Spurs v. Clips: Battle of the Benches

[100%duncan]

Who else other than the Spurs, Clippers and Bulls can go ten deep with five competent players off the bench? Perhaps I'm forgetting a team.

None.

[ElNono]

Who else other than the Spurs, Clippers and Bulls can go ten deep with five competent players off the bench? Perhaps I'm forgetting a team.

Not the Lakers, that's for sure. However, I wouldn't put the Clippers in the same realm. When the Spurs and Bulls go to the bench, they keep playing their system, and they have guys that can create offense (Manu in SA, John Lucas on the Bulls).

Clippers is more of a mess, tbh. Neither KMart or Evans have a post game, Bledsoe is far from a developed point guard, and Young and Mo love the ISO or camping in the 3 point lane. And while their streaky shooting has won them some games, it has also cost them some games.

[Paranoid Pop]

LA talking heads predict the clips will win the second round, not a surprise.

What did surprise me was their giving the following reason: Clippers are deeper, have a better bench.

I thought, wow, I can't imagine a deeper team with a better bench. Could I have missing something there?

So, crunching the numbers shows that the Clippers do have an impressive scoring bench, but not a good as the Spurs in either the regular season or the first round.

Spurs bench regular season: 48.6 ppg
Clippers bench regular season: 41.6ppg

Spurs bench post season: 39.1 ppg
Clippers bench post season: 30.5 ppg

How about rebounding? Clippers have some good bigs that appear to be intimidating; their bench rebounding IS better than the Spurs's bench, but not by much:

Clipps bench post season rebounding: 14.8

Spurs bench post season rebounding: 14.6

overall? Clipps are very deep, but a better bench? I don't see it.

However, given how much both teams utilize their benches, the play of the bench for both teams could very well have a big impact on the series.

What about the point differential, their bench is incredibly stronger than ours defensively with KMart, Bledsoe and Evans.

[Sean Cagney]

What about the point differential, their bench is incredibly stronger than ours defensively with KMart, Bledsoe and Evans.

Oh lord if you are that negative in this series just go jump off the damn cliff already bro.........

[spursfaninla]

What about the point differential, their bench is incredibly stronger than ours defensively with KMart, Bledsoe and Evans.

Well, per 82games.com, here is the +/- of the Spurs and Clippers benches, respectively. I am using "net production," so we compare the sub to the player they were playing against.

Bonner 3.1
Splitter 4.7
Manu 11.2
jackson (.9)
Neal (2.9)

total: 15.2

clippers:

Williams .1
Bledsoe (3.7)
Martin (3.2)
Young (7.4)
Evans (6.7)

Total: (Negative +/-)

Result: No contest.


It is obvious that the Clippers bigs off the bench contribute defensively, and I agree that Neal and Bonner are not scaring anyone with their defensive prowess.

Unless someone shows me data that shows that this Clippers bench really limits opposing team production, and that defense somehow makes up for their offensive limits in a way that plus/minus does not account for, the plus/minus speaks for itself.