On Wednesday night the Clippers successfully exploited their individual mismatches to the tune of 120 points, and for the first half of tonight’s game it’s more of the same. Chris Kaman wins the ambidextrous influenced battle with David Lee early, scoring multiple times on Lee in single coverage with a variety of pretty post moves. Eric Gordon plays pinball and draws contact and gets to the foul line. Al Thornton also uses his quickness and strength advantages in his mismatch to get to the rim. For 24 minutes, everything clicks for the Clippers.

The struggles as of late to slow down perimeter oriented teams have been evident, but the first half performance tonight is a clinic on how to force a one-dimensional team away from their strength. In previous games, the Clipper defenders have shown the tendency to be zombie-like in their closeouts; they have their arms raised, but they plod along aimlessly, making them susceptible to good shooting. Tonight though, we see crisp closeouts, particularly from Al Thornton, who all but sprints at his man to ensure no clean threes are allowed. The Clippers succeed wonderfully in the first half – the Knicks go for 4 for 9 from deep in the first half, with the latter number being the most important. Remember, this is the same Knicks unit that jacked up 47 (!) threes against Chicago and averaged 28 attempts a game coming into tonight. At least for 24 minutes, the Clippers lock in on chasing shooters off the line, and it works.

The positive work on both ends results in a 16 point halftime lead for the Clippers. With the MSG crowd completely out of the game, and the Knicks showing no life on either end, the Clippers appeared poised to cruise to another big win. Then something happened: The Knicks started playing as if every possession were the last of the game. Three Clippers turnovers in the first 4 possessions of the second half creaked open the door just enough to allow some light to shine through for the Knicks, and they charged back into the game bolstered by a renewed defensive intensity and an overall superior effort to that of their counterparts. The pnce easy entry passes to Kaman on the block were all but taken away by swarming perimeter play and active post defense. When Kaman did eventually get the ball on the post, he was immediately doubled on every touch. The Knicks clearly intended to let someone other than Kaman (who was methodically destroying single coverage early on) beat them in the second half. After the Knicks fronted, doubled, sandwiched and generally confused Kaman, the Clippers offense fell apart at the seams. Poor spacing, lazy passing, and no off-ball movement turned the Clippers offense into mush.

With the offense struggling to get clean looks, the Clippers defense began to show its own deficiencies. The previously mentioned early third quarter turnovers allowed transition opportunities for New York, which sparked their offensive outburst. Non-coincidentally, the main culprits were the type of players the Clippers typically struggle to deal with: a stretch four (Gallinari) and an active, offensive rebounding big man (Lee). The pair combined for an incredible 23 of the 30 Knicks third quarter points and were they key cogs in the Knicks comeback. The Clippers inability to defend simple Duhon-Lee pick and rolls hurt them more than anything. We’ve previously dissected how the Clippers big men defend pick and rolls, and they’ve been better as of late, but tonight’s blame can mostly be pinned on the guards, Eric Gordon and Baron Davis. Time and time again the two allowed themselves to get taken out by even the most obvious of picks. Duhon strolled into the paint on multiple occasions late with Baron or Gordon nowhere to be found.  All things told, Gordon probably played his worst stretch of the season tonight in the second half on both sides of the ball.

While the end of game sequence should not have ever mattered considering the Clippers hot start, it did. Baron’s 28 foot heave to give the Clippers the lead with 36 seconds left was about as desperate of an attempt you’ll see all year. After that lucky three, the Knicks were the beneficiary of some luck of their own in the form of a blind tip in from David Lee that rolled around the rim and fell through. We’ll have video of the final possession once it becomes available, but the look Rasual Butler gets down 2 with the clock winding down is about as good as it gets. It may *feel* wrong that Gordon, Kaman or even Baron didn’t get the last shot, but consider the circumstances: You’re on the road with absolutely zero momentum, and one of your better perimeter shooters gets a mismatch and a wide open look to end the game. Nine times out of ten, Butler hits that shot.

Instead, he misses, and the Clippers get to spend their trip to Philadelphia wondering how they managed to lose this game.

Over much of the past month, the Clippers have been a decisive defensive team. They’ve slowed opponents with initial traps and quick recoveries. When ballhandlers find freedom or connect with their bigs, the Clippers’ weak side rotation has been prompt. Marcus Camby anchors that enterprise, but even Al Thornton has become a better decision-maker many nights. When the Clippers guards get beaten off the dribble, they quickly find their next assignment in the defensive rotation — whether it’s running spot shooters off the line, or dropping low to strip the ball from a unsuspecting post player. Most nights, it’s this brand of defense that’s kept the Clippers competitive.

Not so on Sunday against San Antonio.

The Spurs shred the Clippers early, scoring 39 points on 23 first-quarter possessions. This is vintage Spurs basketball, predicated on Tony Parker’s incursions into the paint and Tim Duncan’s presence in the post. We see it on the Spurs’ first score (1st, 10:58), when Parker skirts the baseline while Duncan dives low. The lethal Parker-Duncan combo draws the entire Clippers’ unit in, leaving Keith Bogans alone in the corner. The Spurs have accumulated a lot of jewelry running this stuff, and here Bogans drains the Corner 3 that might as well have “Made in Bexar County” inscribed on its base.

