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Last Call: Spurs 116, Clippers 90

Feb 22, 2013
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by Fred Katz



(Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today Sports)

(Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today Sports)

Is Tony Parker or Chris Paul the better point guard? Thursday night, it looked like Parker, who finished with 31 points in only 28 minutes compared to Paul’s four points on 1-for-6 shooting. The Spurs punked the Clips. There’s no doubt about that one; maybe it was revenge for the Clippers’ wins against the Spurs in their first two meetings of the year. But there’s still one more chance for the Clips, one more Spurs matchup left. Now, onto Last Call:

Buzzer Reaction


San Antonio Spurs		 116
Final
Recap | Box score
 90 Los Angeles Clippers

MVP: Tony Parker. It’s not often Chris Paul looks slow, but Parker ran CP3 ragged by knocking down pull-up jumpers and getting to the rim with ease for 31 points on 12-for-16 shooting.

X-Factor: No team locks up Chris Paul quite like the Spurs do. In six of his 10 matchups against the Spurs as a Clipper, Paul has scored less than 12 points. They have his number.

Defining moment: There was 10 minutes of game time between the second and third quarters where the Clippers didn’t score a single field goal. A fan hit a halfcourt shot to prove there wasn’t a lid on the rim, though.

Tweet of the Game

Eric Bledsoe Per36 Stat o’ The Night

REB AST STL BLK TO PF +/- PTS
Eric Bledsoe 6.26 4.70 0 0 3.13 0 +3.13 7.83

 

ClipperBlogLive’s Best Moment
The Spurs follow up a throttling of the Clippers with 48 Minutes of Hell writer Andrew McNeill embarrassing the ClipperBlog writers in a few rounds of What’s in Andrew’s Stack of 1995-96 Basketball Cards?. We’ll get him next time.

Check Your Messages
The DeJuan Blair Problem
San Antonio searched in vain to scavenge some value for DeJuan Blair in the days and hours leading up to the trade deadline. While Blair has demonstrated the skills to be a decent rotation player, the Spurs have been eager to get rid of him for a long time. What is it that led San Antonio to label DeJuan Blair a categorical “sell”?

Blair doesn’t buy into the system. Though he only played in the final quarter of a 30-point blowout, he played with ambivalence towards the orchestrated movements that the rest of his teammates performed seamlessly. Patty Mills with the bench unit runs the exact same backdoor cuts as Danny Green does with the first unit. Everyone embraces their function in the larger machine.

But Blair freelanced. Against the Clippers, he might find open space, sure, but he’d also beg for the ball. The next play he’d pout and never move from the free throw line. Success in San Antonio is an all or nothing proposition. In Blair, they decided there was nothing.
- Michael Shagrin

Clippers 4, Flattop 3
With about five minutes left in the third quarter, a Clipper fan pulled from the stands – a stocky gentleman with a graying flattop – hit a shot from half-court and won a car. It was the third made field goal of the quarter for someone in a Clipper jersey (he was wearing a Crawford 11 – of course), meaning Flattop trailed the rest of the team 4-3 on points of FGs.

The inept shooting actually started before halftime, when the Clips missed their final 6 attempts going into the break. There were, to quote El Guapo, a plethora of reasons the Clippers lost tonight, but that ten minute scoring drought was the nail in the coffin.
- Jordan Heimer

Indefensible
Putting stock in a single game’s plus-minus numbers is a fool’s errand, but in the case of tonight’s game, those figures tell an accurate story, especially with regard to the Clippers’ stars. Chris Paul was a -31 and Blake Griffin a -34, and man did it feel like it. Paul had no answer for Parker, who cruised to 31 points and seven assists without a single turnover. Coming off screens, driving to the hoop, crossing people over: it all resulted in open looks. (To make matters worse, the Spurs completely neutralized Paul’s attack on offense.) Meanwhile Griffin seemed preternaturally out of position on defense. It wasn’t a lack of effort so much as a lack of savvy: a slew of communication breakdowns, failed switches, and what I can only imagine were meant to be traps allowed for the Spurs to find the rim at will.

