The Clippers’ dysfunction and bad chemistry have been well-documented, and the cultural issues that surround the club must be addressed before the 2009-10 season opener. But even if the Clippers return to training camp as a svelte, rededicated bunch, there are some fundamental weaknesses that extend beyond things like effort, coaching, and alchemy.

They’re difficult problems to evaluate, largely because of the dynamic we’re all familiar with: To the naked eye (and Mike Dunleavy), the Clippers don’t have any obvious gaping holes. Healthy, they have a chance to win every night. They feature a solid frontcourt rotation, a dynamic 20-year-old shooting guard, some promising young talent in the stable, a point guard who has promised to rededicate himself (and can’t possibly shoot worse than he did in 2008-09). So says the book.

The problem with this premise, of course, is that it simply isn’t true. Though each player features redeemable qualities (even Baron Davis, for all his shooting woes, put up some decent pure point numbers and finished with a league-average PER), the Clippers, as a collective, have serious deficiencies. Part of that is environmental/cultural/competing agendas, but there are fundamental on-court issues, as well:

• Base Defense: The Clippers finished 26th in defensive efficiency. Although some of that can be ascribed to a team that featured only three five-man units that logged more than 100 minutes together, the issues can’t be explained away with the simple idea that a team can’t gel defensively unless they play together for long stretches. We’ve discussed the issues here at length, and if you’ve been watching any postseason basketball, you see how effectively the good teams defend the screen/roll and how that contrasts with the Clippers efforts. Zach Randolph’s last four teams have finished 26th, 29th, 26th, and 28th respectively in defensive efficiency (his 2004-05 Portland squad finished a mediocre 20th, though Zach played in only 46 games). Baron Davis? 26th, 23rd, 17th, 17th, 17th/26th (split season GSW/NOH). If the Clips trade Marcus Camby this offseason, and that’s conceivable, they’ll lose a guy who finished 3rd in the NBA in individual defensive rating (per adjusted +/-).
• Shot Selection: The Clippers were 24th in the NBA in three-point percentage, yet spent 22% of their attempts on shots beyond the arc (15th), making them one of the outliers in the league. Most teams grasp their limitations, but not the Clips. They compound a weakness by indulging. Baron Davis is the worst offender. Though he shot only .302 from three-point range, he used 34% of his attempts on three-balls. Of the 82 eligible players in the NBA who made the three-point shot more than 30% of their attempts, Davis was dead last in 3P%. Any chance Davis will moderate his shot selection next season? The good news is that there’s precedence. After a rough 2005-06 season, Davis scaled back his 3PA/game from 6.0 to 4.4.
  
  Unfortunately, you’ll find patterns like this up and down the Clippers’ roster. Take Al Thornton. Here’s a guy with freakish athleticism who shoots .611 on inside shots — quite, quite good — but only .365 on two-point jumpers.  That, in and of itself, isn’t a problem. Paul Millsap’s split on inside/2P jumpers is  .634/.367, which makes him a decent comp. The difference is that while Thornton uses a majority of his shot attempts on two-point jumpers (53%), Millsap takes a two-point jumper only 36% of the time. Millsap maximizes his efficiency by taking the ball inside 63% of the time, while Al makes inside shots a measly 36% of this attempts. Yes, Millsap is a power forward, but he lacks Al’s dribble-drive ability.  Want some SF comps? See Young, Thaddeus (yes, he’s a 3), Kirilenko, Andrei, and Ariza, Trevor.
  
  Marcus Camby is another offender. There’s no good reason that a big man who converts his two-point jumpers at a .343 clip should use 48% of his shot attempts on them. There was only one other player in the NBA who shot below .350 on 2-point jumpers, yet devoted such a heavy proportion of his shots to them — Tyrus Thomas.
  
  Even Zach Randolph, a fairly efficient scorer, could use some improvement. His inside/2PJ split was .645/.377, but he took more of the latter (42%/46%). In terms of Inside/2PJ shooting percentage, Kendrick Perkins, Emeka Okafor, and David Lee are all good comps for Randolph, but each attempted more than twice as many inside shots as two-point jumpers. It’s an unsettling trend for Zach. Three seasons ago, he allocated 60% of his attempts to shots in the basket area. In 2007-08, that number dipped to 51%.  And now 42%.
  
