Los Angeles Clippers: Have They Righted The Ship?
After suffering through some growing pains early in the season, have the Los Angeles Clippers finally turned things around? After cruising to their second straight victory, a 110-93 destruction of the Miami Heat, the Clippers have won three of their last four games and have held their last two opponents under 100 points.
The problems that have plagued DeAndre Jordan seemed to have righted themselves as he has secured 11 or more rebounds in each of the last four games, including an 18-rebound effort against the Phoenix Suns and a 17-rebound effort against the Chicago Bulls.
When I wrote about Jordan being the key to solving Los Angeles’ early season woes, I noticed that his field goal percentage, rebounds, and blocks were all down. After his ridiculous four-game stretch, his season numbers have ballooned back above his career averages.
Jordan’s field goal percentage is now 76 percent, his rebounds per game are more than 12, and his blocks per game have risen to 2.5.
Looking at advanced stats, Jordan is now up to 17th in the league in win shares, a stat that basically means he is the 17th most valuable player in the NBA, and second on the team only to Chris Paul, who ranks second in the NBA at 2.2.
Clearly, whatever was keeping Jordan from being his normal forceful self has disappeared. He is back to being a monster in the middle for the Clippers.
Of course, maybe DeAndre Jordan going crazy in the paint is just a result of better outside shooting. The often criticized Matt Barnes, after starting the season in a woeful shooting slump that had people like me calling for him to be benched, has shot 9-for-20 from 3-point range in the same four-game stretch.
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Early in the season the Clippers were far below average in team three point shooting percentage, but as of Nov. 21, they have risen all the way to No. 11, at nearly 37 percent. You can bet that Barnes has a lot to do with that dramatic rise.
It could easily be that Barnes horrific shooting was causing a log jam in the paint that was deflating Jordan’s numbers. Once Barnes starting heating up and teams had to chase him out to the 3-point line, Jordan found the paint undermanned and took full advantage of the situation.
Nevertheless, this shows just how key that small forward position is and why the Clippers desperately need a consistent long-range threat, preferably a “3 and D” type of player, instead of the streaky and volatile Barnes.
If Barnes can continue to hit even a modest amount of 3s, then the Clippers offensive troubles early in the year will be history. Maybe with better looks on offense, DeAndre Jordan will feel more comfortable on defense and get back to his glass cleaning and shot blocking ways.
On the other end, I suspected that the Clippers opponents were hitting an absurd amount of 3-pointers simply due to luck. On Nov. 7, Los Angeles’ opponents were hitting 42.6 percent of shots behind the arc. Two weeks later, the same Clippers are giving up only 34.8 percent.
Most of the early season 3s came from an unusually high number of corner 3 makes, with the opposition hitting better than 61 percent of their corner 3s. That number has dropped significantly, down to a little better than 41 percent.
So the bad luck that plagued the Clippers defense early has regressed to the mean, while their own shooting has improved dramatically. While it is doubtful that Los Angeles’ wings will continue raining down 3s at such a prolific rate, a close to league average result on long distance shots is achievable the rest of the season.
And if they can achieve that modest feat, then the Clippers will find themselves looking down at the rest of the Western Conference sooner than you might think, especially with the big offseason addition of Spencer Hawes fitting in nicely.
The Los Angeles Clippers seem to be hitting their stride, and that is bad news for the rest of the Pacific Division, and indeed, maybe even the entire Western Conference.