Six thoughts from D.J. and me about the blowout in Phoenix:
- Chris Kaman controls the game early. He faces only single coverage vs. Amare Stoudemire. Over a six-possession stint in the middle of the first quarter, Kaman works himself five good looks, draining three of them. He overpowers, outwits and outmaneuvers the Suns down low. At the 5:58 mark in the first quarter, Alvin Gentry takes a timeout with the Clippers leading 18-10. Chris has another good run during which he’s the focal point of the offense toward the end of the first half as the Clippers try to hang in against a Suns team that starts clicking behind the strength of their second unit. In the second half, Gentry changes course and blitzes Kaman with early, aggressive double teams. This upsets not only Kaman’s rhythm, but the entire orientation of the offense. With Kaman no longer a dominant option, the ball stops in the Clippers offense, or it moves sluggishly along the perimeter. The Phoenix defense is never really tested again. (KA)
- The Clippers’ defense never finds its equilibrium. Once Camby exits the game with 1:25 remaining in the first quarter, they’re too eager to collapse on penetration. Sometimes, they just drift off their shooter into no-man’s land. Either way, the Cilps leave the arc completely unattended. PHX goes 7-13 on 3-point attempts in the first half, with Jared Dudley accounting for three of the seven bombs. At the half, the talking point is clearly to chase Phoenix’s shooters off the line. The Clippers accomplish that task at the outset of the second half, only they’re so preoccupied with the perimeter threats that they neglect to protect the paint. With no Camby to compensate for blowbys or cutters, the Suns devour the Clippers inside. In the third period, PHX converts more than half a dozen shots in the immediate basket area. Rotations are nonexistent because the Clips are blanketing the arc. How do you achieve that balance as a defense? How do you make sure that 3-point shooters don’t get clean looks, but also wall off the paint to deter quick guards and slashers? Dribble-drives must be funneled to the corners, which allows your defense to contract the floor. Against someone like Steve Nash, you always have to be mindful of a quick reversal, so you can’t abandon the weak side altogether. But knowing where the ball-handler is headed simplifies the task of guarding shooters on the weak side. Teams like the Celtics and Lakers employ some complex defensive schemes, but one of the reasons they can afford to is that they generally know where they’re sending the ball in a defensive set. On Friday night, the Clippers don’t have a clue. (KA)
- Eric Gordon’s unwillingness to take bad shots has been a defining attribute during his first 1.3 seasons in the league, but over the past week, we’ve seen him display uncharacteristic impatience. We saw a glimmer of it in the Knicks game, though he got himself to the line for 10 attempts. Most of his shortcomings that night were defensive and careless errors trying to make plays. But in both the Spurs game and tonight, Eric has forced shots off the bounce, psyched himself out of easy lay-ins near the rim and shown moments of indecisiveness with the ball. He finishes the night 4-15 from the field and finds himself at the line for only a single pair of free throws. We don’t see enough of Gordon-Kaman on the ball side — that two-man game they teased defenses with earlier in the season. When PHX double-teams Kaman to start the second half, it would’ve been extremely useful to have Gordon set up for the pass-out and force PHX to make a difficult help decision. (KA)
- The Clippers look fantastic for much of the first quarter. Baron Davis easily bullies Steve Nash, Chris Kaman scores at will on the block over Amare, and the entire team appears to be much too strong for the undersized Suns. Through six minutes the Clippers hold an outstanding 13-1 rebounding margin over the Suns, an advantage that’s bolstered by six offensive boards. However after Camby checks out of the game because of his banged up knee, things go haywire for the Clippers. When Marcus was in the game, the Clippers were plus 11 in total rebounding margin. But without Marcus, the Clippers go minus 16 in rebounding margin over the final three quarters. We’ve talked at length about trading Camby, but will Dunleavy resort himself to half a season of these types of performances on the boards? It’s never a good sign when a “small-ball” team kills you on the glass. (DJF)
- Most Clippers losses can’t be directly attributed to a lack of effort. Usually something goes wrong with the execution, someone goes cold, or the Clippers are simply the inferior team. Tonight, the Clippers do everything in their power to make life more difficult for themselves. Perhaps this analysis is the result of watching two of the best teams in the league play beforehand, but the Clippers just look sloppy in their sets. “Screeners” don’t touch the defender they’re supposed to be screening, cutters round off all their steps and jog through cuts, and no one puts themselves in a good floor position before receiving the ball. The Clippers just go through the motions with the intensity of a pregame warm-up, content to run everything at half speed. Is the offense monotonous at times? Yes. But the Clippers sometimes get in the habit of ignoring everything about a set except for who gets the ball. The Clippers’ off the ball work tonight is embarrassing. (DJF)
- The Clippers routinely get killed on the scoreboard at the start of the second and fourth periods, which is almost always bench time. The Telfair-Smith pick-and-roll combo looked promising at the beginning of the year, but teams figured it out fast. Defenses are going under every pick on Telfair, and are attempting to bait him into a pull-up jumper. By crowding the paint and collapsing on all penetration, Telfair’s offensive abilities have been all but neutralized. The potential answer? Run. If the Clippers suffer more turnovers as a result, so be it. They simply have to find ways for the second unit to score because the half-court sets aren’t working. It’s hard to run when you don’t get stops or turnovers, but a philosophical change is needed for this unit. (DJF)
