
(Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images)
All eyes were going to be on Oklahoma City Thunder PG Russell Westbrook entering Wednesday night’s game at STAPLES Center. After all, the triple-double machine was averaging a league-leading 38.7 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 11.7 assists through the first three games of this season.
Westbrook fell short of all of those averages against the Clippers, totaling “only” 35 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. Westbrook didn’t get a triple-double, but he had a double-double with 10 turnovers. And Westbrook was the only player to reach double figures scoring for the Thunder in a game that saw Oklahoma score only 85 points on 84 shots.
But the Thunder outrebounded the Clippers 52-41 and held the Clippers to 83 points on 87 shots. Thunder backup C Enes Kanter had a game-high 12 rebounds off the bench, with Thunder starting C Steven Adams adding 11. And despite Clippers PG Chris Paul coming up an assist shy of a triple-double, it’s the Thunder that get to 4-0 as they dropped the Clippers to 3-1 in a battle of the West’s last two undefeated teams.
The Clippers had a 66-65 lead entering the 4th quarter, and after back-to-back midrange jump shots by Paul, the Clippers led 78-76 with 5:49 left following a Thunder timeout.
But in those last 5:49, the Thunder outscored the Clippers 9-5, with 6 of those points coming from Westbrook. The rebounds (4) and turnovers (5) were even, both teams made a three, and neither team made a free throw. The difference was that Westbrook made the Clippers pay for their mistakes on offense, scoring after steals. And the issues with the starting lineup on offense can be boiled down to this:
In the entire fourth quarter, the lineup of Paul-Redick-Mbah a Moute-Griffin-Jordan had 0 points on 0/4 from the field, with 5 turnovers.
In a game that was decided by two points, a 7-0 Thunder run from 5:49 left in the 4th until 1:00 left basically decided this game. Here are the ten offensive possessions that the Clippers had in between Paul’s jumper that gave the Clippers their final lead of the game with 5:49 left and a J.J. Redick three with 1:00 left that left the Clippers down 83-81:
- Paul turnover
- Paul turnover
- DeAndre Jordan misses two FTs (Domantas Sabonis hits go-ahead 3)
- Blake Griffin miss FG
- Griffin turnover
- Griffin miss FG
- Paul miss FG
- Paul turnover (Westbrook layup)
- Paul misses 3/shot clock violation
- Crawford turnover (Westbrook dunk)
HUGE swipe & slam from Russ in final minutes. He ended up with 35 points. #ThisIsWhyWePlay pic.twitter.com/E48YvQg6hM
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 3, 2016
In all, this was a hard game to watch for both teams offensively. Both teams combined for 41 turnovers, with the Thunder having only 14 assists to go with 22 turnovers. Oklahoma City made only 12-of-37 (32.4%) uncontested field goals, while LA made only 12-of-35 (34.3%) uncontested field goals. Open jumpers missed all night mixed in with turnovers left and right. OKC made only 12-of-20 FTs (60%), but the Clippers were only 8-of-18 (44.4%) from the stripe. And the starting guards for the Clippers, Paul and Redick, combined to make only 3-of-14 FGs (21.4%) inside the arc.
Two nights after Griffin’s most efficient scoring game, Griffin scored only 14 points on 7-of-21 shooting from the field (33.3%), missing both three-point attempts and all three FTs. In Griffin’s previous game against the Thunder, he scored only 15 points on 7-of-21 shooting from the field in what was a 100-99 home loss last December:

Both games at STAPLES Center.
The Clippers will take Thursday off before going on the road for a back-to-back against the Southwest Division. When they do get back on the floor, they’ll be looking to start a new winning streak, Griffin will be looking to start a new double-double streak, and Jordan will be looking to start a new streak with an offensive rebound – all of them were ended against Westbrook and the Thunder Wednesday night.
The offense from the starting 5 has been putrid.
They aren’t setting good screens. They aren’t moving the ball. They aren’t moving bodies. Even when they do J.J. looks a step slow. Having Mbah a Moute
and DJ on the floor together is a mess.
They had the #1 offense in the NBA two years in a row with Blake and DJ sharing the floor together. This is squarely put on Doc and CP for not getting their shit together in practice. And it’s put on Blake and DJ for their soft ass
screens this year, especially Blake.
It seems like we’ll never seethese two things as Clipper fans during the CP/BG
era. One is Chris Paul being aggressive from the jump. The other one is Blake
Griffin making quick decisions when he catches the ball.
I realize it’s only 4 games into the season and that’s only about 5% of the schedule, but the standings for the playoff spots in the West are looking about like how they’ll probably end up. It’s now 1. OKC, 2. SA , a tie for 3 and 4 with the Clippers and GS, a tie for 5, 6, 7 with Houston, Memphis and Utah, 8. Denver. The order will vary some, but it’s pretty close on who will end up there in the end..
The Clippers have played two teams with winning records, Utah and OKC, and they’ve split with them. That’s also probably pretty typical of how the season will go.
Basically the Clippers really do look very much like the same team as last season, with the same good points, Paul and Griffin, and the same problems, especially a small forward who can’t score at all and a center who can’t score except on open dunks, and also a lack of rebounding, which really showed against OKC who out rebounded the Clippers 52 to 41.
What the Clippers should do is rest BG and CP3 the whole year. Let them play around 40 games each. They might not win as many games, but they’d the only chance they have is if they both have extraordinary playoff performances.
For the 6th straight year the same team makes the same mistakes. For the
6th straight year the same team has the same weaknesses. What’s the plan here?
The Clippers play ugly basketball every October/November.
It makes you wonder what the f**k they do during Training Camp. Every f**king year they play like they just learned the game of basketball.
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