Good teams win ugly basketball games, and tonight the Clippers notch their third W in four chances with a workaday, not particularly attractive win over Houston. There should be comfort for Clipper fans in just how utilitarian and bland this victory is. Ugly wins are indicative teams that understand that success requires an almost prosaic commitment to a few basic fundamentals. Most of these revelations for the Clippers are happening at the margins of the game:
- Rebounding: Since getting mauled on the glass in Memphis, the Clippers haven’t lost a rebounding battle in a stretch of games that’s included two matchups against Top 10 rebounding teams. The difference can be seen most prominently with the guards. Eric Gordon collects seven rebounds against Houston — his high mark for the season. One of the ancillary benefits of having guards who can crash the boards is that the subsequent possession begins with the ball in the hands of someone who can push the action. At [3rd, 6:50], EJ waits beneath the weak side glass as Shane Battier fires a long 3PA from the far side corner. Gordon doesn’t exactly have to scrap for the ball, but with Scola having drawn Randolph up top and Yao doing battle with Camby on the ball side, the weak side belongs to whichever wing wants it the most. Once EJ clears the rebound, he bursts upcourt, weaves his way through the entire Houston defense, up the gut of the lane, all the way to the rack for an easy layup. An easy two — in large part because the transition requires no middleman and there’s no time for the Rockets’ defense to get set with EJ racing up the floor.
- Guarding the Perimeter: A Houston team that drained ten 3PMs when they faced the Clippers last week manages only five in 21 attempts last night. Eric Gordon never takes his eyes off Rafer Alston, and when he does, the rotations are crisp. There’s a moment just after the aforementioned EJ transition bucket when the Rockets get the ball over to McGrady on the far side [3rd, 6:34]. EJ leaves Alston to double McGrady. McGrady sees this and returns the ball to Alston, who is now alone up top. But the instant the ball leaves McGrady’s hands, Al Thornton darts from Battier over to Alston. Battier, now unaccounted for, cuts across the court where he’s picked up by…Baron Davis. What’s going on here? Good, clean rotations that anticipate the action before it happens. Everyone in a Clipper jersey is concerned not just with their primary assignment, but where the ball is on the court, and what might be expected of them on the next pass. Cue up the video to any random possession in this game, and you’ll see the Clippers’ defense working like this. It’s almost enough to make you misty.
- Playing the Passing Lanes: Sometimes steals can be deceptive because a high steal number often suggests a willingness to gamble defensively more than it does anything else. There’s a reason San Antonio is almost always at the bottom of the league in steals. But the Clippers last night are able to pick Houston’s pockets not by overplaying, but by anticipation and smart pressure. During an electrifying stretch midway through the 3rd quarter, the Clippers steal the ball away on three consecutive possessions. The result is three straight easy FGs that vault the Clippers into a lead they never relinquish. The first [3rd, 5:50] comes courtesy of Yao Ming, who is pressured by a strong Thornton-Randolph double-team after Randolph recovers nicely off the Battier screen. Yao is flustered. He’s looking for his guards, sees McGrady at the top of the arc. Gordon is the guy holding down the fort up on the weak side wing — EJ is set up between McGrady and Scola. But he sees that Yao is in trouble and that the ball is most likely coming his way. EJ immediately sticks a hand out, deflects Yao’s pass, then races into the other way with the ball. Baron Davis fills the lane to his left. EJ gets Baron the ball for an easy lay-in. At [3rd, 5:23] off an inbounds play beneath the Rockets’ basket, Alston gets the ball into McGrady. With only :07 left on the shot clock, McGrady wants to get it inside to his big man. But Marcus Camby deflects the ball away into the frontcourt. Remember what we said about the benefits of having the ball in the hands of the guard? Bunk. Because Marcus Camby bursts into the open court with a fierce drive! He takes it all the way to the rack for a beautiful finger-roll lay-in! Then, on the very next possession, comes the most satisfying of the three steals: Altson and Scola set up for the high S/R on the near side [3rd, 5:03]. Al Thornton, who’s over on Shane Battier in the weak side corner, sees the lazy set materializing from a mile away. Like a cat, he pounces from the corner up top, squirts between Alston and Scola, tips the ball into the backcourt, and starts his breakaway drive for an easy slam!
