Miami Heat at Los Angeles Clippers
7:30 p.m. PT
ESPN and Fox Sports West Prime Ticket
KFWB 980 AM
1. Who has the better depth: the Clippers or the Heat?
Jovan Buha, ClipperBlog: The Clippers by a hair. L.A. has a slightly better starting line-up (D.J., Blake and CP3 win their individual match-ups), but Miami has the deeper bench (Haslem, Cole, Battier, Jones, Miller). There’s no denying the fact that these two teams are comparable talent-wise, though.
Jordan Heimer, ClipperBlog: The Clippers – and not just because the additions of Reggie Evans and Solomon Jones have nearly pushed Brian Cook out of the rotation (or, as we refer to it in my house, “The Impossible Dream”). Shane Battier is off to a terrible start, averaging under four points and two boards a game, while Udonis Haslem has been slowed by a cracked rib. Mo Williams will be far and away the best player coming off either bench tonight.
Breene Murphy, ClipperBlog: Clippers, though it’s close. The Heat are getting deeper. They added Shane Battier with rookies Norris Cole and Terrel Harris, but they still don’t have that much depth beyond LeBron, Wade and Bosh. Beyond CP3 and Blake, the Clippers have solid to serviceable players in DeAndre, Chauncey, Caron, Mo, Reggie and, sometimes, Randy Foye.
2. Bigger mismatch: Chris Paul against Mario Chalmers or LeBron James against Caron Butler?
Jovan Buha, ClipperBlog: On paper, Chris Paul vs. Mario Chalmers. However, we know better. Paul has yet to play his best in a Clipper uniform yet and I doubt he will against Miami’s elite defense, in which they can also put Wade or James on him. Butler, on the other hand, has struggled defensively because he’s lost a step or two. Now, he has to guard the best player on the plant. Uh oh.
Jordan Heimer, ClipperBlog: LeBron against Caron Butler. Chris Paul has already had a few brilliant moments, but he has yet to show the inclination to just out-and-out dominate a game, preferring, by and large, to distribute first and selectively choose his spots. Don’t expect LeBron James to have any such qualms. If the Clippers continue to struggle defending penetration off the pick-and-roll (and, really, there’s no reason to think they won’t) LeBron will spend the night in the lane and on the line.
Breene Murphy, ClipperBlog: LeBron against Caron. If Caron’s letting Gerald Wallace go 8 for 12 from the field, what’s going to happen with LeBron?
3. Fact or Fiction: The Clippers take care of business at home against the Heat.
Jovan Buha, ClipperBlog: Fiction. And it might not even be close. I penciled this game in as a loss when I saw it — it’s just too early in the season for the Clippers to hang with the Heat. Their defense (off the pick-and-roll and in transition) and rebounding are subpar and they tend to turn the ball over in flurries (I can envision a huge Heat run). Oh yeah, they have not one, but two elite wing scorers/defenders/players. This could get ugly.
Jordan Heimer, ClipperBlog: Fact. The Clippers are coming off a tough loss last night, but so are the Heat, who went to overtime before losing in Golden State. A pumped up home crowd will keep the Staples Center loud and the energy high as the Clips eke out a close win.
Breene Murphy, ClipperBlog: Fiction (sigh). While it’s easy to point to last year’s team winning against the Heat, that team had its strongest defenders on the wing (Gordon and, yes, Gomes) to combat Wade and LeBron. This year? Not so much. I do have some hope of Chris Paul and Chauncey taking care of the ball well enough that they stifle the Heat’s lethal transition game, but in a game against the Wolves, LeBron comfortably switched onto Rubio and completely altered the game.
Twitter: @JovanBuha, @clipperheimer, @BreeneMurphy
14 Responses
The problem is not Del Negro’s coaching. The problem is DeAndre Jordan’s inablility to play center. How can people here turn such a naive, blind eye to reality.
Last night in 33 minutes Jordan was 1-3 from the field, made 0 assists and got 5 rebounds.
Camby, in 35 minutes playing against Jordan, was 6-9 from the field, made 2 assists and got 11 rebounds. And everybody knows Camby is old and over the hill.
Here are Camby’s point totals for every game of the season leading up to last night:
6,2,2,3,7,0,3,0.