The entire Spurs team was operating on a different level than the Clippers, who the largely failed to cause live ball turnovers — normally L.A.’s bread and butter — meaning transition buckets were few and far between. That also meant the Spurs were ready for just about everything the Clippers threw at them. Let’s hope the Clippers make more adjustments before their next meeting with the Spurs than they did between quarters tonight.
- Patrick James

No Parking Allowed
Tony Parker’s mid-range shooting has improved so much over the past year that it’s turned him almost into a new player. Observe…

Shooting from 10-to-16 feet last year: 42.7 percent
Shooting from 10-to-16 feet this year: 46.5 percent

Shooting from 16 feet to the three-point line last year: 37.7 percent
Shooting from 16 feet to the three-point line this year: 45.9 percent
- Fred Katz

Chris Paul’s Kryptonite
Chris Paul has struggled against the Spurs as a Clipper and the numbers back it up:

    • 35.9 minutes per game
    • 15.1 points per game
    • 8.6 assists per game
    • 3.3 rebounds per game
    • 2.2 steals per game
    • 41.2 percent field goal percentage
    • 31.0 percent three-point percentage

- D.J. Foster

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Fred Katz

Senior Contributor at ClipperBlog
Fred Katz averaged almost one point per game in fifth grade but maintains that his per-36-minute numbers were astonishing. Find more of his work at Bleacher Report or WashingtonPost.com.
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Latest posts by Fred Katz (see all)

  • Mv22

    Looked like Paul was playing hurt. Reminded me of the game against golden state after which he didn’t play for 12 games. Only difference is he wasn’t limping. Entire team looked flat. San Antonio played with so much more energy. Maybe it was the week off, losing the edge they had before the break. Ok it’s one game. Let’s see if they get back their intensity on saturday.

    • phil

      matt barnes said during an espnradio interview yesterday that paul is playing with a bum knee. man! why does this guy always like to be the hero and play through it. sometimes i think he likes winning on his terms more than winning itself.

      • http://twitter.com/pickyaj008 Aj

        Paul might be playing hurt which won’t hurt against most teams.

        But Tony Parker makes CP3 look really REALLY SLOW! It’s like watching Bledsoe play Nash.

        It’s just a bad matchup. Plain and simple!

  • http://www.facebook.com/WammyGiveaway Alfredo Rodriguez

    One more stat: including his games as a Hornet, Paul is 12-25 against the Spurs in his career. It seems that the Spurs know Paul all too well, and every time he tries to answer, Parker answers back. Are Paul and Parker evenly matched, or is Parker just flat out better than Paul? We all believe that CP3 is the best point guard in the NBA in terms of leadership, but Parker has the evidence to back it up and the stats to counter the argument. Is Paul just a bad matchup for the Spurs?

    • Pete

      If Chris Paul was playing against the Clips D, he would probably look just as good as Parker does. You can’t discount the rest of both teams, when discussing head to head numbers.

      • http://twitter.com/DigbyHowis Digby Howis

        The Clips starters could easily beat the Clips starters – to go way down the rabbit hole

    • CP

      I think it has more to do with the Spurs being the best coached team in the league and the fact that Paul has never been on a team with any system other than “give CP the ball and watch what happens.” The Spurs can stop that most of the time. Most of the wins required superhuman performances by Paul

      • http://twitter.com/pickyaj008 Aj

        Agreed!!!!

        Look, I love CP3 and what he’s done for the Clippers organization.

        However, I think he needs a coach that can TELL him what to run. Not lay down like VDN does. I understand CP3 is great and all but he needs a coach that has an actual system.

  • teddygreen

    Clippers need to start Eric Bledsoe and have him hound Tony Parker. Phil Jackson did something similar to this when he had Tyrone Lue hound Allen Iverson. Let Chauncey Billups be the backup and lead the second unit. VDN needs to change his lineups. gregg popovich does this when he inserts Manu in and out of lineups depending on the matchups.

    • Patrick

      I agree, this would be an extremely logical.

      • http://twitter.com/pickyaj008 Aj

        Hence, it will not be done.

        VDN sticks to his rotations to a fault.

        The Bledsoe/Billups is a great example.

        DJ’s another. He doesn’t play DJ down the stretch in most games because of poor foul shooting and bad spacing. I get that. But why not play DJ more minutes with the second unit – who is more fast-paced, runs pick and rolls and has open spacing in the paint. Fine! Don’t play DJ in critical moments but why not give him more minutes against second units.

        • Patrick

          Exactly, its very very logical but we all know Vinny will not do this.

  • teddygreen

    Thabo Sefolosha Is Guarding Tony Parker

    By Mike Prada on May 31

    Scott Brooks has gone ahead and done the deed. After seeing his defense get shredded in the Thunder’s Game 2 loss on Tuesday, he has made a big change. Thabo Sefolosha, and not Russell Westbrook, has begun the game guarding Tony Parker.

