Last season the Clippers offense rarely made defenses pick their proverbial poison. They were a pretty easy assignment defensively: Hang tight on Gordon, double Randolph in the paint, and let Baron’s decision making on his poor shots take care of the rest. Most nights, this defensive strategy worked beautifully for opposing coaches.
Well, that was last season. This season, largely due to Chris Kaman’s dominance, opposing defenses are forced into tough decisions every single possession. Let’s take a look at some of the starters who pitch in offensively (Baron, Gordon, Butler) and the one who carries the load (Kaman) for the Clippers tonight.
Baron Davis has a special offensive spurt tonight. In the second quarter with 3:17 remaining and the Clippers down 9, Mike Conley inexplicably starts yapping at Baron. It’s hard to understand exactly why Conley would start jawing with Baron, who is practically the Steve Smith of basketball when it comes to these things, but he does, and he pays for it. Baron rattles off 8 straight points on a variety of one-on-one moves where he just absolutely overpowers the smaller Conley. It’s been said before, but it’s worth repeating: Every single night, the Clippers will have a mismatch with someone on the block. Tonight, it’s both Baron and Kaman. As long as the offense continues to run though the post, the Clippers will be an efficient offensive club.
Eric Gordon pops in and out of the game more than usual tonight, and at multiple points in the first half he looks visibly frustrated with his lack of involvement in the offense. This leads to him forcing a few uncharacteristically bad looks. To Gordon’s credit, he displays an incredible amount of maturity by honing in on his defensive assignment, O.J. Mayo, instead of pouting about not getting the ball. Although Gordon’s a secondary option offensively tonight, his defensive focus results in him holding the electric Mayo to 4-12 shooting for 8 points.
Rasual Butler isn’t exactly gun-shy tonight, shooting a team high 17 shots. Shooters shoot their way out of slumps, and luckily for the Clippers Rasual shot out of his at the right time, nailing a few key jumpers late in the game. It has to be frustrating for Al Thornton to be benched largely because of his poor shot selection, then watch his replacement jack up 17 shots, many of them contested. When asked after the game if he was comfortable in his role coming off the bench, Thornton answered with an emphatic “No”.
Chris Kaman absolutely destroys Marc Gasol tonight to the tune of 26 points. Every game, Kaman seemingly passes a new test. Tonight, he shows again that he can score on body types similar to his (Gasol) as well as extremely long defenders (Thabeet). As long as Kaman continues to knock down his jumper, there is literally no way to stop him in one-on-one coverage. Kaman’s deadly in half court sets, and he’s well aware of it. He talked about this after the game tonight with Kevin Arnovitz:
“I think that’s where we’re better, half court basketball. We have a couple guys who can run, but our bigs aren’t running guys. I’d rather play in the half court, where I can see everything come together – I know where I’m going to be, and know where my teammates are going to be.” – Chris Kaman
The Clippers did seem content to match buckets through the first three quarters, and didn’t really step up the defensive intensity until about halfway through the fourth. Even though this victory wasn’t resounding or very impressive, there were still a few valuable traits the team exhibited in crunch time.
Refocused Defense: The Clippers showed they have the ability to withstand an opposing star’s big night and adjust accordingly with the game in the balance. Rudy Gay (33 points) was sensational offensively for the Grizzlies, particularly when it came to getting to the rim and drawing contact. Through three quarters, Gay had more free throw attempts himself than the entire Clippers team (13-12). The difficulty of Gay’s shot selection eventually caught up with him though, largely in thanks to some stout perimeter defense from Rasual Butler. Gay was held to 1 for 6 shooting from the field in the fourth quarter after starting the game 10 for 14.
Smelling Blood: Getting to the line has been an issue all year for the Clippers, and it was again tonight for the first 45 minutes. Through three periods the Clippers attempted only 12 free throws, compared to 28 from the Grizzlies. At times Eric Gordon appeared to be the only Clipper willing to foray into the paint, however he’s struggling to receive calls when he does. The Clippers are and will continue to be a team that relies heavily on their jump shooting ability, so it was nice to see them attack when they were in the bonus with the intensity level raised. The 4th quarter free throw totals show a more aggressive Clippers team: Clippers 21 FTA, Grizzlies 4 FTA.
