(Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
The Golden State Warriors visited STAPLES Center to take on the LA Clippers Wednesday night, and by the look at some of the stat lines, you would have thought things went well for LA.
Stephen Curry missed all 8 of his three-point attempts.
Kevin Durant shot under 30 percent from the field for the first time since February 2015, as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Klay Thompson scored less than half of what he scored in the previous game.
And the Clippers bench outscored the Warriors bench 57-30.
What matchup will prove to be Clippers biggest challenge tonight vs Warriors?
— ClipperBlog (@clipperblog) December 7, 2016
And yet, the NBA’s top offense still handled the NBA’s top defense. The Warriors still hung 115 points on the Clippers and blew them out by 17 points, leading by as may as 27 at one point. It marks the 7th straight win for the Warriors over the Clippers, and Steve Kerr is now 8-1 against the Clippers as Golden State’s head coach.
While the Warriors made only 7-of-30 threes (23.3 percent), they made 35-of-58 shots inside the arc (60.4 percent) for an overall FG percentage of 47.7 percent. And while Durant had an off night shooting from the field (5-of-17 FGs, 29.4 percent, including 1-of-5 threes), his frontcourt mate had his back. PF Draymond Green was the top performer, scoring 22 points on 8-of-10 from the field, making 3-of-5 threes and all 5 attempts inside the arc. Overall, the Warriors made a whopping 29-of-41 FGAs in the paint (70.7 percent), compared to LA making 19-of-40 FGAs in the paint (47.5 percent) – a 20-point difference.
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) December 8, 2016
On the other hand, it was a rough night for LA PF Blake Griffin – arguably the worst of his career. Any real chance of the Clippers winning would mean Griffin having a big game offensively. Instead, Griffin had only 12 points on 5-of-20 from the field (25.0 percent) and a season-high 7 turnovers. Griffin only has one career game with more turnovers, and out of 88 career games with at least 20 field goal attempts, the 12 points scored were the fewest of his career and the 25.0 percent from the field the worst of his career.
He was 🚮. He's let Draymond out play him for 3 years now. This is why I say Dray is the best 4 in the NBA. https://t.co/pIaLubhlXV
— Nate Jones (@JonesOnTheNBA) December 8, 2016
All Blake Griffin should be thinking about the rest of the season is stopping and outplaying Draymond. That's the key to Clippers season.
— Nate Jones (@JonesOnTheNBA) December 8, 2016
“I turned the ball over, I put myself in those positions, I missed some easy shots, I forced some bad shots, not to take away from anything that they did,” Griffin said. “They played solid.
“If you want to take positive away from this experience, this isn’t the playoffs. So we have some work to do obviously. It’s a good lesson for us and I think we will be better because of it. We have to allow ourselves to learn from it.”
While Griffin struggled with turnovers, Curry was getting an NBA season-high 7 steals, many of which helped the Warriors outscore the Clippers 27-11 on the fastbreak. And while Curry struggled with the threes, he did make 7-of-8 FGAs inside the arc and scored 12 of his 19 points during a 1st quarter that saw Golden State lead 37-19.
And Curry wasn’t the only one to fail to make a three-pointer. Clippers SG J.J. Redick saw his streak of consecutive games with a three-pointer end at 77 as he was held to 2 points on 1-of-4 from the field and 0-for-2 from three. Chris Paul had 15 points on 7-of-14 from the field, but he only made 1-of-6 threes.
Durant’s shooting was poor, but he actually led the Warriors with 7 of the team’s 32 assists – and he did it without a single turnover. Thompson didn’t drop 60, but he still had a game-high 24 points, making 3-of-6 threes – Warriors not named Thompson and Green combined to shoot 1-of-19 from three at LA Wednesday night. While the Warriors starters shot only 37.0 percent from the field in 12 minutes on the floor together, that unit outscored the Clippers 29-14 while holding LA to 31.6 percent from the field and only 3 assists against 10 turnovers, compiling a net rating of 43.4 in the process. Most of those minutes directly coincided with LA’s starters, as they played 12 minutes together and compiled a net rating of -47.0 and an offensive rating of 56.0.
