Los Angeles Clippers Right The Ship After Tough Stretch
The Los Angeles Clippers lost four of their first five games after the All-Star break. They have won four of five since and are hot entering Monday’s potentially season-altering game against Utah.
Nothing seemed to go right for the Los Angeles Clippers after the All-Star break. Chris Paul was supposed to return in their first game against the Golden State Warriors. However, Doc Rivers ruled him out just before the game, which ended in a 123-113 loss.
Los Angeles dropped three of their next four games and appeared to be in dire straits. Their offense was mediocre but their defense was disastrous. The Clippers should have been making up ground once Paul returned.
Instead, they were struggling to prevent opponents from lighting them up.
Since then, the Los Angeles Clippers have righted the ship. They have won four of five games since their rough start. With an important game against the Utah Jazz looming, the Clippers have turned it around at just the right time.
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A Slow Re-Start
The Los Angeles Clippers are more known for their offense, but they were sixth in the NBA in Defensive Rating last season per NBA.com. This year, their offense is seventh and their defense is ranked in the top half of the league.
The Clippers have an Offensive Rating of 109.0 for the season, and a Defensive Rating of 105.7. During the five game stretch immediately after the All-Star break, their Offensive Rating slipped to 106.0. However, their Defensive Rating was an atrocious 117.1.
That mark is more than six points per 100 possessions worse than Denver’s 30th-ranked defense’s 110.5.
The Clippers struggled to make even basic rotations on defense. A lot of the baskets they allowed were on either wide-open triples or free jaunts to the rim:
Blake Griffin does not even bother to stop the ball as Nene Hilario barrels to the rim. Even if Griffin had stepped into the lane, James Harden is wide-open on the baseline, as is Eric Gordon on the wing.
Los Angeles Clippers
Chris Paul makes a half-hearted swipe at the ball as Trevor Ariza drives, but Paul should not be letting Ariza blow past him like this.
The upside for the Clippers during this stretch was their level of competition. Losing four of five games hurts, but three of those losses were against the three best teams in the conference and the league.
While the loss to the Milwaukee Bucks was concerning, the other three losses were somewhat expected. The Clippers could have gotten a statement win out of that tough slate of games, but without one they needed more than ever to get back on track with some big wins.
The Road to Recovery
The Los Angeles Clippers started their road to recovery with a huge win over the Chicago Bulls. While they played a rough first half, their defense really came together in the second half and led them to victory.
In the five game stretch beginning with that Bulls win, the Clippers’ offense and defense returned to normal. Their Offensive Rating in those games is 109.5, a slight uptick from their overall mark. Their Defensive Rating is 102.4 during this stretch, which is better than their mark for the year.
They are switching well on that end of the floor and walling off pathways to the rim. This Marc Gasol drive shows the new defensive fervor the Clippers are playing with recently:
Notice how the Clippers have shut off any passing lanes for Gasol. Although he is a willing and canny passer (especially for a big man), the Clippers do not give him enough room to make a pass to a backup option.
Instead, Gasol is forced to take it to the rim against both DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin.
The other important note is that the Clippers forced the Memphis Grizzlies to use the entire shot clock on this play. Rather than giving half-hearted effort for a few seconds before allowing an easy basket, the Clippers dig in as a team and force Memphis into a tough shot.
That defensive intensity will be a huge factor for the Clippers in their big game on Monday.
Make or Break Moment
The Los Angeles Clippers head into Monday’s game against Utah as the fifth seed. However, they are just one game behind the Jazz for the fourth seed in the conference.
The Clippers won both of their previous games against the Jazz, with wins on Oct. 30 and Feb. 13. Both of those games were defensive slugfests; the Clippers scored 88 points in both games while allowing Utah to score just 75 in the first game and 72 in the second game.
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The Clippers’ recent defensive turnaround came just in time for this game against the Jazz.
While this next game might not be a defensive war akin to the first two, Los Angeles will need to play suffocating defense against a Jazz team that is third in the league in Defensive Rating (per NBA.com) and plays at the league’s slowest pace by a significant margin.
Since the Clippers have already secured two victories in the season series against the Jazz, a win in this upcoming game would secure the tiebreaker over the Jazz.
With Memphis and the Oklahoma City Thunder struggling recently, the Clippers and Jazz are really the only two teams in contention for the fourth seed. Thus, Los Angeles and Utah will be duking it out for home court advantage for the rest of the season.
The Los Angeles Clippers have recovered from a rough patch after All-Star break by ratcheting up their defense.
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With the Utah Jazz looming as their opponent for the fourth seed and also as a likely first-round opponent, the Clippers have a chance to make Monday’s contest a statement victory as they enter the stretch run.