Round 1 | Game 3 | Los Angeles (1) @ San Antonio (1) | 4/24 | 6:30 PM | ESPN

[mkwest]

Who:



Where: AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX


When: Friday, April 24th, 2015 @ 6:30PM (PDT)

TV: / ESPN

Radio:









The Supporting Cast


0 - Big Baby Davis | 15 - Hedo Turkoglu | 25 - Austin Rivers

10 - Spencer Hawes | 1 - Jordan Hamilton | 30 - C.J. Wilcox

31 - Dahntay Jones | 13 - Ekpe Udoh | 14 - Lester Hudson







Starters

Parker | Green | Leonard | Splitter | Duncan

Reserves

Mills | Ginobili | Belinelli | Diaw | Baynes



Inactive List:

Jordan Hamilton (Concussion) is questionable.


Tony Parker (Achilles) is questionable.



Team Leaders and Statistics

Scoring

27.5 PPG in 44.7 MPG| 20.5 PPG in 36.0 MPG

Rebounding

14.5 RPG in 41.3 MPG| 11.0 RPG in 37.1 MPG

Assists

8.5 APG in 44.7 MPG | 5.5 APG in 32.8 MPG

Steals

3.0 SPG in 34.7 MPG | 2.5 SPG in 36.0 MPG

Blocks

3.5 BPG in 41.3 MPG | 1.5 BPG in 37.1 MPG

3 Pointers

3.0 3MPG on 60% | 2.5 3MPG on 55.6%


Team Performance
107.0 Points Per Game
50.5 Rebounds Per Game
19.5 Assists Per Game
13.5 Turnovers Per Game
3 Point Shooting: 40.4% on 23.5 Per Game
Opp 3 Point Shooting. 3P%: 34.1%
Def. Rebounding Percentage: 74.5%
Off. Rebounding Percentage: 23.9%
Points in the Paint: 45.0 Points Per Game
Points off Turnovers: 13.0 Points Per Game
Fast Break Points: 19.0 Points Per Game
2nd Chance Points: 12.0 Points Per Game



Team Performance
101.5 Points Per Game
48.5 Rebounds Per Game
25.5 Assists Per Game
12.0 Turnovers Per Game
3 Point Shooting: 31.0% on 29.0 Per Game
Free-Throw Shooting: 63.5% on 26.0 Per Game
Def. Rebounding Percentage: 76.1%
Off. Rebounding Percentage: 25.5%
Points in the Paint: 47.0 Points Per Game
Points off Turnovers: 13.0 Points Per Game
Fast Break Points: 12.5 Points Per Game
2nd Chance Points: 14.5 Points Per Game

[Ranma]

I've said before that when the Clips play their game, the Spurs just can't stop them and even with our late game collapse, I still think that holds true. One could argue that the way we lost supports my assertion. Tony Parker is ailing, Manu has been relatively quiet, plus it took a big game from Tim Duncan and self-defeating mental lapses for the Clips to lose Game 2.

With Leonard preoccupied on Redick, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin should take more advantage of their respective subpar defensive shadows. Conversely, J.J. should do a better job of going off once Leonard switches off him, especially if Danny Green continues to be relatively quiet.

Speaking of support, we need Matt Barnes to be consistently solid given how unreliable our bench is. It can't all be on CP3 and BG, so we need other players to step up. Doc is not going to outcoach Pop, so the team has got to stop beating itself. Personally, I'd like to see Lester Hudson get some minutes at the expense of Jamal and Austin even if he is untested only because he should be a better defender than either while also possessing a decent offensive game albeit one that has not been allowed to be on display. However, we know Doc won't do that to avoid dealing with the pouting from both Crawford and his son.

The Clippers have what it takes from the starting lineup to win this series, but they have to not only play smarter, but be mad in knowing that they are quite capable of beating the Spurs when they aren't beating themselves. No disrepect to San Antonio as they outplayed the Clips in Game 2, but they have shown themselves to be vulnerable this series.