  Shot selection is a potentially fixable problem. Guys have patterns, but those habits aren’t necessarily predilections. Thornton can be coached to put the ball on the deck and drive, and there were times last season he took that initiative and had some of his best games of the season.
• Passing: Nothing new here. Mike Dunleavy has been collecting incapable passers for years. Wing players such as Cuttino Mobley, Corey Maggette, and Al Thornton stifle ball movement on the perimeter. Theoretically, a guard of Eric Gordon’s combo pedigree should help — and his 15.0 assist rate isn’t horrendous — but it’s clear that EJ’s height doesn’t allow him to see the NBA floor, at least not yet. Apart from Marcus Camby, who’s good-not-great, forget about any help from the bigs. Kaman has improved, but still gets flustered in double-team situations and doesn’t have the confidence to make plays for others. Zach Randolph is a vacuum, with neither the instincts nor inclination to do anything with the ball other than shoot. Until the organization makes a concerted attempt to draft, develop, and acquire guys who can keep the ball moving in the halfcourt, the Clippers are destined to be relegated to the bottom third of the NBA’s scrap heap offensively — healthy or not. Unlike 2005-06, the Clippers no longer have a defense that can compensate for a low-grade offense.

Over the next 10 weeks or so, we’ll find out whether Mike Dunleavy intends to cling to the apocryphal notion that the Clippers’ roster, as presently constituted, can succeed at full health, or whether he’ll take measures to address the very real basketball issues that plague this club. Although it’s important to remember that trades aren’t easy to execute in the NBA, smart front offices find ways to dislodge a Luis Scola from a rival, or snag a Nicolas Batum. The Clippers must add more complete players to the roster — bigs who can pass, perimeter players who can defend multiple positions, and guards who can rebound. There are too many multifaceted players in the NBA to rely on single-dimensional talents who may impress with a 20-10, or can jump out of the gym, but can’t perform the basic tasks and grasp the nuances that elevate bad teams to respectability.

The Clippers are parachuting into Denver without Al Thornton, Chris Kaman, and Marcus Camby, so I don’t expect tonight to be much of a game. The Nuggets’ frontcourt rotation is composed of legitimate big men — Nene, Kevin Martin, Chris Andersen, and Renaldo Balkman.  They don’t engage in a lot of smallball, despite what their 5th ranked pace number might suggest. At times, Linas Kleiza will assume the 4 spot in the second unit, particularly with Martin still recovering from a back injury, but they generally have two big bodies out there at the 4 and 5.

Along with Chauncey Billups, these bigs are a primary reason the Nuggets rank 8th in defensive efficiency.  On Thursday night, they held Utah to a mere 104 points in 107 possessions.  X’s & O’s of Basketball watched the game, and illustrates Denver’s effective pick-and-roll defense.  Jeremy Wagner of Roundball Mining Company made some similar observations a few weeks back.

X’s & O’s has a video clip of a particularly good defensive set where Denver traps Deron Williams:

I just like this defensive/offensive sequence from the end of the first quarter. The Jazz are in their ISO and high PNR set for Deron Williams, the Nuggets do a great thing by trapping the ball screen, then zoning up, forcing the 24 second shot clock violation…I really like [trapping the screen] because it takes the ball out of the offense’s best playmaker. You might give up an open look, but I think when you play against a team with a great playmaker, the key is to force the other players to make a play, create their own shot. In fact, even if the Jazz didn’t run a high ball screen, I would’ve doubled Williams anyways to get the ball out of his hands…

There’s no question that S/R defense is the linchpin of any NBA defense, but X’s & O’s reveals a point that often goes unsaid:  The two guys defending that action are vital, but the three guys covering the rest of the floor are just as important to a defensive stop.

Carmelo Anthony, Linas Kleiza, and J.R. Smith aren’t anything special as individual defenders, but they do a great job here of blanketing the floor, accounting for Utah’s perimeter people, and ultimately rotating while Chauncey Billups and Chris Andersen work against the S/R.  In doing so, those three guys buy Andersen enough time to get back to the basket area, where he’s most useful as a defender [and where he blocks Andrei Kirilenko's layup, resulting in a shot clock violation].

