Theories on why the Clippers have become such a tough matchup?

[spursistan]

FWIW..Kawhi has 0 steals in his last 5 games vs the Clippers..

[Kuvai]

Not worried About the BLAKE IMO...
He is excellent player in 1st 2 quarters ... Ok player in 3rd quarter and will be aweful in 4th quarter...

It happens every fucxking night...

My worries are about POP's bad coaching and Choke paul playing good in closing minutes against Spurs..

[Nathan89]

Ugh, Diaw couldn't budge Davis last year.

[Chinook]

I'll concede about their bigs off the bench last year but their bench is still better than it was last season and will ultimately help spell some of their starters' minutes as the season goes on, thus meaning a fresher team heading into the playoffs. Davis nor Hawes played many minutes throughout last season. Of course, we'll likely avoid them in the first round this time around but a second round match up is very possible.

Pop seems completely against going small this year, so the fact that the Clippers have better smalls than last year (they actually don't, but whatever) won't change the fact that they're going to be overwhelmed inside. They can't even get by if Blake or Jordan get in foul trouble.

As far as hack-a-Clip goes, I think it's going to help the Spurs that they're now an iso/post/midrange team. It's probably easier to maintain offensive momentum when you can score with simple plays. Keeping up with that hacking game requires a methodical offense, and the Spurs certainly have that.

[Chinook]

Ugh, Diaw couldn't budge Davis last year.

Exactly. And Big Baby was getting away with a ton of physical defense. Boris went through Pierce like he was air. Doc just can't play Truth against the Spurs unless they put Anderson out there. And even that's a maybe. They're going to have to make a trade for a wing and one for a big, and they just have no assets to do anything.

[dbestpro]

30 fouls against Spurs, 22 against Clippers. When you are called for 8 more fouls at home, it does not matter who you play, it is a tough match up.

[BanditHiro]

30 fouls against Spurs, 22 against Clippers. When you are called for 8 more fouls at home, it does not matter who you play, it is a tough match up.

a good 10 of them where intentional

[Chinook]

30 fouls against Spurs, 22 against Clippers. When you are called for 8 more fouls at home, it does not matter who you play, it is a tough match up.

And think how many were intentional fouls. Pop may have started hacking in protest of the officiating. It was a decent success overall tonight, and JVG can gobble a whole buffet of s to tantruming about it. His complaints were much less enjoyable than the fouling was.

[GSH]

Young athletic bigs. Jordan takes almost 90% of his shots inside 3 feet, and shoots about .700 from close range. And Griffin is always a threat to be above the rim. Teams with young athletic bigs are going to give the Spurs trouble, and the Clippers are about as good as it gets inside.

One of the Clippers' big weaknesses is that they give up a lot of FTA's to their opponents. The Spurs are the second worst in the league about getting to the FT line, so they don't take advantage of that weakness like othe teams.

Chris Paul is still one of the best PG's in the league, and he is ALWAYS up for the Spurs.

[Kawhitstorm]

People forget that Davis had stretches were he dominated the Spurs' bigs in that series. And Hawes was at least seven feet tall. The Spurs' bigs have gotten better, and the Clips' bigs have gotten worse.

Coincidentally, they probably match-up better w/ the Warriors better this season b/c Josh/Pierce can play small-ball better than Fat Baby/Hawes.

[Spurtacular]

I think the Clips are basically more handsy with KL. He needs to learn how to brush it off and make his moves or otherwise anticipate contact and use their physical play against them.

[Kawhitstorm]

I think the Clips are basically more handsy with KL. He needs to learn how to brush it off and make his moves or otherwise anticipate contact and use their physical play against them.

Kawhi has to learn how to draw fouls from Mario Chalmers

[ceperez]

People keep saying "The Clippers can't shoot this well forever" but the Spurs play crappier defense against the Clippers than any other team. If you gave the Sixers the open shots the Spurs give to the Clippers time and time again, the Sixers would look somewhat competent too.


Spurs are also scared to attack the rim with DeAndre there and are content being too jumpshot happy which is worrying me more and more as the season progresses. SA has to get their FT attempts up.

Spurs were giving a ton of open shots to the Clippers. No wonder they scored 107 points.

I'm disappointed with the defense, if this was GSW, Spurs would have been buried.

[ceperez]

Theory: Blake Griffin's jump shot is much better than it appears at face value.
Theory 2: Chris Paul is still a top notch PG who is as good a passer as a shooter
Theory 3: Deandre Jordan is a big mother er, even against big guys he's big, and he's probably the most athletic big I've ever seen outside of David.
Theory 4: Jordan being a ty FT shooter draws Pop into the "must hack...must... hack" mentality. Usually kills our rhythm.
Theory 5: Good 3pt shooters, not great but good.
Theory 6: We have a hard time with athletic, fast teams because our 1st unit isn't either.

Spurs may have discovered the antidote in this game, play quick defenders like Mills and Simmons on JJ and Paul. Refs of course shouldn't be calling non-fouls on the Spurs.

I don't think you want Leonard chasing JJ and Paul around the court. His shot was off at the end of the game probably due to fatigue.

Spurs simply don't foul by grabbing and the refs are calling them when it is the opponent that is grabbing them!

[r0drig0lac]

I would like the Spurs tried to combat the double screens

[SouthernFried]

Some awesome takes on this game. Reminds me of the Spurstalk of old...

Not to mention the refs. Paul literally pulled Kawhi's arm in and they called a foul. Diaw breathes on Griffin, foul. LMA looks menacingly at anybody, it's a foul. They showed some pretty silly replays in the game. I wouldn't be surprised if Pop just went to the hack-a-Jordan out of disgust for the game the refs called.