[mike3]

Can't wait for this, pumped to see how we respond, especially Blake.

Get to watch this too, to me, this game is do or die. I feel like the series is already in the Spurs hands cause of Game 2. If they win Game 3, I can't see us coming back. As they say, the series doesn't start until a road team wins a game, so let's get this thing going.

[Dynamix]

Don't think anyone was expecting us to advance by simply winning all four home games, not against the Spurs. The way we lost Game 2 really sucks, cause it was there for the taking and we fought hard with nothing to show for it. What's done is done, stuff like this happens. How we respond in Game 3 will let us know if there is hope for a good playoff run or just an honorable performance against the defending champs.

Like everyone else, I want to see how Blake deals with all this mentally. You have a triple double with almost 30 points but you give away one possession that ends up costing the game. Focus on the good (totally dominating) and try not to repeat the bad.

Jamal is Jamal, but we need more from Barnes and JJ. Just like last season, when both of them were cold we really struggled. If nothing else, at least don't leave players wide open and make your FT, guys!

Speaking of FT, I don't mind Hack-a-DJ one single bit. It almost cost them the game. What's most important is that the misses don't impact his contribution on the defensive end. That block against Duncan was sweet, too bad we couldn't take advantage of it.

[mattd13]

tough loss but I think they will bounce back. in my mind the next game is a must win and the urgency will be there. you can see their focus is on jj and cp3. jj is just not getting a lot of good looks and his shooting is suffering. if he is going to make a difference something needs to change. I still like our chances. they gave it everything last night and the clips should have won. we can win this.

[Quake Griffin]

CP, take notes.

[thanumba2clippersfan]

We need to win at least one game in San Antonio. I can finally watch the full game since it's on Friday. I know we can win since we had a close loss where we didn't play our best. I think Chris needs to be aggressive again since we don't know how much the others will contribute.

[clip set]

I'm sticking by my thought that intentional fouling DJ may turn the series in a tangible way. He's shown an inability in games and on average throughout the year to get out of the 30-40% range. Him shooting 15-20 FTs is effectively 7-10 possessions where our expected points are being dragged down to a long run expectation of ~110 ortg from the regular season and game 1 to ~60-80. That's around .5 PPP we're losing on the bad end compared to what our offense typically evens out to, potentially around 5 points per game.

That might not sound like a lot, and positive deviations can obviously change that, but DJ really hasn't shown an ability to have a 15/20 FT game. Posting 6/17 performances is really detrimental to our offense and it's a rarity that he has gotten above 50% on high volume (situations where he's being intentionally fouled).

I'm not sure if you guys can see this link (I don't know if you need a statmuse account), but here are DJ's highest FT% games with 15+ FTA in the regular season for his career: https://www.statmuse.com/nba/search/?q=deandre%20jordan%20highest%20free%20throw%20percentage%20in%20a%20game%20with%2015%20fta
He has a total of 3 games of shooting over 50% on 15+ FTA. That's a problem because those are the intentional fouling scenarios. I really don't think this issue can be understated because of potential external effect it ends up having on game flow and morale beyond just the deterioration of our offense on those possessions.

Anyway, I think we can still pull this out, but it would really alleviate situations in these tight games if he could at least get to 50% when he's forced into high volume. It'd get us in the ballpark of where our offense typically operates in the long run. I initially felt like this might be a back and forth series with teams trading wins one after the other, and I could easily see it going that way still. Here's to us pulling it out in 7 (or less hopefully).

[playaloc916]

With the series tied at one a piece, I think the winner of Game 3 will win the series. We'll have to win on the road against the Spurs. Tough, but still very doable.