Remember that Clippers’ #8 ranked defense of 2005-06?  As individual defenders, they weren’t all that much, but they did this sort of thing remarkably well — which goes to show that alertness and chemistry account for a lot.

At the outset, the Clippers play one of their strongest quarters of the season. Their defense stifles Charlotte out of the gate.  They defend Charlotte’s high S/R with energy and precision [is that Ricky Davis blocking Raja Bell's 20-footer on the recovery in the closing minute?].  The only clean looks the Bobcats muster are on a couple of pin-downs for Bell [1st, 10:32; 1st, 7:15], but those shots aren’t falling. Offensively, as well, the Clippers play a very heady game in the first quarter.  Al Thornton hits only three of his seven from the field in the period, but with one exception, all of his attempts are on assertive moods to the hole, or inside of 15 feet.  Baron Davis posts up Raymond Felton [then later D.J. Augustin] to good effect.  Marcus Camby flings a perfect 70-foot outlet pass to Ricky Davis, who gets fouled for two shots.  And Mike Taylor gets out into the open floor on the break, weaving his way through traffic to finish with a circus layup.   The Clippers win the quarter 29-17 [114.5/73.9].

The shine starts to come off at the beginning of the second quarter.  Even as the Clippers’ reserves score on each of their first three possessions, Charlotte’s second unit with Vladimir Radmanovic and D.J. Augustin are able to spread the floor.  The defensive tandem of Mike Taylor and Steve Novak get burned on two consecutive Augustin/Radmanovic S/Rs along the three-point arc.  After that, Emeka Okafor takes over — and a 15-point Clippers lead is whittled down to six in short order.  The set that gets the Bobcats going:

• [2nd, 7:59]  A 1-5 S/R for Augustin/Okafor [though it might as well be Paul/Chandler].  The Clippers trap Augustin along the perimeter, while Okafor makes a hard dive to the hoop.  Al Thornton, who’s covering Gerald Wallace at the elbow, should rotate down and pick up Okafor on the cut [Skinner is yelling at him to do so], but Al is oblivious.  Skinner tries to recover himself, or at least block the passing lane, but Wallace slows him up with a back screen.  Okafor finishes the pretty alley-oop.

After getting shut out in the first quarter, Okafor scores 13 points in fewer than four minutes in the middle of the second:

• [2nd, 7:18] On the next possession, he abuses Alex Acker off the switch for an old-fashioned three-point play.
• [2nd, 6:56] The Cats go back to that high S/R.  This time Al picks up Okafor in the paint, but Okafor has a head of steam and elevates over Al for an easy lay-in.
• [2nd, 6:08] Charlotte goes into Okafor against Skinner one-on-one on the left block.  Though Okafor misses the baby right hook, he collects his miss and muscles over both Skinner and Novak for the putback, looking exactly like c. 2006 Elton Brand.
• [2nd, 4:43]  Zach Randolph has now replaced Brian Skinner as Okafor’s defender.  Augustin and Okafor run another one of those high S/Rs.  Baron fights through the Okafor screen nicely, but Randolph’s defense can best be described here as…statuesque.  Augustin drops a little bounce pass between the two Clipper defenders.  This time Camby is patrolling the paint in wait, so Okafor pulls up for a 10-footer that falls.
• [2nd, 4:07]  Another S/R for Augustin/Okafor, but on this occasion the little point guard holds on the ball and fires a 3PA.  It’s no good, but since Randolph was so poky defending the roll, Okafor is able to get prime position under the glass.  He picks up Augustin’s miss and goes back up for the slam.

Okafor’s exploits continue into the third quarter against the woeful Clippers’ interior defense.  The Bobcats’ center goes 3-4 from the field in the first 3:12 of the second half:

• [3rd, 11:42]  Larry Brown has won a few basketball games in his time by exploiting the best mismatch on the floor.  And after 24 minutes of evidence, he’s quite aware that Zach Randolph can’t guard Emeka Okafor.  Here, Okafor is able to set up shop five feet from the hoop, inside the paint against Randolph on the left side. [left block would be too generous].   Felton feeds his big man, who makes an easy drop step and turn for a layup off the glass — and the foul.
• [3rd, 11:29]  Another 1-5 S/R.  Again, Randolph nominally traps Felton along with Baron, and again, Randolph then spins his head around to see his man rolling unfettered to the hoop.  Easy pass, and another easy lay-in.  The Cats have spaced the floor to complicate the Clippers’ defensive rotations.  As a result, Thornton is too late coming over from the corner.
• [3rd, 8:48]  (Okafor’s only miss in the sequence comes when he collects Baron Davis’ rejection of a Felton shot and has to fling the ball at the basket with the shot clock expiring.)  Here, we’ve got another S/R up top for Okafor and his point guard.  This time, Okafor slips the screen, gets well ahead of Randolph, and goes in untouched with an easy slam.