This is what I saw too. Even tho I agree with what Pop saw, he probably needs to control his knee-jerk reactions to it a little better...lol

Kawhi finally started over playing high on Pauls right side forcing him left which disrupted their pick n roll rhythm in the 4th. Even when pick was set on Kawhi on Paul's right side, it forced Paul to go way out wide.

Great take. I was surprised how much this affected Paul, never noticed it before. I wonder if Kawhi saw this on his own, or the coaches did. I also noticed Kawhi decided to dish out some punishment on the screeners in the 2nd half. Liked that too.

And I have really come to love DIAW. In our run that got us a lead, I literally saw DIAW sprinting to get to his man on D. Our D in that run was great. Then we started hacking Jordan...sigh. lol. DIAW just keeps impressing.

Oh, yeah...and props to Parker, again.

[ceperez]

Some awesome takes on this game. Reminds me of the Spurstalk of old...



This is what I saw too. Even tho I agree with what Pop saw, he probably needs to control his knee-jerk reactions to it a little better...lol



Great take. I was surprised how much this affected Paul, never noticed it before. I wonder if Kawhi saw this on his own, or the coaches did. I also noticed Kawhi decided to dish out some punishment on the screeners in the 2nd half. Liked that too.

And I have really come to love DIAW. In our run that got us a lead, I literally saw DIAW sprinting to get to his man on D. Our D in that run was great. Then we started hacking Jordan...sigh. lol. DIAW just keeps impressing.

Oh, yeah...and props to Parker, again.

At this stage of their respective careers, I would rather see Diaw orchestrating the offense than Manu. There was a point in the game that almost every possession was going through Diaw. Diaw is a multi-pronged threat. Manu forces the issue to much against opposition that is too athletic for him to beat.

[BillMc]

The bottom line is that when Blake/Paul/Re are healthy they can torch any team. There in no team that can stop the Blake/Paul PnP w/ Re on the strongside ala the Amare/Nash PnR besides them missing shots or turning the ball over in crunch time out of exhaustion . They had the top ranked offense last season over the Warriors for a reason. The best way to beat them is by having a deep bench to wear them down & a potent offense to expose their mediocre defense. They are basically the D'Antoni Suns w/ less shooters but a legit center.

This

[Mouth is Bleeding]

It's all Blake and Paul, tbh..even when Jordan went out in last year's series, they didn't lose anything with Big Baby on the floor IIRC, sadly..

Kawhi and Danny can't defend Paul, and their biggest defensive weakness is fighting through screens..Clippers just run Paul through screens to negate them and cause switches, and the Spurs bigs are too slow to defend, too, whether it's Duncan/Aldridge/Splitter/Diaw..there's also Re to defend, although that was easier with Mills on the floor tonight(since he's the quickest player on the team), which only worked because Mbah a Moute was on the court, and wouldn't have worked vs. Matt Barnes(better shooter and great cutter)..

Griffin is an even bigger matchup nightmare than Paul, as he's a great passer, and he's too quick for the Spurs' bigs, not to mention that they can't close out on his mid-range jump shot..the combination of both has become unguardable for the Spurs..

Yeah, good post. I think those are the key things.

The way the Clippers played tonight is unsustainable. Blake played 40 minutes, and Jordan would have played near that if they hadn't forced him out of the game by hacking. Josh Smith is a liability if you have a sound defense, and Pierce can't get away with playing the four against Diaw. The lack of bench bigs means two things. One, that the Spurs will have very little problem playing West and Diaw against them. Two, Blake's not going to last a long series -- especially if the two teams meet after the first round. He just won't have the legs to shoot all those jumpers or to explode to the rim after the first three or four matches.

Theory 7: hack a Jordan gives clippers players so much rest they can afford to tighten rotation.

Yes, I've seen very knowledgeable analysts point to that. Our first and key separation in the game was also against a short stretch with their worst no hopers on the court. We want as much of them on the court as possible since we're much deeper.

[BillMc]

Best thread on here in a long time. Cheers to OP and so many contributors with interesting takes.

[ceperez]

It was Van Gundy who pointed out that the hack a Jordan allowed the Spurs to rest in defense.

The Clippers are a hard cover given that you have to chase the guards around the court, work through screens and get called on fouls for flopping. The alternative Jordan on the line is so much better.

I hate the hack-a-Jordan, but when you see how much work Spurs have to put in defense, it is a better poison to take.

[Old School 44]

Theory 7: hack a Jordan gives clippers players so much rest they can afford to tighten rotation.

Particularly Paul and Griffin. Don't get me wrong, the Clips are good, but to me everything the Spurs do wrong is related to how the hack strategy is used... in game rest for Paul & Griffin, effects the Spurs rhythm on both offense and defense, psychologically, it makes players wonder if they can't beat them straight up. For once, I wish pop would just use it if we are behind, and more towards the end of the game.

[ceperez]

Particularly Paul and Griffin. Don't get me wrong, the Clips are good, but to me everything the Spurs do wrong is related to how the hack strategy is used... in game rest for Paul & Griffin, effects the Spurs rhythm on both offense and defense, psychologically, it makes players wonder if they can't beat them straight up. For once, I wish pop would just use it if we are behind, and more towards the end of the game.

I'm kind of disappointed that Spurs used the hack-a-jordan in a regular season game.

[cjw]

Defense was off last night because so distracted looking at JJ's new body ink. Pretty distracting.

Others hit the points on the head so not much else to say. Clips are a deadly shooting team and don't need to get into the paint to kill you. Blake has been an absolute stud this year, and CP3 is the same old guy.

[Raven]

The Spurs give up mid-range shots & Paul/Blake are the best mid-range shooters at their respective positions. Jarret Jack used to kill the Spurs b/c he was a very good mid-range shooter, same w/ David West in New Orleans.

exactly