippers will likely try to slow the game down on Thursday. They need to make the game ugly and limit the Spurs to one shot per possession. Problem is, they not have the personnel to do this against the league's best offense.

[Mugen]

I'm glad Vinny's strategy is to give up open 3s and shots at the rim and take away the midrange Js.

[ElNono]

I thought Vinny did good... exercise out there today.... walked a lot, etc...

[MannyIsGod]

I'm not sure what the points in the paint were but I'm pretty sure we beat them in the paint.

[Mr. Body]

Spurs have too many points of attack, it's hard to cover. Parker needs to be ready when the defense shifts philosophy.

[GSH]

First of all, the Spurs made a point of shutting down CP3, too. I'll take our 3P shooters over theirs every day.

The Spurs basically held the Clippers to 90 points (plus a charity bucket in garbage time). Strangely, with all the talk about the Spurs offense, they won this game with defense. The Clippers wanted to do that, but they couldn't.

The ONLY way the Clips are going to be able to slow the pace of these games is by fouling and trying to make it ugly. The Clippers have to hope that the refs swallow their whistles. And still, the Spurs have proven that they can win those kinds of games, too.

Blake said in the post game that they just can't give up as many open looks to the Spurs. But they gave up those open looks because they were keying on Parker. If they back off on him even a little bit, he WILL cut them to pieces.

If the Spurs play cold for a whole game, and/or the Clips have a couple of guys who are shooting lights-out, they could win a game. But that's not going to happen four times. I don't really think it matters what kind of strategy they try to use, they aren't going to win 4 of the next 6 against the Spurs.

[therealtruth]

Or, expecting a good jumpshooting team to go cold is not a winning strategy.

It's worked before like last year against the Grizzlies.

[MannyIsGod]

Actually, the Spurs may not have outscored them directly in the paint but when you factor out the edge it got them in free throws I don't believe they really stopped the Spurs from getting into the paint.

[Manu-20]

The clippers were trying hard on D the spurs are just simpley the better team overall and our 3 point shooters aren't one dimeonsial for the most part.

[Wild Cobra Kai]

Their defense was "don't let Tony beat us". Fine. Everyone else will. It isn't as smooth or pretty, but they got our worst game in probably a month and lost by 16.

[spursfaninla]

For the record, as a I said above, the Spurs scored 42 points in the paint. The Clippers only scored 30 points in the paint, so we soundly beat them in points in the paint.

And, really, the Clipps defense was, as others have said, to stop Tony. They did that, but lost the war. We shall see if that works out if they stop Manu as well.

The reason we scored in the paint was from putbacks, from manu drives and Duncan in the post. Duncan will probably not score 26 a game for the series. They should be able to stop Manu's drives the same way the stop tony, but so far not.

[T Park]

Why can't Duncan? He's fresh, he's moving well.

Kenyon Martin ? Pffft, when Duncan was aggressive he got easy baskets. Against the tougher Jordan? Hard but an up fake will draw fouls on him and get him out of the game easily...

[spursfaninla]

Why can't Duncan? He's fresh, he's moving well.

Kenyon Martin ? Pffft, when Duncan was aggressive he got easy baskets. Against the tougher Jordan? Hard but an up fake will draw fouls on him and get him out of the game easily...

The Clippers survived against a stronger combo post attack from Randolph and Gasol, and were able to defend them by getting rough.

I think Duncan could score 20+ a game for us, but we don't want the wear it will take on him to do it, because the Clippers will start to physically punish him. Better to use post play sparingly, just to mix things up. I don't want to see Duncan taking 20 shots again in this series, TBH.

[T Park]

Yeah why have your HOF forward taking shots....

[EVAY]

First of all, the Spurs made a point of shutting down CP3, too. I'll take our 3P shooters over theirs every day.

The Spurs basically held the Clippers to 90 points (plus a charity bucket in garbage time). Strangely, with all the talk about the Spurs offense, they won this game with defense. The Clippers wanted to do that, but they couldn't.

The ONLY way the Clips are going to be able to slow the pace of these games is by fouling and trying to make it ugly. The Clippers have to hope that the refs swallow their whistles. And still, the Spurs have proven that they can win those kinds of games, too.

Blake said in the post game that they just can't give up as many open looks to the Spurs. But they gave up those open looks because they were keying on Parker. If they back off on him even a little bit, he WILL cut them to pieces.

If the Spurs play cold for a whole game, and/or the Clips have a couple of guys who are shooting lights-out, they could win a game. But that's not going to happen four times. I don't really think it matters what kind of strategy they try to use, they aren't going to win 4 of the next 6 against the Spurs.

What he said.

[coyotes_geek]

Too many weapons, too many different ways the Spurs can score. All the Clippers can do is pick their poison.

[T Park]

In that Bulls game with no Manu or Parker can't recall, they almost won that game too. First game after a long break for the ASG iirc.

[DJB]

Timmy didn't score his 26 points off of three pointers.

[Clipper Nation]

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2012-05/69904302.jpg
"All right, gang... on offense, we're running nothing but Isos for my boy Kurt Hinrich. On defense, we'll let them shoot as many wide open threes as they want. I'll do my patented 'scream and stomp my feet on the sideline when they're shooting' move... gets 'em every time. Oh Vinny, you are a genius."

*Spurs shoot 52% from three*

http://www.48minutesofhell.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/293-gregg-popovich-thumbs-up.png

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.aolnews.com/media/2010/07/vinny-del-negro-0510-200.jpg
"Derp."

[Budkin]

We got a big load of pts in the paint, tbh.

This. Timmy, TP, and Manu were all driving to the whole and drawing fouls.

[z0sa]

Clippers just do not have the experience to win against the Spurs. It takes a strong team defensive effort to stop the Spurs from executing. Additionally, the Lob City 'aces' Griffin and DeAndre Jordan were grossly outplayed, despite having highlight reel dunks early in the game to boost their confidence levels.

This team won't be Utah Jazz easy because of their will to compete but this could be sweep #2.