    The Thunder are giving up some speed with the matchup, but they also do a much better job contesting Parker’s jump shots under this scenario. Sefolosha can go under ball screens to prevent Parker from driving to the rim, then use his length to get a hand up on Parker’s jumpers far better than Westbrook could.

    The Thunder are giving up some speed with the matchup, but they also do a much better job contesting Parker’s jump shots under this scenario. Sefolosha can go under ball screens to prevent Parker from driving to the rim, then use his length to get a hand up on Parker’s jumpers far better than Westbrook could.

    http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2012/5/31/3056060/thabo-sefolosha-is-guarding-tony-parker

  • teddygreen

    teddygreen•
    Hey Jesse, as a Clipper fan, i wonder would the Clippers fare better against the Spur if they inserted Eric Bledsoe in the starting lineup. Eric Bledsoe could hound Tony Parker. Phil Jackson did something similar to this when he had Tyrone Lue hound Allen Iverson. The Clippers could have Chauncey Billups be the backup and lead the second unit. Perhaps VDN needs to change his lineups. gregg popovich does this when he inserts Manu in and out of lineups depending on the matchups in the playoffs…

    Jesse Blanchard
    I’m not sure Bledsoe would have much effect. The Spurs rarely just put Parker in isolation plays. They get him the ball on the move, off curls, handoffs, and traditional pick and roll sets. More often than not it’s the big man hedging and the backline of the defense that Parker is attacking, not his individual defender.

    It should be noted that Rondo and Bradley haven’t had much effect on Parker (off the top of my head). Where Parker struggles, at times, is sticking a quality, lengthy defensive player like the Thunder did in the Western Conference Finals. Parker can still score, but his efficiency can be dragged down some and the defense doesn’t have to collapse as hard. I’m not sure the Clippers have that option, however
    http://www.48minutesofhell.com/is-tony-parker-the-best-point-guard-the-system-matters

    • Clips4

      Inserting Bledsoe would help. However, the Spurs have a system that carves up defenses. Yes, our defense was lacking yesterday and we got blown out as a result. However, You have to give credit to the Spurs and their offense to get their guys open and easy looks at the basket. Even if our defense improves and we’re able to be effective against the Spurs, our offense is too simple and rudimentary to go up against a solid defensive team like the Spurs. The Spurs stopped the Clippers’ bread and butter of live-ball turnovers. When that is stopped, the Clippers cannot play to their strengths of getting out and running in transition. Pop and the Spurs schooled us in the art of playoff basketball last night. When the game slows down in the playoffs and we have to go into our half-court sets, pick and roll basketball cannot be the ultimate end all. Once you stop the initial pick and roll, the offense dies because there is no secondary action going on. Every team runs pick and roll basketball. However, the elite teams use pick and roll as a secondary action that becomes a primary focus. An example would be in the HORNS offense where there could be a pin-down screen on the weak side to get a cutter to come up and screen for the ball handler and you can run pick and roll action that way. There are multiple ways you can get into a pick and roll game. Going straight into a pick and orll is not necessarily a recipe for success when the other team knows that that is what your entire offense consists of. Jerry Sloan’s flex offense with Stockton and Malone and later with D-Will and Boozer was known for its pick and roll style all the time. However, if you watch video breakdowns of the flex offense, pick and roll is not the primary action. It comes out of the byproduct of some other action going on. Plus, with the pick and roll as the only action means 3 other players are out on the perimeter just ball watching. Yes, that helps with spacing but then it basically means a 2 on 5 game.

      It is the coaching with VDN that is non-existent. I took issue with what VDN said last night in his post-game interview. He said that his players need to “grow up.” By saying that, VDN is expecting his players to do what he as the coach is supposed to do: get his players easy buckets. Players want and need to be coached. They can only execute the system in place. If they do not execute, then it is on them and not the coach. The triangle with Phil Jackson was a read and react defense that involves man movement and ball movement. Rick Adelman’s corner-post offense involves man and ball movement. Rick Carlisle’s offense sees a lot of ball and man movement. Sloan’s flex involves ball and man movement. Same with Pop. I think it’s smart on the part of Sacks and Roeser to not talk to VDN about an extension yet.

      Olshey knew how bad of a coach VDN was last year and wanted him gone but then DTS chose VDN over Olshey. I hope Sacks and Roeser will not make the same mistake this year and keep VDN around when his contract expires. VDN has done a lot of good things this year but he is still a novice when it comes to coaching. He needs to spend at least a few seasons coaching under Pop, Rivers, or Carlisle to become more seasoned as a coach.

