The Clipper Conundrum


The goal for all contending teams in the NBA right now is to crack the Warriors' code. So far...well...um...that hasn't been done yet. It is common knowledge that the three teams with the best chance to dethrone the Warriors are the Cavs, Spurs and Thunder. A smidge below those teams, are the Los Angeles Clippers.

Yes, the perennial blow-it-when-it-matters Clippers. Aside from the jokes, the Clips have a real chance to beat this superpower, but only if they have a swift game plan, and execute that gameplan to perfection.

One totally meaningless stat since it happened before the Warriors blossomed into THE Warriors is that the Clippers are the last team to defeat them in the playoffs, meaning they have some blueprint to beat this team. The one, undeniable and hard-to-face fact is that the Clippers, when fully healthy against this Warriors team, simply cannot beat them playing DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin together for long stretches of time.

It sounds crazy. How can a team win by playing only two of its three best players at a time? The answer, is spacing. Spacing is a word executives and coaches alike drool about, imagining a perfect world in which point guard and big man execute a pick and roll with three shooters lined around the three point arc, giving the guard maximum SPACING with which to pick apart the other team.

With these Clippers, the problem is that two of their three best players, DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, are not effective enough shooters to keep the Clipper offense flowing against the suffocating Warriors. While Blake has a really nice 18 foot shot going, that just is not enough when the Warriors are going down the other way every possession and knocking down threes to Griffin's twos.

DeAndre, as many are aware of, is completely incapable of shooting 6 feet out, let alone the three point line. DJ makes his meat and bones by being a menace at the rim, altering and swatting away shots with ease, inspiring fear into opponents. While this tactic works against 99% of lineups in the league, it gets annihilated against the Death lineup. In the Death lineup, the Warriors go five out, leaving no one in the paint for DJ to guard. Teams usually do not have enough quality wing defenders to counter this lineup, and that is why the Warriors are 49-5 as of this writing.

There is no one for DJ to guard, negating what he does best. Not quick enough to chase perimeter players and incapable of shooting, Jordan is relegated to a monster rebounder, which the Warriors can live with. Bottom line, the Clippers' offense is too cramped with Griffin and Paul doing their work at the top of the key and Jordan clogging up the paint.

That is why Doc Rivers must make the difficult decision to go with one or the other when it really matters, and I'm leaning Griffin, who is more capable of guarding wings and at least has a killer 18 foot jump shot.

With Griffin as the lone big, fill in the rest of the lineup with Paul-Crawford-Redick-Green. It lets the Clippers play small ball, gives them the best chance of guarding Golden State and spacing the floor out for deadly Griffin/Paul pick and rolls. Griffin's deficiencies as a rim protector are mitigated since the Warriors will be shooting threes as opposed to twos.

If the Clippers do not separate DJ and Blake, the results will be similar to those of years past.





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