(For those wondering, the “Hamptons 5″ unit of Iguodala with the starters was only on the court in this game for a minute in the 2nd quarter, outscoring the Clippers 7-3.)
“Defensively is where we won the game,” Durant said. “We were low in turnovers, high on assists, and our defense was there all night. We held them to 39 percent shooting and that’s the formula. Their team is a high scoring team and they’ve been playing defense very well. I think we got out, forced some turnovers, got some easy baskets when our offense wasn’t working and shots weren’t falling, and we defended at a high level. We made them play one-on-one and made them shoot tough shots all night.”
One additional note here, as the Clippers bench didn’t have PG Raymond Felton, who is on a leave of absence for personal/family reasons. LA shuffled the bench lineups, with Wesley Johnson and Alan Anderson getting into the rotation while Paul Pierce took a DNP-CD. The Clippers were at their best when Jamal Crawford and Austin Rivers mixed in with the starters, as that unit outscored Golden State 25-14 in 9 1st half minutes. Doc rarely went all bench, and that unit was roasted in the two 1st half minutes he tried.
“You go into a game that you really want to do well, things don’t go well for you, you lose it sometimes,” Doc Rivers said. “Like I keep saying, these games are all separate. Because we lost today, I’m not going to say it was connected to the Indiana [Pacers] thing. No, we just didn’t play well.”
These teams will see each other three more times over the next month. The Clippers, 2-5 since starting 14-2, have many improvements to make in that time. Perhaps no one is more aware of that then former Warriors C Marreese Speights:
Mo Speights didn't hold back when it came to the differences between the Warriors and Clippers pic.twitter.com/sw0TPMPDbi
— Bill Oram (@billoram) December 8, 2016
I was going to post that Mo Speights quote above. Can’t believe he said that, but it’s the truth and what some of us have been saying.
Bill Simmons posted, they don’t need JJ, Crawford and A Rivers. I don’t know if you’d get anything in trade for any of them though. I suppose JJ would have the most value. Crawford’s contract is un-tradeable.
A. Rivers defense is fine and I don’t have a problem with him, if that’s what they use him for. The problem comes in the 2nd unit when Crawford is the only person that can score. The Clippers are basically forced to give A Rivers shots because you can’t let Crawford take 100% of the shots.
So really the only people the Clippers could trade are JJ and DeAndre.
I agree with trading Crawford or Rivers. Both players need the ball in the 2nd unit, there aren’t that many balls on the court. I would not trade JJ, he’s our only reliable shooter that creates spacing
Yeah, JJ’s 3pt percentage is above .450 while Crawford, wow I didn’t know his percentage was that low. Crawford’s 3pt percentage last couple years is about what A. Rivers is at. Granted he’s sometimes forced to take a 3, but .337 is too low.
Jamal is shooting .281% from 3 in the Playoffs as a Clipper.
Jamal is a big part of the problem.
Mo out there talking about guys looking to get numbers instead of doing the little things. Well, it takes one to know one. I guess Mo thinks taking a charge here and there absolves him of that shit. It doesn’t.
Jamal, J.J., and Austin rebound and pass for shit. Wes shoots almost every time he touches it. So, I guess he’s talking about them.
I agree w/ Mo. Clippers don’t complain more than any other team. The only difference is they complain and stop playing completely.
J.J. Redick has real value around the league. There are guys at his position I’d trade him for.
I’d call Detroit about Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Stan Van Gundy loves J.J. and J.J. loves Stan but I don’t think Stan loves J.J. that much. The Clippers would have to sweeten that deal. But they don’t have much sweetener.
The Clippers need a defensive SG with length who is a better all-around player than Austin Rivers. If the Clippers trade J.J. they have to get a wing player with length back in the exchange.
I see people saying the Clippers can’t trade J.J. because J.J. is their only shooter and the offense would fall apart without him.
The Clippers were 8th in offensive efficiency last year with J.J. Redick having a career year. The Clippers are currently 6th in offensive efficiency with J.J. Redick on the squad.