Here’s something to remember: When the Clippers were a sound defensive team a couple of years ago, they did it despite the absence of so-called shut down defenders. Cuttino Mobley was a solid man-to-man defender, but Cassell had very little left, Corey Maggette was scattered, Chris Kaman was still very, very green and prone to brainfarts, and Elton was undersized at his position. There’s absolutely no reason that this current squad, which includes Marcus Camby, a smart, physical PG in Baron Davis, a strong, quick guard in Eric Gordon, a rebouding machine in Zach Randolph and Al Thornton — who shouldn’t be worse than Maggettte — can’t be a middle-of-the-pack defensive team. And don’t look now, but since that game against Memphis the Clippers’ defensive efficiency ranking has climbed from the low-20s to 15th. If the Clips continue this trend and keep putting up offensive efficiency numbers like last night’s 104.4, then they should win half of their games.
17 Responses
even though EB was the heart and soul and talent of this team for like 7 seasons. I would rather take ZBO at like 15 mill a year than EB at 12 mil which he’s being over paid for.
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Posted on December 14th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Fan Comments(Rockets)copied from Houston Chronicle:
svef wrote:
What a great defensive effort by our opponent tonight!
Oh, no wait, we played the 5-17 Clippers who give up almost 100 per night, it was just a sucky performance by an uninspired Rockets team.
rellz15 wrote:
I dont get why they even suited up tonight, seriously there gettin paid for NO REASON. We should not lose a game to scrubs of the NBA. NEVER we have to much talent on our team. Tmac is taking it to easy, Ok last night he had a HELL of a game. I agree but YOU HAVE TO BRING IT EVERY NIGHT. One game doesnt give you a pass for the next game. Our team lacks motivation, heart, determination and killer instinct. It’s sad it really is. Injuries or not we should never lose a game to the Clippers.
12/14/2008 1:20:13 AM
TmacFan1 wrote:
What really annoyed me about this game even more was that one of the Clippers’ announcers said he believes the Clips will win today, that the Rox would have to hit their threes if they want to win, and the main reason the Clippers lost the last time they met was because Baron had food poisoning. And the Rox proved the announcer right. It was really frustrating hearing his pre-game proclamation, and then watch the Rox make it come true, especially since I had to hear it all game long. It was an absolutely pathetic performance by the Rox. I think it’s sad that a team with the Rox’s talent is so unintimidating that an opposing announcer would actually say that he truly believes his team, which only has 5 wins mind you, will beat them. I mean, there’s just no way he would have said that about a number of other good teams in the league, but he had no qualms about saying it against the Rox. I am tired of watching the team avenge a bad loss with a victory. Here’s an idea, just don’t lose those games you should win. Have a heart!
12/14/2008 1:27:38 AM
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Stian Reply:
December 14th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
TmacFan1 is hilarious – thanks for the laugh, dude.
Does this guy not realize that a team with Baron Davis, Marcus Camby, Zach Randolph, Al Thornton and Eric Gordon actually has a lot of talent and it is ’simply’ (nothing with the Clippers is ever simple, mind you) a matter of that talent to come TOGETHER and wins against team with better records will follow as it did last night?
We might be 6-17 but we should be and have the talent to be much better than that. Especially once Kaman and Ricky D come back and strengthen the bench.
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Posted on December 14th, 2008 at 9:55 am
I’m wondering…what people around the league would say about BOSTON CELTICS
when they’re going to lose a game to Clippers.
Coaches are getting fired. Players are getting thrashed just because they lost winnable games to poor Clippers!
What’s next? NBA commissioner Sterling resigning because Clippers won the NBA championship?
OMG. Even NBA.com has been hiding Clippers news from rest of the league. They don’t want anyone to KNOW, that their beloved Blazers & Rockets lost to Clippers.
How else they can market their games on TNT & ESPN?
They really thought Clippers are nothing but an extended branch of NBDL.
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Posted on December 14th, 2008 at 10:10 am
LOL the guy is actually blaming the loss on Mike Smith. And we did play great defense. In past games I would yell at the screen for someone to rotate when double teaming. I really don’t know how rockets fans can complain
Baron > Alston
EJ Battier
Randolph > Scola
Camby < Yao
Baron was quiet while Alston was terrible. Mcgrady dissapeared in the 2nd half, Thornton defenitley outplayed Battier maybe because he’s just back from injury. Yao obviously was the only one with a truly good game and Marcus Camby still did his thing. 12 points, 13 boards 5 blocks.