The patented Spurs Corner 3 off the drive-and-kick is a lethal novelty, but the Parker-Duncan screen-roll is an enduring monument. The Clippers choose to trap Parker, with Marcus Camby acutely aware to focus on nothing but the rolling Duncan. What makes Duncan the most fluent low post practitioner of our lifetime is how he eludes even the best help defenders with his agility and touch:

Duncan works pretty well with Ginobili, too (I think Duncan could probably work with any passable point guard). Here, when fronted by Kaman, Duncan with Ginobili’s assist, goes back door. Thornton, being mindful of Jefferson, doesn’t have time to react:

The Spurs, as the Rockets did about ten days ago, beat the Clippers from beyond the arc, draining five of eight in the first quarter. Ginobili gets free of Gordon by pretending to set a flex screen underneath, then darts out to the arc leaving Gordon to trudge through the morass of big bodies beneath the basket (1st, 3:57). Ginobili sinks another one when he gets free to the same spot because Ricky Davis, for whatever reason, decides it’s more important leaving Manu to chase Bonner away from the action, even though Novak is already on Bonner. (1st, 0:16)

Doubling Matt Bonner off the ball is not a winning strategy for an NBA defense:

Bonner converts the fifth 3PM on the Spurs’ final possession of the quarter when Thornton drifts aimlessly toward Parker on the other side of the floor even though there are three Clippers in closer proximity to him. Ginobili hits a couple of more from behind the line in the opening minutes of the second quarter. He’s always on the move. Steve Novak’s unintuitive defensive instincts betray him on the first, yielding Ginobili a clean look from up top (2nd, 10:13). Then Ginobili runs Butler around a stagger screen with Blair and Bonner at the elbows (2nd, 8:23).

The Clippers trail by 23 at this juncture. They cut it to seven early in the third quarter, but a few tough possessions — one the product of Camby’s tendency to stay close to the basket even against stretch big men (Bonner’s 3PM at 3rd, 2:12), one that’s no fault of their own (Ginobili’s tough, well-contested, right-leaning jumper against Gordon at 3rd, 1:30), and one on a crafty interior pass by Keith Bogans in traffic to DeJuan Blair at the buzzer (3rd, 0:00) — extends the Spurs’ lead to 13 and essentially breaks the Clips.

The Clippers don’t help themselves much with their shot selection in the first 20 minutes of the game. We get a glimpse of the worst habits of Baron Davis and Thornton, each taking a few low-percentage jumpers, usually off-balance, contested, too early in the shot clock or all of the above. After that, they play sound offensive basketball for about 18 minutes. Thornton becomes more selective, doing most of his work on the attack and attempting 17-footers only when uncontested. Davis is also assertive, both in the post against the Spurs’ point guards and off the dribble. But the Clippers become selfish during a 16-0 San Antonio run that buries them, illustrated by Baron’s fallaway in transition against Richard Jefferson (4th, 9:03).

What’s frustrating about the Clippers inconsistency is its inconsistency. Tonight is a somewhat uncharacteristic loss, not unlike the Houston loss. The Clips are done in by bad perimeter and help defense. Eric Gordon is atypically impatient, while the team as a whole performs well on the glass and protects the basketball through three quarters.

It would be far more instructive if the Clippers could produce some recurring basketball patterns to their losses and stick with them.

Quick thoughts about the win:  More...

• Saturday night’s affair is a horrendous offensive showcase. As they did in their last meeting ten days ago, both teams shoot below 40 percent from the field. Once Danny Granger leaves the game when he aggravates his bruised right heel in the opening minute of the third quarter, the Pacers have nobody who can advance the ball toward the basket in a half-court set. It’s a luxury the Clippers enjoy. They routinely switch perimeter pick-and-rolls against the Pacers shooters — something they don’t do willingly most nights, but feel comfortable doing against a poky Indiana team. Few of the Pacers’ snipers can put the ball on the floor, and both Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman do an effective job of walling off the paint when T.J. Ford or Dahntay Jones try to penetrate.

The first offensive decision the Clippers make against Houston after the opening jump is to send Baron Davis low against Aaron Brooks on the left block. The spacing is beautiful and so is the motion and timing that follows. Al Thornton cuts through to the right side, which leaves Baron in isolation against Brooks. As that’s happening, Chris Kaman slips behind Chuck Hayes along the baseline, to collect a pass beneath the hoop from Baron. Given Baron’s advantage over Brooks and Kaman’s initial position way out on the weak side wing, Hayes is being mindful of Baron.  The Clippers exploit it with the Kaman cut. It’s the sort of fluid offense they demonstrated during Kaman’s string of prolific games in early November.  More...

This sort of thing would happen to the Clippers, wouldn’t it? With nine minutes left to play, the television feed for the game drops out completely. I’m left only with Mike and Ralph giving me a play by play account of what is happening on the court. No big deal – the duo is so good that I’m willing to accept the loss of vision as only a slight hindrance to my overall experience. Of course, as soon as the whole radio bit starts to grow on me, the sound feed dies. Great. Now my only option is the intertubes, but unfortunately I can only find a simple play by play to follow along with. Do not worry though. After following the play by play, I have a pretty good idea of how it (probably) all went down.  More...