Five thoughts from tonight’s game:
- Patience: Similar to their loss to the Warriors a few days ago, the Clippers don’t exercise their advantages nearly enough on the offensive end. Toronto is a miserable defensive team (last in the league in defensive efficiency at 109.8), but the Clippers bail them out by not testing them with deep dribble penetration. Instead the Clippers elect to jack up 25 threes in the game, and although quite a few fall down in the first half where the Clippers held the lead at it’s conclusion, the shooters go cold in the second half. It sounds strange, but working for easier looks is outside the comfort zones of all the Clippers, with the exception of Craig Smith and DeAndre Jordan. Butler, Kaman, Blake, Gordon, Outlaw, Gooden and Brown all rely on their jump shot as their primary offensive weapon. As we’ve seen all season, if you get into a jump shooting battle with a team like Toronto, you’re most likely going to lose.