This basket ties the game 55-55, and Mike Dunleavy calls timeout.  The Clippers will never lead again.

Aside from the fact that Zach Randolph is one of the least effective post defenders in basketball, what makes this piece of the Charlotte offense so difficult to defend is that Marcus Camby can’t afford to leave his man, Boris Diaw, alone on the perimeter.  This prevents Camby from doing what he does best — providing help defense and guarding the basket.

In fairness, Randolph’s incredible offensive effort must be recognized.  He scores 14 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter, making his final five attempts from the floor along with three free throws:

• [4th, 9:48]  Baron Davis has a very effective game one-on-one against Charlotte’s smaller guards.  For all the talk about the disconnect between Davis and Dunleavy, this is one area where we can be pretty certain their two interests overlap.  Davis has always been terrific at exploiting his strength against smaller PGs, and Dunleavy loves that dynamic, as well.   Unfortunately, once Taylor emerges as the other guard in the Clippers backcourt, this frees Larry Brown up to assign Raja Bell to cover Baron, while leaving his midgets on Taylor.  Baron is able to get a first step on Bell here, but ends up along the baseline, too far underneath to finish his drive.  Randolph is there to tip in the miss.
• [4th, 8:03]  The Clippers run their own S/R with Baron/Randolph.  Though aesthetically speaking, it lacks the grace of Charlotte’s model, it’s still effective.  Bell and Diop trap Baron, but Radmanovic rotates early and blocks Randolph’s path to the rack.  Zach is still able to draw contact on his heave, and makes both FTAs.
• [4th, 6:39]  The Clippers feed Randolph pretty far off the right elbow against Diop.  Randolph doesn’t like what he’s seeing, so he wisely returns the ball up top.   Baron takes a dribble and penetrates.  This draws Diop off Randolph, which allows Zach to float out to the arc unattended.  Davis drives-and-kicks, Randolph catches, and Zach’s 3PA over a late-closing Bell is good.
• [4th, 3:32]  Though it starts out a little muddled, this materializes into a very nice set for the Clippers.  Randolph begins way out on the left perimeter, while Thornton dribbles up top.  Zach then rumbles across the lane, getting help from Mike Taylor, who sets a nice screen at the left edge of the paint that catches Okafor as he’s trying to stay with Randolph.  Okafor practically slams the little Taylor to the ground trying to fight through that screen, but the Clippers get what they want — Felton has to pick up Randolph as Zach sets up at his favorite spot on the right block.  Baron Davis feeds him there, and he devours Felton en route to an easy lay-in, and the foul.   Very, very pretty sequence — similar to an effective play the Clippers were able to work against the Knicks.
• [4th, 2:02]  A crucial possession with the Clippers down 95-91.  This one isn’t as pretty.  Though the Clips get the ball into Randolph on the right block, he fumbles his dribble.  By the time Randolph picks it up, he’s forced to kick the ball back out to Baron, who launches a 3PA that first hits off the front rim, then caroms high off the glass.  Zach is able to collect the miss and lay it back in.
• [4th, 1:15]  The Clippers try to work that Randolph/Felton switch again, but this time the action by Taylor isn’t as effective — Okafor forcefully moves through Taylor to stay with Randolph as he heads to his spot on the right block.   Doesn’t matter.  Zach gets the entry pass from Baron, takes a single dribble toward the baseline, then fires a step-back left-handed jumper with tremendous arc over Okafor.

The decisive sequence of the game is, of course, the final possession after the Clippers snatch the errant entry pass from Diaw to Wallace.  With :19 remaining and the Clips trailing by three, Mike Taylor races the ball up without calling timeout.