[Ranma]

The genius of Popovich is that he realizes that putting Kawhi Leonard on J.J. Redick would be quite effective in neutralizing our x-factor. Redick typically has hot starts to games and needs shots to go in for him to settle into a rhythm. Plus, he tends to fade towards the end of games where his shooting percentage is lower than at the beginning portions of games. Running around the floor seems to take its toll on his stamina, so if he's going to be locked down by Leonard early, J.J. may be better off pacing himself and picking his spots in saving himself for the end of games or whenever Kawhi switches off him.

Regardless, somebody...anybody else has to step up for the Clippers. We can't have Barnes shooting bricks when he's wide open. We can't have the bench continue to give up leads and build deficits. We also need to not only sink our free throws but hit the easy bunny shots that were handed to us. Making things harder on ourselves against a proven championship club that can still compete despite its ailments is tragically incompetent.

[mattd13]

there is a lot of truth to what ranma says. jj is playing his heart out but he has a big task going against a great defender and has to defend himself as well. I believe he will overcome. his time is now. do it jj

[LACtdom]

So Tim Duncan had 5 fouls and was there best player... why didn't we run plays at him to foul him out?

My 2 cents for how we can win the next game:
No double teaming. We can't afford to leave any shooters open so lets just trust each other to step up and play good one on one D.
Stagger CP & BG minutes. Both of them can score/facilitate.
Blake needs to attack the rim on fast breaks even if there are two defenders back.
Give DJ more minutes in the first half while there isn't Hack-a-DJ. He is fit, he can handle it.
If perimeter shots aren't falling, use JJ and Jamal to attack the rim more. Both of them can draw fouls.
Jamal on Leonard? funny one Doc, please don't do that again.

[og15]

I'm sticking by my thought that intentional fouling DJ may turn the series in a tangible way. He's shown an inability in games and on average throughout the year to get out of the 30-40% range. Him shooting 15-20 FTs is effectively 7-10 possessions where our expected points are being dragged down to a long run expectation of ~110 ortg from the regular season and game 1 to ~60-80. That's around .5 PPP we're losing on the bad end compared to what our offense typically evens out to, potentially around 5 points per game.

That might not sound like a lot, and positive deviations can obviously change that, but DJ really hasn't shown an ability to have a 15/20 FT game. Posting 6/17 performances is really detrimental to our offense and it's a rarity that he has gotten above 50% on high volume (situations where he's being intentionally fouled).

I'm not sure if you guys can see this link (I don't know if you need a statmuse account), but here are DJ's highest FT% games with 15+ FTA in the regular season for his career: https://www.statmuse.com/nba/search/?q=deandre%20jordan%20highest%20free%20throw%20percentage%20in%20a%20game%20with%2015%20fta
He has a total of 3 games of shooting over 50% on 15+ FTA. That's a problem because those are the intentional fouling scenarios. I really don't think this issue can be understated because of potential external effect it ends up having on game flow and morale beyond just the deterioration of our offense on those possessions.

Anyway, I think we can still pull this out, but it would really alleviate situations in these tight games if he could at least get to 50% when he's forced into high volume. It'd get us in the ballpark of where our offense typically operates in the long run. I initially felt like this might be a back and forth series with teams trading wins one after the other, and I could easily see it going that way still. Here's to us pulling it out in 7 (or less hopefully).

When the FTA gets to that level, then it certainly becomes and issue. 5, 6 FT's you can live with, but yea, 17 FTA when he's only making 6 is certainly hurting the offense.

Last game was also a game where having another backup SF would have been super helpful due to Barnes struggling. It's the kind of game where Barnes shouldn't have played 36 minutes. I know he did some other things, but it is about options. If you have another SF that can hold his own on defense and make shots, then you can go to whomever is having a better night, but that's not an option.