      • Patrick

        I don’t know if we can completely blame Vinny. It seemed like throughout the game different players were just holding the ball wasting time or jacking up contested shots with lots of time left on the shot clock. On the defensive end multiple players had communication errors and missed rotations for the whole game. Vinny really can’t do anything about that.

        Although it was interesting how the Clippers never seemed to execute/even have a play after a timeout. That is completely Vinny’s fault. Vinny’s coaching never seems consistent to me. Sometimes he seems to have a pretty good game plan while games like today they are getting blown out by the end of the first quarter.

        • Clips4

          If we were to do a blame pie, I’d give 60% of the blame to the players and 40% to VDN.

          • http://twitter.com/DigbyHowis Digby Howis

            Should be a blame sandwich

            • Clips4

              Hmmm…. CB staff, how about for losses now we do a blame sandwich instead of the compliment sandwich?

              • Andrew Han

                There was a less than positive reaction to the sandwich concept. Is there a petition to revive it?

              • Fred Katz

                BRING BACK THE SANDWICH

                (If only so I can continue to make fun of it.)

              • Clips4

                Bring back the sandwich! I second Fred. =)

  • teddygreen

    Alas where is Q Ross when we need him…
    Its worth noting that Thabo played for VDN and VDN didn’t like him due t his inability to shoot. VDN doesn’t seem to favor defensive players who are limited on offense…

    • Clips4

      Sefalosha, as VDN’s trash in Chicago, is OKC’s treasure and was a huge reason they made it to the finals last year and is on one of the best teams in the NBA. VDN’s judge of talent as coaching acumen is very suspect.

  • dooder

    Here’s a hypothetical question. Are the Clips doomed if CP leaves? I am of the mind that not winning it all this year might indicate another direction is needed. Blake to me is the future. I hope they go far and take the Title. If not? Has this squad maxed out? To me I would not be that disappointed either way. Sometimes it seems CP’s personality does not match his resume. He never has taken a team very far. That’s fact. Why are they letting him minus Championship pedigree have so much influence? It’s a very unbalanced approach that could lead to disaster.

    • Clips4

      If you look at the talent that CP had in NOH, it was nowhere near what he has in LAC. The coaching also has a lot to do with it. Byron Scott was a good coach but the talent level just was not there for the Hornets. The coaching has a ton to do with how the Clippers are right now. I think they have maxed out given the coaching for this year. They still have potential as Blake and DeAndre and Bledsoe are all still improving. CP3 has hit his ceiling as a player and they just need a way to get easy buckets in the half-court sets. The defense is there but against a team that is as effective with people movement as there is ball movement, the LAC defense will get shredded. LAC can’t win when the game slows down. We know what this team is. Against teams that execute well and take care of the ball, and shoot well from 3, LAC will struggle. Against teams that are careless in their execution and sloppy with the ball, LAC will make them pay. I do not think we can beat SAS or MIA in a 7 game series. Against OKC, it may be a coin flip depending on whether or not Durant takes his game to another level.

      • CP

        Byron Scott is not a good coach, he was very similar to VDN in that he relied on Chris Paul and had no real system in place

        • Clips4

          I would need to go back and watch some of the old Nets and Hornets games, but Scott did something right to take the Nets to the finals in 2002 and 2003. You also can’t say that he’s not a good coach though considering his win/loss record. He had less talent in NOH and NJN compared to what VDN has had the past two years. Even with that, Scott is an infinitely better coach than VDN even if he’s not a great coach. As far as being a coach is concerned, being better than VDN is not really that hard.

          • CP

            :) that’s fair. I grew up in New Orleans following that team and the consensus about byron scott’s coaching was worse than what i’ve seen from clipper fans about VDN. That doesn’t necessarily correspond to who’s the better coach, but I certainly see similarities. I think both of them are quite bad, VDN is almost totally inept. I would love to see this team with a great coach.

            • dooder

              We are back to the decision to resign VDN. Which I hated! CP should have spoke up. Maybe he did and they ignored him? I agree he is an inferior Coach. But the jury is still out on CP too. Is he really a Guy who has the ability to raise his game to the necessary level to bring home the hardware? Or is the competitiontoo much at this point? He is at his peak so it’s now or never. He is a great player. Is he good enough with this squad to get them to the top? Lot’s of questions to be answered yet.