Also Kevin, you forgot to mantion the Zach Randolph steal where he comes from behind and just easily pokes it away from yao and then convrts the layup at the other end. I think it was during that stretch.
Watching the rockets team I have no idea how they won 55 games last year, without yao. I mean even with yao and tmac and artest ill bet they don’t win more than 50. Injuries included.
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Posted on December 14th, 2008 at 10:35 am
The Rockets are such a huge disappointment this year. I mean, I know we’re all disappointed with the Clips but at least we had the excuse of being basically a brand new team, and now that we’ve got our ass in gear we’re playing respectable basketball. The Rockets were so much better last year, I’m not exactly sure how they’ve managed to get worse by adding one of the best defenders in the league.
Camby and Randolph both have a lot of glaring weaknesses to go with their huge strengths, and I think you have to credit Dunleavy (I know it’s not fashionable to do that) for finding a system that seems to be getting the best out of them. To those who have previously been totally shocked and offended at suggestions that we could do well from trading Kaman, what would you say now if we could get something favourable in return?
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Wade Reply:
December 14th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I’d still say no. Big man depth is an unbelievably useful thing in this league. If you can’t defend ‘em, foul ‘em.
Also When are Kaman and Ricky coming back? It’s been an eternity.
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Posted on December 14th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I can’t believe how many didn’t want Zach before the season began. Go back and look at the posts in September and October, these people just don’t know basketball. Zach is better than “what’s his name in Philly” it will take some time but this team will get on a roll!!!
All you Zach doubters just don’t know basketball!
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Posted on December 14th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Here I go again with my “move kaman” posts… I love big silly… i do. But i think kaveman and randolph and camby isnt going to work. Right now, we’re winning because we have a great balance… a selfless center that boards and blocks, a scoring phenom power forward, a razzle dazzle pg, a solid shooter with eg, and a solid slasher (though thorton isnt the f i hoped him to be… but i’m patient, he’s evolving). Throw kaman into this mix and now you have to service his scoring touches and slow the game down to his post up pace. I love the big goofy guy, i do… and i know camby’s old… but he’s clearly got a couple more years.. and it’s probably better to put a pure defensive minded, rebounding center next to z instead of clogging the middle with two guys that need to be fed the ball. Kaman’s too valuable to not move. Everyone is always looking for a 7footer who has his sort of skills.. but zach and baron need to be the stars here… we could maybe upgrade at sf or get the bench support we need, maybe get a great draft pick to build on…maybe trade him for a new coach? oh yeah, you can’t do that.. never mind.
what do you think nacion? am i crazy?
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kirbs Reply:
December 14th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Who would you trade him for a,d who’s avialble to be traded with. We missed the boat with Richardson.
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Posted on December 14th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
The ‘rox’ ??? hahahahaha.
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Posted on December 14th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
yeah.. that’s very true. They’re the clippers. Of course they’ve missed the boat. A first and second round pick and a solid back up SF or SG could be useful. Richardson sure would have been a nice get… Maybe Kaman and thorton for a premier SF like josh howard…sorry.. iknow that’ll never happen.
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Stian Reply:
December 15th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Kaman AND Thornton for Howard?! WTF – are we the charity team who’s supposed to gift other teams?
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Posted on December 14th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Thornton hasn’t proved himself yet, give it time.
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Posted on December 14th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
We played Good defense in two straight games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Posted on December 14th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Randolph has been playing very well, but give it some time. Maybe he feels a little disrespected right now, and he’s hungry and wants to play well. If history teaches us anything, he’ll fall apart and start causing trouble again.
He’ll kill us soon enough. We got 3 years with him. Get on the bandwagon now, but don’t buckle your seatbelt. You’ll all be off it soon enough.
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Posted on December 16th, 2008 at 1:55 am
I meant a more premier sf. But i’d go kaman for howard in a second…and then move thorton for a couple of great back ups. But whatever… i’m happy kaman’s out now. it’s a well balanced squad
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Posted on December 16th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
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