Generally, I think teams should improvise more often on crucial possessions to prevent the defense from getting set, but here it’s odd because of the unique condition of the three-point deficit.   It would seem the best course of action is to push — as the Clippers do — to find a quick score, but if one doesn’t materialize at, say, the :12 mark, call timeout to get your best three-point shooter in the game.

Here’s what happens instead:

• [4th, 0:19-ish]  Again, if the purpose of not calling time is to exploit a scrambled defense, that’s not the case here because Charlotte methodically drops back into their set defense.   By the :14 second mark, Felton is in front of Taylor, Okafor has picked up Randolph and it’s the Clippers who seem far more disoriented than the Bobcats.  Baron senses what’s going on.  He’s charting the arc, desperately trying to find some space for himself.   Camby comes up to set a screen for Taylor and it works. Taylor is able to penetrate agaisnt a backpedaling Diaw, but that’s the easy part.  The bigger concern is: Can he find one of his shooters for the kickout?   Yes.  There’s Zach Randolph up high on the left side.  As he enters the basket area, Taylor zips a pass across his body, but it’s not a good one.  Zach is able to find the handle, but not before Gerald Wallace smothers him, eliminating any possibility of a clean shot attempt.   Zach is forced to pass it off to Thornton at the top of the arc, guarded by Diaw.   At 0:6.7, Thronton elevates for an awkward-looking 3PA.  It barely grazes the rim.

Mike Taylor has a nice offensive game (13 points, 6-8 FG, 4 turnovers), but doesn’t yet have the steadiness to lead the halfcourt offense in a tight game down the stretch.  His turnover with 0:44 and the Clippers down three is painful.  The entire Charlotte defense had collapsed on Zach in the paint, and though Taylor has three open teammates scattered around the court, he gets into the air prematurely and forces a bad pass into Randolph, who is smothered.

The final score might suggest a hard-fought defensive struggle, but that isn’t the case.  Charlotte’s 100 points come on only 86 possessions.  The Bobcats normally need 100 possessions to score those 100 points.  It would also be irresponsible to suggest that the Clippers’ defensive failures emanate entirely down low.  In the second half, they allow Raja Bell to get loose on the perimeter.  Some of Bell’s shots come under duress [4th, 5:24], but too often, he’s able to drift out to the margins once the Clippers’ defense gets scrambled on those S/Rs [3rd, 5:07, 4th, 1:36].  And sometimes, it’s just Ricky Davis having absolutely no idea where be belongs defensively in a simple halfcourt set –how else does Charlotte walk the ball up and get a wide open look from three-point range with :17 left on the shot clock [3rd, 6:39]?

Until the Clippers figure out how to stop the inside-out game, how to defend big-little S/Rs, how to rotate against teams who can move the ball side to side, they’re not going to be able to sustain much momentum.  Eric Gordon’s return will help a little bit because Mike Taylor, as infectious as his speedy offensive game is, has absolutely no idea what to do defensively when he’s taken out of a play.  Once you have more than two guys on the floor who don’t have good defensive instincts, it makes far too easy for the offense to get what they want on a given set.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — While it’s always frustrating when a game isn’t televised in Los Angeles, rest assured that those of you without League Pass missed one of the least telegenic games of the season.

Those low double-teams that fueled the Clippers’ ball movement in Atlanta on Saturday are entirely absent tonight, as Larry Brown employs a more stay-at-home brand of defense (with some exceptions when the help is cheap).  The Clippers’ shooters have trouble finding open space both high and low, and their offense stagnates as a result.

Zach Randolph doesn’t have a bad offensive night — though his 2-7 performance from the line costs the Clips.  Too often, though, he settles for fadeaways over Emeka Okafor, rather than brutalizing the Bobcats’ lanky big man, something he does successfully on a couple of occasions, but gets away from.  At [3rd, 9:58], Zach launches a 29-footer for the sheer hell of it.

