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Doc has already said he's not going to have Choke guard Westbrook exclusively and he's going to use multiple defensive looks instead, tbh...
This series starts tomorrow, wanted to get some impressions on how this might play out before the games are played.
Obviously, the Clippers are a very different team than the Grizzlies, especially what they can throw at Russ and Kevin defensively.
The two games the Clippers won in the RS came to basically outscoring OKC (111 pts in the first, 125 pts in the 2nd one). Doc did get the addition of Danny Granger, which I suspect, along with Barnes, will take the bulk of time defending KD.
I think there's going to be a lot of small ball this series from OKC... Perk is a good, rugged defender against slower, post up opponents, but Blake is a much more dynamic type of player. DJ will have to match, if not outplay Abaka.
I still don't know how or who defends Russ. CP will have a tough time staying in front of him, IMO. I think their best strategy is to have DJ try to block at the rim, and then give him the long jumpers.
Thoughts?
Doc has already said he's not going to have Choke guard Westbrook exclusively and he's going to use multiple defensive looks instead, tbh...
Make Westbrook, and not Durant, beat them in crunch time. They'll probably lose 2 games, 3 at most, with this strategy but they should take their chances than letting Durant kill them.
Blake's going to have to be huge in this series for the Clippers to have a shot tbh. They'll also need to contain the supporting cast. Russ/KD are both top 10 guys but OKC is truly elite when they can create for Serge/Reggie/Butler.....
The Clippers weakness has been the same this year as it had been for the past two, at the wings. Its the same reason the Spurs were foolsgold in 2010 and 2011, until we added Leonard and Green emerged as a good 3 and D guy. The Clips have guys like Jannero Re , Matt Barnes, Jamal Crawford, Jared Dudley, and Danny Granger that get their minutes at the 2-3. The only one of that group that is a decent defender at the moment is Barnes, but its not like he can dream to check Durant...
As is the case with most teams against OKC, their best bet is to slow the pace down and hope Griffin can dominate in the half court, which he is capable of doing. Paul does a terrific job of keeping turnovers low, which is paramount against OKC
Yeah, I have no idea who guards Chimpbrook tbh. I like the Clips' matchups everywhere else, especially with Barnes and Granger to throw on Durbeta, yet I don't know if they can keep DeMonkey and Ginger on the floor together enough to dominate. If Meth goes small, the paint opens up wide for them. I also think defensively MethKC is better built to defend any smallball lineup Tom Rivers throws out.
If OKC tries to go small against Blake and DeContract, I would expect to see a ton of high-low action ending up with a Griffin-Jordan alley-oop
I think this second round series will be even more chippy than the first between the Clips and Warriors. My guess is that at some point in the series, Deandre Jordan is going to catch an alley-oop dunk or putback dunk on Kendrick Perkins, and Perkins goes into full on mode and pushes DJ for a suspension.
Hopefully Blake can bait Ibaka into spazzing out per the usual and get him suspended too
I would love nothing but to see a tag-team match between DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin vs Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins.
Yeah, smallball shouldn't be much of a problem for the Clippers considering they have the most athletic frontcourt in the league. They can just hide Blake on Butler/Fish/Thabo which would leave Durant boxing out Deandre tbh
I would love for the Clippers to win this obviously but Chris Paul is one of the biggest playoff losers of all time tbh and I think he's going to be badly outplayed by Westchimp this series.....
Can't wait to see what Tom Rivers does to counter Durant/Westbrook with the horrible Clippers' wing defenders, tbh..
Tell his team Sterling still owns them and hates their asses,,,,maybe they still fight with a chimp(chip) on their shoulder.
Rivers will make them play harder than OKC..IMO, that should give them the edge over OKC
Same here, it's about time someone lays Kendrick Perkins out. Ibaka is kind of a too.
Playhardreboundsdefensecomeon
Perkins is useless in this series tbh.
Jordan and Ibaka monkey-punching each other would be a sight to behold.
Does OKC have an answer for Griffin? Ibaka and Perkins aren't going to get it done. Jordan's development as a help defender will help contain Westchuck's out of control drives to the basket a bit.
I think Griffin is mobile enough to guard Butler/Thabo. If so, then the Thunder will struggle to go small. However, I don't think the Clippers have any answer for Durant or Westbrook, so it really depends on who's match-up advantage can prove to be more fruitful. Chris Paul needs to be able to beat Sef and score enough to draw Ibaka and allow easy baskets to Jordan. He simply can't allow himself to be shut down in this series.
As far as strategy goes, I'd do my best to make sure Durant and Westbrook have to work on defense. That means calling a lot of plays for Re and hitting Barnes/Granger with the pass anytime Griffin or Paul draw help from that side. Re for sure has to be more than a safety valve offensively.
Ubuntu
That's all we need. After all we've been through... the Amistad slaves had it easy... we had to deal with have a guy as a team owner who made a statement about separation of the white jews from the black jews, and no one should have to do that while raking in millions to dribble a coconut.
So Ubuntu... if we can ubuntu or Fubu, we should be ok.
It's going to be a great series either way.
Tom Rivers
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