The Clippers won 56 games without J.J. Redick. The Clippers were 4th in offensive efficiency 2 straight years before J.J. Redick became a Clipper. And that was with Vinny Del Negro coaching them.
Are the Clippers a better offense with J.J. on the floor? Of course.
Are the Clippers going to beat the Spurs, the Warriors, and the Cavs back to back to back in the Playoffs with J.J. Redick starting and playing 30 minutes a game? Probably not. His size causes too many problems.
J.J. should be a 6th man.
J.J. would be a great 6th man on a Championship team.
The Clippers don’t have the roster flexibility to make J.J. their 6th man.
Well the Clippers are going to need someone who can shoot better than .350 from 3 if they’re going to trade Redick.
The only person the Clippers can trade is DeAndre
You can win in the NBA with defense. And 35% from 3 is good enough to cause a defender to close out.
J.J.’s length on defense is too much of a liability. Add in Jamal playing SF in the 4th next to J.J. and that’s a mismatch waiting to happen.
Teams have exploited the Redick/Crawford defensive combo for years. It happens even more in the Playoffs. It has to stop.
Blake, with his length, is a defensive liability as well. You can’t put 3 of them out there in the 4th quarter against good teams. This roster has too many flaws.
KCP is one of the best defensive SG’s in the NBA.
And he’s a sneaky good passer. That’s why the Pistons would probably say no to that trade. The Clippers would have to add more.
So, how is DJ supposed to have his Olympics breakout year when he touches the ball the same amount as before?
You know what would be interesting? Actually going to DJ for a week to see what the f**k happens.
Oh, wait, we’re watching a rerun. I forgot. They can’t change things up. That would break the universe.
Hey, remember those few times the Clippers ran the Pick and Roll with Blake as the ball handler and DJ as the setter?
I don’t blame you if you forgot. It was weeks ago and it was fewer than 10 times.
I’m sure they’re saving that for the Playoffs. Who needs to work on that shit during the Regular Season? Not the Clippers. Not the 5 time defending Champs!
Trade:
DeAndre for (Knight or Bledsoe), Alex Len, TJ Warren
Or:
DeAndre and Pierce
for
(Knight or Bledsoe), Tyson Chandler, TJ Warren
Doc would trade Chris or Blake before DJ. Doc won his only Championship with defensive minded big men.
Unless the Clippers were getting Gobert or Whiteside back they wouldn’t trade DJ.
Bledsoe, Tucker, and Warren are the only realistic trade targets on Phoenix that would help the Clippers this year. Booker is untouchable. And Knight would only help as a Jamal replacement.
Getting Bledsoe would take a Chris Paul or a J.J. Redick three team trade. That’s highly unlikely unless a team like the Celtics with a bunch of draft picks and young players had the hots for J.J. and sent them to Phoenix.
J.J. said the Clippers need to get back to playing with joy.
The 2012-2013 Clippers played with joy, won 56 games, and lost in the 1st Round.
The 2014-2015 Clippers played without joy, won 56 games, and lost in the 2nd Round.
Joy isn’t the problem. The roster is the problem. Maintaining the status quo is the problem.
The big problem with any trade is that the person making the trade would be GM Rivers, and everybody knows by now that GM Rivers is grossly incompetent at player evaluation and at roster transactions.
Any trade GM Rivers would make would almost certainly be terrible and would make the Clippers even worse than they are now.
It’s the gross incompetence of GM Rivers that has put the Clippers in this position to begin with.
That being said, I do agree that the most tradeable asset is Jordan.
If they can get anybody to take Austin Rivers, that would be good, but of course they won’t be able to do that. Luc Mbah a Moute is a starter and is a much better defender than Austin Rivers and has a salary of only $2.2 million.
Crawford’s new contract is also way too high, and I don’t see how anybody would take him in a trade either.
But really, I’m fearful that it’s too late to improve the team. They could have improved it in this last off season, but instead GM Rivers stopped going after Durant and instead signed Crawford and his son.
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