The game spirals away from the Clippers at [4th, 9:42] when they fall behind by nine.  A four-possession series begins promising enough when the Clippers isolate Ricky Davis on the right side against Vladimir Radmanovic [4th, 10:33].  Davis destroys the Cats’ new acquisition off the dribble, gliding past Vlad for an easy layup.  Unfortunately, it’s all downhill after that.  Radmanovic makes Davis pay on the very next Bobcat possession, when Ricky cheats off him unnecessarily in the corner.  The ball finds its way to Vlad, who drains the 3PA with Ricky late to close.  The next trip down, Ricky gets another opportunity against Vlad, the man he just embarrassed one-on-one.  What does Ricky do?  Without hesitation, Ricky foists a 20-footer over the 6′ 10″ Radmanovic, an absolute brick.   A few seconds later on the other end, the Clips unfurl the welcome mat in the paint for Raymond Felton, who misses his layup, but fights off Fred Jones and the Clippers bigs to tip in his own miss.  Timeout Clippers.

The Clips leave the back door open all night for Charlotte, and Boris Diaw sneaks the ball inside with beautiful passes to the Bobcats’ big men on hard cuts.  Diaw finishes with nine assists — eight of them to DeSagana Diop, Okafor, and Radmanovic.  Despite the pattern, the Clippers’ defense never makes an adjustment.  “Our guys who were supposed to be sinking and filling had a tough time,” Dunleavy says.  All night, the Clippers’ help side defenders were slow to pick up the cutters.   At times, Diaw initiates the action off the dribble.  “We didn’t do a good job of taking his right hand away.  He’s a dominant right-handed driver.”  Al Thornton is the victim at [1st, 7:00] when Diaw suckers him with a ball-fake along the baseline.  Thornton bites to Diaw’s left, which allows Diaw to drive baseline with his right.  On this occasion, the help is there [Camby], but Camby’s rotation leaves Okafor wide open underneath.  Diaw finds him for one of his nine assists.

Tonight’s game presents an interesting opportunity for Eric Gordon to learn on the job.  The Bobcats assign their tiny PG, D.J. Augustin to guard Eric.  Augustin gives up about 50 pounds and five inches to Gordon.  It’s rare that Gordon draws a midget as his primary defender, and though it’s not his natural inclination to have his back to the basket, Gordon gives it a go.  There’s a particularly fine play at [3rd, 4:38] when Eric sets up deep on the low right block against Augustin.  Camby, at the top of the arc, immediately feeds EJ, who muscles over Augustin for a layup, and the foul.   “He’s a lot shorter and a lot smaller than me, so I had to take advantage,” Gordon says after the game.  EJ didn’t post up much at Indiana, so it’s a relatively unrefined part of his game. “This is more of an individual game,” he says referring to the NBA.  “It would be better for me to try to use the post-up game to open up my game a little bit more.”   Eric’s body and strength lend him an ability to exploit defenders in the post, and he’d be smart to cultivate that as part of his repertoire.

Once upon a time Baron Davis posted up opposing guards, but tonight he doesn’t do much of anything.  He finishes 1-7 from the field and actually airballs an uncontested 3PA [2nd, 9:11].  Only two of his seven attempts originate from inside 19 feet, and he never really looks to attack the 6′ 1″ Felton at the elbow, a place Davis has traditionally had success.  Instead, it’s another barrage of ill-advised, ill-timed, ill-fated jumpers — enough to make anyone with a premium NBA package or a seat at Charlotte Bobcats Arena ill.

“This is borderline embarrassing” –- Ralph Lawler [2nd, 6:25]

Want to watch something truly embarrassing?  Take a look at Baron Davis and Marcus Camby defend a high screen by Rashard Lewis at the top of the arc:

• [2nd, 0:40] In the pantheon of NBA power forwards, Lewis isn’t exactly a bruiser.  But on this set, you’d think he’s Maurice Lucas.  Lewis is defended by Camby to the left of Anthony Johnson, who runs point for Orlando in the absence of Jameer Nelson.  Baron Davis plays a few feet off Johnson.  Lewis slides between Johnson and Davis, then sets a screen that straddles the circle at the top of the key.  Davis puts no real effort to fight through it.  In fact, Baron literally wraps his arms around Lewis in a bear hug.  Meanwhile, Camby neither switches nor shows.  I’m not sure how you’d classify his brand of S/R defense here.  He follows Lewis with his arms extended and his back to Johnson.  I guess Marcus figures that Davis will run underneath, and that he has to account for Lewis.  When Davis gets caught, Marcus never runs out on Johnson, or even looks at him.  He just takes off for the glass, hoping to get the rebound.  Problem is, when you allow a team to shoot 64% from the floor, there aren’t that many rebounds to be had.

