The LA Clippers need to make a critical adjustment in the NBA playoffs
By Duncan Smith
The LA Clippers have a 2-1 lead on the scrappy and challenging Dallas Mavericks, but they’re playing with fire in the NBA playoffs.
The LA Clippers have a 2-1 lead over the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the NBA playoffs, and it’s been a challenge to build that slim margin. In Game 1, the Clippers were fortunate to get a dubious ejection of Mavs’ big man Kristaps Porzingis to help get their victory, and in Game 2 no such fortune went their way.
In Game 3, the Clippers were in control for most of the game, even before Luka Doncic went out with an ankle injury, but they did reveal one ugly rotation issue that will need to be resolved: Lou Williams and Reggie Jackson simply cannot share the floor together in the playoffs.
Under any circumstances.
The Clippers have had to alter their preferred rotation with Patrick Beverley out, but this duo doesn’t work. In the regular season after Jackson came over via the buyout market from the Detroit Pistons (but before the season was suspended due to COVID-19), they had some misleading level of success when they played together in a small sample of just 240 possessions. When Reggie Jackson and Lou Williams were on the floor together, they had an offensive rating of 126.2 and a defensive rating of 100.8.
Needless to say, this defensive rating is completely unsustainable. Neither guard is anywhere close to decent on defense and the combination is utterly disastrous. To explain this surprising defensive rating, you need to look no further than good shooting luck. The Clippers give up a high number of 3-pointers, with 41.0 percent of their opponents’ field goal attempts coming from behind the arc, but they only hit 33.0 percent of them.
In addition, the Clippers’ opposition combined to shoot just 67.4 percent from the free throw line.
On the other end, the offense was over-the-top unsustainable as well. The Clippers shot 44.3 percent from 3-point range, and that’s clearly not going to be replicable over any reasonable sample size.
Now that we’re in the playoffs, that fraudulent defensive success is souring. As a duo, Williams and Jackson have played 38 minutes together (almost 13 minutes per game!) and the Mavs are scoring at a ridiculous rate even for their historic offense. So far the Clippers are yielding an unbelievable 130.1 points per 100 possessions when they share the floor.
Against your average opponent, it’s hard to hide these two on defense, but against the Dallas Mavericks, it’s impossible. As you see in the clip above, even with elite defenders alongside them like Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, there’s simply no way to disappear their porous perimeter defense.
Even if Luka Doncic misses some time with his sprained ankle, the Clippers are burning up defensive possessions every time they violate what should be cardinal rules of how to use both of these players. Of course, Patrick Beverley’s healthy return will simplify things considerably, but until then, other rotational solutions are necessary.
If head coach Doc Rivers is paying attention (and he is), we’ll never see these two on the floor together in the NBA playoffs again for the LA Clippers.
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