Then last night going against the lost matador defender Jordan, Camby scored 12 points.
Clips4 Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 4:00 pm
DJ is playing as best defense as he can. I alluded to just now in the previous post that because the Clips lack a solid wing defender, guys like Ginobili and Jamal Crawford are slashing to the basket and dicing up the Clips’ defense because Chauncey and Butler can’t handle them and draws DJ away from his man to help. DJ is doing the right thing by helping but because the Clips’ wing players got blown by, that is why. Plus, Camby has that nice elbow jump shot which is a good 15 ft. away from the basket so it draws out DJ. Any big with that kind of jump shot helps effectively space the floor and draws DJ away from the low block to protect the rim. You need to do your homework and pay more attention to basketball. I’ve told you to do that in previous posts.
DeMote DeAndre Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 5:12 pm
DeAndre Jordan has gotten worked by every center he’s played against this season, including the two preseason games. He also routinely got worked last season, often allowing even second tier centers to have one of their best games of the season against him.
Camby last night was simply one example in an apparently never ending string of examples.
People here seem desperate to be in denial about what Jordan is . . . a second round, second string center.
I’m curious to see if anybody here can actually point to one solid bit of evidence that Jordan is anything else. . . just one.
JaySee Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 5:27 pm
I’ve come to the conclusion that you either:
a. don’t watch the actual game and only look at the box score or
b. know absolutely nothing about basketball
Jordan is a very strong defender. He may be a little block happy, but he’s been toning it down and now more rarely jumps at pump fakes.
If you actually watched the games or knew about basketball, you would know that the only time his defensive assignment gets easy looks is when he’s helping to cover Griffin’s man or a wing player getting in the lane. If his assignment is a truly poor player, he sags off (as he is supposed to) to help others and purposefully gives the weak player a shot out of his range (as he is supposed to).
Because the rest of the team’s defense is so weak, Jordan is having to block and alter a ton of shots in the lane making it very difficult to get a defensive rebound. If you check your beloved box score, you’ll see that almost half of his rebounds are offensive while averaging 3 blocks a game. You’ll also see his free throws are getting better.
If the team’s defense improves, you’ll see DJ AND Griffin’s defensive rebounding numbers go back up.
FD Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 12:17 am
After the last few games, how can you say that about DeAndre? The guy can’t box out and get rebounds. Camby took him to school.
Clips4 Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 1:31 am
JaySee, thanks for elaborating points that I made for DeMote. =)
clipman Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 8:23 pm
You have never played ball because it is obivous that VDN has no clue what he is doing!!! Look at the line up he has in the 2nd period – are you kidding me. i have seen better JV line ups!!!! VDN is a joke and needs to go. Just let paul run the team and they results will improve. Griffin and Paul will leave if another coach is not brought in. Clippers results have nothing to do with Jordan but rather their coach. If you knew BBall you would know this!
FD Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 12:16 am
VDN isn’t the greatest coach and I’d get rid of him, but he’s not controlling like Dunleavy. You’re not going to lose that many games because of him.
Clips4 Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Unfortunately, we won’t win too many more games in spite of VDN either.
Posted on January 11th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
This is fact baby! Jovan and Breene are way over-thinking this game. It’s all about CP3 who will school Chalmers on how to play the point .. he had a bad game yesterday…and will bounce back nicely this game. It’s on national TV – he plays his best on Nat TV! Our home crowd will be a factor too in this one. C’mon man, who would’ve thought last year’s Clips would do that to the Heat? This year’s team is far better and capable of doing the same! I may be a little biased but i can’t see us losing this one!
Clips4 Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Chalmers has been playing out of his mind lately…
Posted on January 11th, 2012 at 4:55 pm
This team’s success begins and ends with CP3 in our one dominating win over Houston Paul was scoring early and played his best ball in our one quality win over Portland he took over the fourth quarter. He needs to play big so we can get this W tonight.
Posted on January 11th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
Ask and ye shall receive.
Posted on January 11th, 2012 at 11:14 pm
I had a gut feeling we were gonna lose in Portland but that we’d beat Miami and the Lakers this week
Posted on January 11th, 2012 at 11:31 pm
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