Orlando drains 16 of 26 from beyond the arc, the majority of which are clean looks.  They get some of them on lapsed rotations, and some of them in transition — but always on lousy defensive decisions by the Clips:

• [3rd, 5:50] Hedo Turkoglu rushes the ball up the right sideline.  He gets a quick screen from Dwight Howard, and uses it well as he drives toward the lane.  While this is going on over on the right side, Courtney Lee has spots up in the weak side [left] corner, and Johnson on the left wing.   Baron Davis is responsible for Johnson, while Gordon accounts for Lee.  To review:  Two shooters spread out on the weak side [and for the purposes of this specific half of basketball, Anthony Johnson is a shooter], with corresponding two defenders.  So what does Baron do?   He collapses on Turkoglu, even though Camby is the help defender, even though Turkoglu’s easiest kick is to the trailing Johnson [Baron's man].Well, the Magic are 36-11 for a reason — they capitalize on dense opponents.  Turkoglu makes the easy pass to Johnson.  Gordon now has to pick his poison — rotate onto Johnson, which will leave Lee alone, or leave a wide open look for Johnson [who finishes the first half 6-7 on 3PA].  Gordon chooses the former.  There is no correct answer, because the play is already blown the instant Davis decides he needs to gamble on Turkoglu 18 feet from the basket.  Johnson passes it over to Lee, and the rookie nails the 3PA from the corner.
• [2nd, 10:55]  The Clippers have no orientation defensively whatsoever.  JJ Redick pushes the ball up the left side against Eric Gordon.  Tony Battie, Hedo Turkoglu, and Courtney Lee spread out along the arc [Incidentally, when did Tony Battie add an 18-foot jump shot to his game?].  Redick feeds Howard just off the left block against Randolph, then cuts to the right corner.  Instead of following Redick to the weak side, Gordon yells for Ricky Davis to pick up Redick, so that Eric can help on Howard.  Davis seems confounded by the request, and he may have cause.  Howard isn’t the world’s greatest passing big man, but he’s certainly capable of passing over Eric Gordon to find one of two open shooters on the weak side.That’s exactly what happens: Howard kicks it out of the post to Lee.  Now both Gordon and Ricky Davis close on Lee which, naturally, leaves Redick wide open in the corner.  Lee dishes the ball over to Redick, who drains the 3PA.Bad decision-making, bad recovery — all of it compounded by bad communication.

About five minutes into the game, there’s a sequence that’s the perfect three-second embodiment of Zach Randolph’s defensive career:

• [1st, 7:13] Randolph guards Howard a couple of steps off the mid-left post.  Howard faces up on Zach, pounds a single left-handed dribble into the floor, then takes a stride along the baseline, then goes up for a stuff.That’s it.  Howard doesn’t freeze Randolph with a deceptive jab step, or execute some pretty footwork to get himself free.  He merely uses Zach Randolph against Zach Randolph.

Until this team demonstrates any wherewithal on the defensive end of the floor, it doesn’t matter how many offensive weapons return to the lineup.

Good teams win ugly basketball games, and tonight the Clippers notch their third W in four chances with a workaday, not particularly attractive win over Houston.  There should be comfort for Clipper fans in just how utilitarian and bland this victory is.  Ugly wins are indicative teams that understand that success requires an almost prosaic commitment to a few basic fundamentals.  Most of these revelations for the Clippers are happening at the margins of the game:

• Rebounding:  Since getting mauled on the glass in Memphis, the Clippers haven’t lost a rebounding battle in a stretch of games that’s included two matchups against Top 10 rebounding teams.  The difference can be seen most prominently with the guards.  Eric Gordon collects seven rebounds against Houston — his high mark for the season.  One of the ancillary benefits of having guards who can crash the boards is that the subsequent possession begins with the ball in the hands of someone who can push the action.  At [3rd, 6:50], EJ waits beneath the weak side glass as Shane Battier fires a long 3PA from the far side corner.  Gordon doesn’t exactly have to scrap for the ball, but with Scola having drawn Randolph up top and Yao doing battle with Camby on the ball side, the weak side belongs to whichever wing wants it the most.  Once EJ clears the rebound, he bursts upcourt, weaves his way through the entire Houston defense, up the gut of the lane, all the way to the rack for an easy layup.  An easy two — in large part because the transition requires no middleman and there’s no time for the Rockets’ defense to get set with EJ racing up the floor.
• Guarding the Perimeter: A Houston team that drained ten 3PMs when they faced the Clippers last week manages only five in 21 attempts last night.  Eric Gordon never takes his eyes off Rafer Alston, and when he does, the rotations are crisp.  There’s a moment just after the aforementioned EJ transition bucket when the Rockets get the ball over to McGrady on the far side [3rd, 6:34].  EJ leaves Alston to double McGrady.  McGrady sees this and returns the ball to Alston, who is now alone up top.  But the instant the ball leaves McGrady’s hands, Al Thornton darts from Battier over to Alston.  Battier, now unaccounted for, cuts across the court  where he’s picked up by…Baron Davis.  What’s going on here?  Good, clean rotations that anticipate the action before it happens.  Everyone in a Clipper jersey is concerned not just with their primary assignment, but where the ball is on the court, and what might be expected of them on the next pass.  Cue up the video to any random possession in this game, and you’ll see the Clippers’ defense working like this.  It’s almost enough to make you misty.
• Playing the Passing Lanes:  Sometimes steals can be deceptive because a high steal number often suggests a willingness to gamble defensively more than it does anything else.  There’s a reason San Antonio is almost always at the bottom of the league in steals.  But the Clippers last night are able to pick Houston’s pockets not by overplaying, but by anticipation and smart pressure.  During an electrifying stretch midway through the 3rd quarter, the Clippers steal the ball away on three consecutive possessions.  The result is three straight easy FGs that vault the Clippers into a lead they never relinquish.  The first [3rd, 5:50] comes courtesy of Yao Ming, who is pressured by a strong Thornton-Randolph double-team after Randolph recovers nicely off the Battier screen.  Yao is flustered.  He’s looking for his guards, sees McGrady at the top of the arc.  Gordon is the guy holding down the fort up on the weak side wing  — EJ is set up between McGrady and Scola.  But he sees that Yao is in trouble and that the ball is most likely coming his way.  EJ immediately sticks a hand out, deflects Yao’s pass, then races into the other way with the ball.  Baron Davis fills the lane to his left.  EJ gets Baron the ball for an easy lay-in.   At [3rd, 5:23] off an inbounds play beneath the Rockets’ basket, Alston gets the ball into McGrady.  With only :07 left on the shot clock, McGrady wants to get it inside to his big man.  But Marcus Camby deflects the ball away into the frontcourt.   Remember what we said about the benefits of having the ball in the hands of the guard?  Bunk.  Because Marcus Camby bursts into the open court with a fierce drive!  He takes it all the way to the rack for a beautiful finger-roll lay-in!  Then, on the very next possession, comes the most satisfying of the three steals:  Altson and Scola set up for the high S/R on the near side [3rd, 5:03].  Al Thornton, who’s over on Shane Battier in the weak side corner, sees the lazy set materializing from a mile away.  Like a cat, he pounces from the corner up top, squirts between Alston and Scola, tips the ball into the backcourt, and starts his breakaway drive for an easy slam!

Here’s something to remember:  When the Clippers were a sound defensive team a couple of years ago, they did it despite the absence of so-called shut down defenders.  Cuttino Mobley was a solid man-to-man defender, but Cassell had very little left, Corey Maggette was scattered, Chris Kaman was still very, very green and prone to brainfarts, and Elton was undersized at his position.  There’s absolutely no reason that this current squad, which includes Marcus Camby, a smart, physical PG in Baron Davis, a strong, quick guard in Eric Gordon, a rebouding machine in Zach Randolph and Al Thornton — who shouldn’t be worse than Maggettte — can’t be a middle-of-the-pack defensive team.  And don’t look now, but since that game against Memphis the Clippers’ defensive efficiency ranking has climbed from the low-20s to 15th.  If the Clips continue this trend and keep putting up offensive efficiency numbers like last night’s 104.4, then they should win half of their games.