The game between the Clippers and Warriors in Oakland wasn’t televised in Los Angeles or on the web. I wasn’t able to listen to the game on radio, and can only glean so much from the box score of the Clips’ 108-101 loss to GSW.
The Red Flags
- 16 offensive rebounds for Golden State. That means the Clippers Defensive Rebound Rate was in the 63% range. That said, neither Blake Griffin (left knee) nor Marcus Camby (also left knee) logged minutes, and the Clippers went very, very small with a starting lineup of Baron Davis, Eric Gordon, Rasual Butler, Al Thornton and Chris Kaman. On the other hand, Butler, Gordon, and Ricky Davis combined for seven rebounds in 97 minutes. It’s worth saying again: If the Clippers’ wings don’t improve their rebounding rate, the Clippers are going to be giving up a ton of possessions and will have a hard time winning basketball games. Al Thornton’s seven rebounds in 20 minutes was the only silver lining here.
- 26 turnovers. Baron Davis (7), Eric Gordon (5), DeAndre Jordan (5) were the main culprits. 26 turns in any competitive game is bewildering, but it’s hard to parse what went wrong without the benefit of video.
- 23 FTAs against 75 FGAs (and 26 TOs). A FTA rate of 20.7 ain’t gonna cut it in the regular season. Again, this isn’t something that can be easily critiqued without video. For those who were at the game, were the Clippers not aggressive off the dribble? Only DeAndre Jordan had an above-average effort in this department. He led the team in FTAs with 9 (making 6).
The Positives
- DeAndre Jordan was perfect from the field. In 12 possessions, DeAndre racked up 22 points — great, great stuff. Jordan has been working on his post game tirelessly this summer and it will be fun to see whether these numbers can be attributed to that effort, or whether he’s just using his athleticism to slam home loose balls and offensive rebounds … not that there’s anything wrong with that.
- Eric Gordon, 7-11 from the field. Eric was fourth last year among shooting guards in true shooting percentage, and last night he picked up where he left off, compiling a TS clip of 72 percent.
- 10-23 from beyond the arc. Even with Steve Novak on the bench and Rasual Butler converting only one of seven attempts, the Clips filled it up from long distance. Ricky Davis (3-4), Kareem Rush (2-2) and Gordon (2-4) were the heavy hitters.