[Neddy]

well first of all, I don't think it's time to hit that panic button just yet. we won the first game in a resounding manner. we lost the second game in overtime. I believe this team is the better team than the geriatric Texans and we can win one if not both games in SA. my personal disappointment is on CP for not taking over but deferring to Blake when the crunch time came in game 2. I don't care what DJ's free throws % was because that isn't something we expect him to be better at, as long as he can hit close to 50% in the last 5 minutes and indeed he delivered. I dislike Barnes going 2 for 4 at the FT line during the same stretch. I blame CP keep passing the last shot to Blake just for him to turn it over with two minutes to go. I want Isaiah thomas mindset out of CP this year, and I want an aggressive to a fault CP for game 3. IF CP can deliver, we got game 3 in the bag.

[big_ticket]

im a fan of the clips on the west,hope they can finish the spurs,must win game 3

[mttwlsn16]

Class and work need to go by ASAP tomorrow.

[Roscoe Sheed]

The genius of Popovich is that he realizes that putting Kawhi Leonard on J.J. Redick would be quite effective in neutralizing our x-factor. Redick typically has hot starts to games and needs shots to go in for him to settle into a rhythm. Plus, he tends to fade towards the end of games where his shooting percentage is lower than at the beginning portions of games. Running around the floor seems to take its toll on his stamina, so if he's going to be locked down by Leonard early, J.J. may be better off pacing himself and picking his spots in saving himself for the end of games or whenever Kawhi switches off him.

Regardless, somebody...anybody else has to step up for the Clippers. We can't have Barnes shooting bricks when he's wide open. We can't have the bench continue to give up leads and build deficits. We also need to not only sink our free throws but hit the easy bunny shots that were handed to us. Making things harder on ourselves against a proven championship club that can still compete despite its ailments is tragically incompetent.

Doc needs to figure out ways to free up Redick- multiple screens if necessary. There has to be ways to get Leonard off of him. If not, then CP3 needs to exploit whoever is guarding him- I mean at least 30 points like game 1.

I really hope the Clippers play super-motivated tonight rather than being down in the dumps about blowing game 2. It wasn't as bad as game 5 against OKC last season (in which equal blame could be put on the refs), but I think they were demoralized after game 2. They better get over it really quickly because they should beat the Spurs talent wise. It would be a real shame if they came up short again.

[Quake Griffin]

The genius of Popovich is that he realizes that putting Kawhi Leonard on J.J. Redick would be quite effective in neutralizing our x-factor. Redick typically has hot starts to games and needs shots to go in for him to settle into a rhythm. Plus, he tends to fade towards the end of games where his shooting percentage is lower than at the beginning portions of games. Running around the floor seems to take its toll on his stamina, so if he's going to be locked down by Leonard early, J.J. may be better off pacing himself and picking his spots in saving himself for the end of games or whenever Kawhi switches off him.

Regardless, somebody...anybody else has to step up for the Clippers. We can't have Barnes shooting bricks when he's wide open. We can't have the bench continue to give up leads and build deficits. We also need to not only sink our free throws but hit the easy bunny shots that were handed to us. Making things harder on ourselves against a proven championship club that can still compete despite its ailments is tragically incompetent.

Doc needs to figure out ways to free up Redick- multiple screens if necessary. There has to be ways to get Leonard off of him. If not, then CP3 needs to exploit whoever is guarding him- I mean at least 30 points like game 1.

I really hope the Clippers play super-motivated tonight rather than being down in the dumps about blowing game 2. It wasn't as bad as game 5 against OKC last season (in which equal blame could be put on the refs), but I think they were demoralized after game 2. They better get over it really quickly because they should beat the Spurs talent wise. It would be a real shame if they came up short again.

Exactly.

this was never about talent or ability.
Everybody knows this is about the Clippers' game between the ears.

If they're mentally tough, they'll win.
I thought we were onto something when we beat the Spurs in the first 47 minutes and 15 seconds….then after that, I had to reserve my judgment.

[kylem4711]

game 2 sucked. real bad. I really hope the disappointment fuels blake especially though. That grueling defeat just might be the thing that our team needed.

like everyone else said, we need JJ to come through. he was a big reason for our late-season run and we need him now more than ever.

[og15]

When did Hamilton get a concussion btw?