              • http://twitter.com/pickyaj008 Aj

                VDN’s return was only because his last year coincided with CP3’s last contract year.

                They wanted to play things out.

                With that being said, VDN should not be back next year. Not because he is entirely a bad coach (I think he is serviceable but he is especially bad at IN-GAME adjustments), but only because there are a bevy of great/good coaches available.

                Phil Jackson – can coach an LA team that’s a ‘contender’.
                Stan Van Gundy – great X’s O’s guy. Get’s a lot out of his team
                Nate McMillan – Team USA Assistant coach for CP3/Blake. Great relationship.

    • Clips4

      If we’re talking about a system, CP can run any system because he is that smart. Everyone knows VDN’s offense is too simple and rudimentary and is easy to stop if you stop CP.

  • Clips4

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrCdP3KPC70

    Freshly uploaded onto Youtube. This was how SAS killed us last night. Their offense is not predicated solely on pick and roll. Pick and Rolls are a byproducts of the movement of their players to cut as a secondary option and not so much a primary option as is with CP3 and Blake coming up. If you only run a two man game, the other 3 guys on the perimeter are ball watching. If you watch the Spurs from these clips, usually almost all the time, all 5 guys from SAS are moving to create screen action for TP to run without the ball and cutting to spots to get good easy looks for each other.

  • Old Skool Clip Fan

    It’s this simple. We were out-coached. And players get frustrated when they are losing and they see that nothing can be done about it. So they lose energy on defense. That’s the game. VDN just had his lunch eaten by Pop. And until we get a better coach, then this is how this match-up will always end up. You can win in the regular season with some simple offense and superior talent. Not in the playoffs and not against the Spurs. Question is: Who is the superior coach who we could hire for next year? And no, it is not Phil Jackson. If I dream I actually think Doc Rivers. But he’s locked up. So who?

    • Clips4

      Nate McMillan is my choice. Stan Van Gundy would also work too. Anyone of the assistant coaches who worked with Jerry Sloan or is in SAS right now would be great too. At this point, it is not very hard to be a better coach than VDN.

  • Slax

    I’m not buying all this negativity. If the Clips really are getting outclassed by the Spurs and VDN by Pops, how did they beat SA not once but twice so far this season. They had a bad game, it’s that simple. So far it’s 2-1, favor the Clips.

    • Clips4

      This was very early in the season when LAC played SAS. It was hard to find a a good scouting report on LAC at the time because the team just came together in the offseason. Both times they played was within the first month of the season. With this game, SAS has a big enough sample size to scout LAC. The report is and for the most part of many of us who criticize VDN is that when opposing teams are able to execute well and take care of the ball and take away LAC’s abilities to play passing lanes and create live-ball turnovers that leads to stopping transition opportunities. I would say that the best transition teams that are next to unstoppable are LAC, MIA, and OKC. When LAC is forced to play in the half-court and the initial action of the pick and roll is stopped, there are no secondary and tertiary actions happening on the weak side. Matt Barnes in the lineup solves some of that but that is just because of his own innate ability to move well without the ball. When he is not in the lineup, there are two wings who stand on the perimeter and do not move while DJ or Odom are on the weak side out of the play. If you rewatch the plays and some of the offense from Utah’s flex, they run pick and roll as a byproduct of some other action. If they run pick and roll as their primary action, there are a plethora of down screens to free up guys on the weak side to get open looks. SAS proved last night of what playoff basketball looks like. Their system will work well even if their 4 best players don’t play. It all boils down to player execution. As we saw when CP3 was hurt, the system was not successful because the system was hurt. There is no foundational system to account for players who are not there. Too many times this season, I’ve seen LAC win merely on their talent in spite of VDN. Against the good teams in the playoffs, going 11 deep will not cut it. Also, when they have scouted all of our weaknesses, our defense isn’t good enough to stop the other teams from running their offense. We are just a more talented version of Memphis last year.

  • L_Reazy

    IMO, here is what the 1st & 2nd line-ups should look like, & whomever is performing the best in the game earns crunhtime minutes. More than shooters, our starting 5 needs ‘cutters’ & ‘wing-defenders’! Barnes & Bledsoe are our team’s best.

    F- Griffin
    F- Barnes
    C- Jordan
    G- Bledsoe
    G- Paul

    F- Butler
    F- Hill
    C- Odom
    G- Crawford
    G- Billups

    • http://twitter.com/DigbyHowis Digby Howis

      I’d like to see that at least a few times.


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