Los Angeles Clippers: Defensive decline leads to drop in standings

The Los Angeles Clippers started the season with four straight wins fueled by defensive excellence. They are 1-4 since, and much of the blame falls on their defensive decline during that stretch.

The Los Angeles Clippers were impossibly good on the defensive end to start this season. Their Defensive Rating of 86.1 points allowed per possession through their first five games would have shattered all kinds of defensive records. That mark was more than seven points per possession better than the surprisingly stout Portland Trail Blazers.

The Clippers should not have expected that level of defense to be sustainable. However, they have the pieces to stay in the top third of the league defensively. DeAndre Jordan and Patrick Beverley might be the best point guard-center defensive tandem in the league. The worst defender in their starting lineup, Danilo Gallinari, is at least capable on that end.

While the Clippers should not have bet on their defense being one of the best of all-time by the end of the season, they should not have fallen completely off the map. They have fallen from their league-leading 86.1 Defensive Rating to 14th in the league at 102.4 points allowed per 100 possessions.

While it is still hard to distinguish what trends are real within the small sample size theater, the Clippers will need to re-focus on the defensive end to break out of their recent slump.

Perimeter or post?

The Los Angeles Clippers have a defensive menace in the paint in DeAndre Jordan. They also have a defensive menace at the point of attack in Patrick Beverley. While both have been playing great defense to start the season, the team as a whole has fallen off a cliff on the defensive end. So who is to blame?

The easiest answer is also the most frustrating: nobody is to blame. The Clippers’ defensive numbers have been thrown out of whack by their 141-point shellacking at the hands of the Golden State Warriors. However, a deeper look suggests at least one major problem in the defensive rotation.

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One thing that is abundantly clear is that DeAndre Jordan is not the issue. He has the second-best Defensive Rating on the team among players with more than 100 minutes this season, per NBA.com. However, nobody on the team has a worse off-court Defensive Rating than Jordan; in other words, the team falls apart defensively when he sits.

Those on/off court numbers point to one major culprit: Austin Rivers. While Rivers gives good effort on the defensive end and has improved dramatically since he got to Los Angeles, the defensive metrics are not as kind to him as the eye test.

Rivers has the highest on-court Defensive Rating of any player on the Clippers with more than 100 minutes (104.9 points per 100 possessions). He also has the lowest off-court Defensive Rating of any Clippers player; the team has allowed just 98.0 points per 100 possessions with Rivers on the bench.

Those numbers are certainly skewed by the small sample size, but the advanced defensive metrics have never been a fan of Rivers. His play on that end of the floor will be something to monitor this season.

Future outlook

The Los Angeles Clippers started the season on an unsustainable defensive hot streak. While their recent crash on that end is concerning, it should also be taken with the same grain of salt as their ridiculous first five games.

The Clippers will have two defensive minuses in their rotation this season with Lou Williams and Milos Teodosic. However, the rest of their rotation grades out between close to average and All-Defensive team level. The Clippers also have one of the best defensive players at the most important defensive position in DeAndre Jordan.

The Los Angeles Clippers will probably not finish the season with the best defense in the NBA. However, they have the right talent at the right positions to finish the year with a better defense than their current 14th place ranking.

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Their defense should end up being somewhere between their insane first five games and their difficult last four games. If that holds true, they should be able to sneak their way into the Western Conference playoffs.