Riding the Hot Hand: Tonight’s game was a big testament to the importance of having depth. With Marcus Camby struggling to find his jumper and his place in the offensive game plan, Craig Smith answered the bell by playing crunch time minutes and provided a huge spark off the bench (18 points in 23 minutes, and his first career 3 pointer). Is there another player in the league that can put up 18 points without having a single set ran for him? Sebastian Telfair was the other big contributor off the pine tonight, with a solid 21 minutes filling in for the foul beleaguered Baron Davis. The Telfair-Smith combo is not only creating instant offense and producing at critical times, but they also happen to be resting two of the older, more injury prone Clippers (Baron and Camby) in the process.
Ideally, you’d like every game to be like the one the Clippers played against Golden State on Friday night. However, learning how to win a close game isn’t something to be discounted. There are many hurdles a bad team must overcome on the road back to respectability, and winning a tight game against any opponent should always be viewed as a step in the right direction. They may be baby steps, but they are steps nonetheless.
27 Responses
“It has to be frustrating for Al Thornton to be benched largely because of his poor shot selection, then watch his replacement jack up 17 shots, many of them contested.”
Yeah I’m sure that’s exactly how Thornton feels and I don’t blame him. Why not let Thornton shoot his way out of a slump? Seems their ok letting Butler do it. I know Butler is a much better shooter but it’s hypocritical on MD’s part if he’s going to bench Al for the thing he’s letter Butler do.
Defensive-wise, Thornton seems to be getting a bit better, man-to-man at least. Still not too sharp on the switch. He played some solid D on Gay while he was out there.
If for everything Al has been lacking thus far, he certainly gets his man to foul him whenever he goes for the post up.
Anyways it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. No way Al is going to be happy playing spotty 16-18 minutes a game or coming off the bench for that matter. MD needs to address Al before we get some Iverson drama going on.
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gsr Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
As a person, Al Thornton is a good guy. But his type of talent doesn’t fit in Clippers offense/defense. He’d definitely flourish in Phoenix/Dallas/GSW.
Why not trade him alongwith Ricky, Rush and Skinner?
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Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Thorton shouldn’t complain when the team wins & has won 3 in a row with him on the bench. I get it, who wants to lose their minutes & eventually dollars in this league, but he needs to work on being a better team player & this is a prime example of him ‘not getting it.’
I agree DJ this was a game we lost last year and a win is a win so baby steps. These 3 games are the one’s we were supposed to win and we’ve been doing so without Griffin. My only question is that with the stellar play of Craig Smith what line-up do we go with when Griffin does get back so Smith doesn’t lose his much needed minutes? This team depth is just awesome.
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Asperis Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 9:55 am
“Thorton shouldn’t complain when the team wins & has won 3 in a row with him on the bench.”
I agree but if you put it that way, it’s like Thornton starts with Butler coming off the bench against 4 playoff caliber teams. Then the roles switch but now we’re playing the lowly Timberwolves, Warriors, and Grizzlies.
So in that sense it’s doesn’t seem as equal. But I agree, Thornton’s skills are best utilized off the bench. Maybe he can grow to accept that. But I can’t blame him for having trouble accepting 16-18 minutes a night.
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Curtis Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 11:23 am
You both point out some very good points. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for him to be a starting role player his entire career only to be placed on the bench when a new guy shows up (Butler).
Nothing against Thornton, but there seems to be an improved confidence with Butler in the starting line-up. Hopefully, Thornton can embrace his secondary role and look at this as a positive rather than a negative. He did play well last night, but he still needs to learn team mechanics a bit more.
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Asperis Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Completely agree, if only everyone could look at both sides logically!
It looks like Thornton is indeed destined to be a player that comes off the bench (unless he makes some fairly dramatic improvements). Right now, it’s going to make or break him if he can accept coming off the bench or not.
That being said, he hasn’t played poorly enough (in his games off the bench) to only warrant 16 minutes of play.
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Chris. Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
I like Thorton a lot but when we win he shouldn’t complain, he’s not AI he’s AL. I love him as a 6th man.
gsr Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Eventually Clippers will trade Camby for something/somebody in return.
Craig Smith / Telfair are solid backup for us.
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Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Great wrap up. Ej looks continually frustrated on non foul calls. As for Al, I think his offensive sets looked better. While on the second unit, he was more decisive with what to do with the ball.
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Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Re: Thornton, In the games Thornton has started we averaged 94 points a game. Much more since he’s been on the bench. While some of that can be attributed to the quality of the opposition, Butler is the better pure shooter and has better range, which we know from his career stars. He’ll get better and is a better piece to our offense for a variety of reasons. He makes his decisions quicker, which keeps the offense going, while Thornton tends to hold the ball and dance, putting it through his legs five times while going nowhere while everything around him stops. Butler passes better and uses screens and generally is a smarter player than Al.
For the first time in his career, Thornton has been challenged for playing time and he’s failing the test.
I hope Smith can play a little SF, because he also appears to be a better player than Al…
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Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 10:34 am
after reading and hearing people talk about zach randolph, the more i like the guy. I was under the impression that he was just a low life but after hearing ralph and mike talk about him and the clippers beat reporter for the la times, im definetly pulling for him. There better off without A.I. NIce win for the clips, glad that they are taking advantage of this favorable streak of games, lets get to .500 on monday
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SamMays Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Z-Bo’s high school coach was quoted as saying any day that Z-bo doesn’t get shot or shoot somebody is a good day… Z-Bo is a nice, likeable guy, but his decision making in life has been abysmal. In the lats ten years, he’s been suspended from NBA games, or arrested by the police nine times.
He admits to never training in the off-season until this past off-season. People like him, but bad news goes wherever he does.
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Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 10:59 am
just start Al Thornton! wish Zbo was still on the team…hope best for the man
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Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Thornton can complain all he wants about not starting or the potentially hypocritical reasoning behind it, but Rasual drained a clutch step back three to solidify the win last night. This comes two games after those four clutch four-quarter free throws. Does anyone seriously believe Thornton would deliver in either of those situations if he had 100,000 tries?
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Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I like how given that Thornton is coming off the bench, he sees a greater need to do things other than score like playing defense and trying to box out. Dunleavy is lighting the fire beneath him by basing his minutes on how well he plays coming off the bench. I think it only makes the Clippers better.
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Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I understand the clips just picked up a new guy to play the 3 in place of Al and Sool; I think his name is griffin or something like that. He reports at the end of the month.
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Asperis Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
haha no way Blake plays the 3 effectively. The big plus with Sool is that he has a 3 point shot and can spread the defense. Blake isn’t capable of that. (yet at least)
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RG12 Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Don’t be so sure of that. Look at our first 4 games (losses). All with big strong 3’s.
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Asperis Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Artest is a big 3, Marion is not big, Kirilenko weighs less than Thornton, and Hill is a 37 year old who weights about the same as Thornton. Besides Artest, no one there was a mismatch and Artest wasn’t even a problem when we played the Lakers. He had a terrible game.
And again, BG doesn’t have an outside shot to spread the floor and keep his defender honest.
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RG12 Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
I’d like to hear from some real basketball people on this.
Asperis Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
lol whatever man. None of those guys were too big for any of our SF’s and Blake IS a PF. So how are you going to play a rookie PF who can’t shoot a 3 and doesn’t have a solid mid-range shot yet as a SF…..? Of course he can play SF defensively, he has the lateral quickness, but that doesn’t mean he should be a 3. And from your original comment, you said, “the clips just picked up a new guy to play the 3 in place of Al and Sool”. Clearly you have no idea what you’re talking about. So have fun pouting and maybe you can find someone to agree with you that BG is the replacement SF.
VH Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
you do it in a couple of ways:
1) you do it when camby is on the floor. he can stretch the defense while blake plays down low with kaman/rhino/dj
2) you do it sparingly. blake cant start at the 3, but you can give him minutes there and i think we will be a better team in the long run if we do.
positions in the nba ONLY matter on defense. if you can defend a 3 you can play the 3. on offense anyone can play any spot in the set, or just not run a play and let the chips fall.
Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
The Butler Did It delivered late last but he’s gotta start taking better shots. It wasn’t just last night either, he’s been doing it all year. If he’s gonna be the permanent starter, looks that way, he has to take less stupid shots.
My feat tomorrow is the same as the Suns game. The hornets have even less talent. No way should cp3 beat 12 guys. No way.
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Asperis Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
The guys have to open up better than they did last night. They’re lucky the Grizzlies couldn’t close out the game last night because the Clipps never really looked sharp all game. CP3 can go on a tear as Nash did to us in that Suns game.
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Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
So how do we go about trading for Rudy Gay since hes not gonna get extended by Memphis? We need a 3 after all…
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Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
When Griffin gets back he will play ff the bench but when he is ready to to be a starter Camby will be a back-up to Kaman and Smith will still see the same amount of time. DJ hwever will see a slip in PT when Blake gets back.
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bongstradamus Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
DJ’s barely getting any time as it is. Only 7 minutes last night!
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Posted on November 8th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
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