Game 48: Los Angeles (31-16) vs Chicago (26-19)

[nickhx2]

i hate how the pablo/cole p/r has evaporated for the last few games. letting jamal and austin dominate the ball is not a sustainable way of playing.

[Wammy Giveaway]

As both the Hawks and Bulls are fighting for the 3rd seed, both teams each have a loss to the Clippers. Clippers are officially 1-8 against the top 3 teams per conference.

This one win is actually discouraging due to it coming from an eastern conference team. Clippers won't get to face an eastern conference team until the NBA Finals. Given this, their path to getting out of the 2nd round, and having a 50/50 shot at an NBA championship will be extremely tough - especially if the Clips drop down to a 6th seed, where they'll be forced into a gauntlet against the top 3 teams in the west which they have yet to beat all season long.

[Ranma]

Both Pierce and Aldrich are the only Clippers who are scoreless for the game so far. The only difference is that Cole took only 1 shot while the Truth took 6 with 5 of them being 3-pointers.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/jadande/status/693927013258645504[/tweet]

[mkwest]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/latbbolch/status/693927530034647041[/tweet]

[nickhx2]

good win. monster game statistically by dj. but i saw a lot of things in this game from him i hadn't really seen to start the season. encouraging for the team.

[BlzMwt]

Very convincing win, but it's games like this that give doc the idea that jamal is a legitimate option

And despite DJ's huge rebound total, I really didn't like his defense on Pau very much

[Ranma]

I heard the telecast say that the Clips held the Bulls scoreless for the final 4.5 minutes to end the game. In fact, their final shot attempt was blocked by Austin Rivers, I think.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DanWoikeSports/status/693930270072811520[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/693933568159006723[/tweet]

[mkwest]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/isaaclowenkron/status/693931590871699457[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/KCJHoop/status/693929299087220736[/tweet]

[mttwlsn16]

Jamal was amazingly efficient today. Good stuff.

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/LAClippers/status/693929667892367360[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/1ClippersNation/status/693931871537750018[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/LAClippers/status/693931562669252608[/tweet]

[Forte IV]

As both the Hawks and Bulls are fighting for the 3rd seed, both teams each have a loss to the Clippers. Clippers are officially 1-8 against the top 3 teams per conference.

This one win is actually discouraging due to it coming from an eastern conference team. Clippers won't get to face an eastern conference team until the NBA Finals. Given this, their path to getting out of the 2nd round, and having a 50/50 shot at an NBA championship will be extremely tough - especially if the Clips drop down to a 6th seed, where they'll be forced into a gauntlet against the top 3 teams in the west which they have yet to beat all season long.

We're 2-8. You don't get to get rid of a win simply because the team fell to 4th a few days after the loss

[madmaxmedia]

Is our first unit ball movement a lot better without Blake? I haven't been watching the last few games, but even though our strength of schedule has not been great the lack of a significant drop-off is pretty remarkable.

To me, this is not about whether we are better off or not without BG. What this is, is really a great opportunity for Doc Rivers and staff to figure sh*t out, because with BG we should only be THAT MUCH BETTER than we are playing now.

I was thinking that the ball tends to stop at Blake a lot, which ostensibly is okay since he is an efficient scorer and passes out of double teams well. But if he doesn't have an opening when he catches the ball, he should probably just move the ball instead of sizing up the defense. Cut to another spot on the floor, he can get the ball back later in the possession. If there are 8-10 seconds left, then he can always try to make something happen or take a long jumper.

[nickhx2]

I can't quantify it, but i'd say the ball sticks more without him. At least my eye test says that the ball sticks more in some places and less in others.

Blake on the court lets the team set a lot more picks, and he's another great passer as well, all of which keeps the ball moving.

The ball does stick a little if he goes into any post up routine, but you can be confident he won't blackhole it since he's such a great passer. But because he doesn't hang out by the 3pt line that often, it can put a bit of a damper in jj's spin cycle movement. JJ has less room to operate.

The big thing to me, though, is that blake has turned into such a reliable safety valve this season. Nowadays, whenever a possession goes busto, either cp3 or jamal are thrown the ball and asked to throw up a 3pt prayer, which often has been a bad result. And because blake's not there, you have a lot more possessions that get stymied early by great defense, forcing those two guys to create something because they (or the rest of the team on the court) feel like they're the only options. It makes for terrible and predictable offense and is something that'll hurt us badly come playoff time.

Long story short, i feel the ball has a lot more options both scoring-wise and movement-wise when blake is around, even though he is a scorer first.

[nickhx2]

I wanna add quickly though that I think in this day and age, ball movement and assists can be overrated. You can still have an efficient offense without those as overriding factors (raptors are a good example of that).

I mean, one thing that people watching blake over the years have said (and this goes any other growing star, really) is they need to learn how to dominate when the opportunity is there. And this year is the first year i've seen him take advantage of those mismatches regularly. It is a little surreal to see blake grab the ball in transition, turn around and face the basket, and then look to see if his defender is someone he can hunt down and devour. I feel like i'm watching animal planet when he does that.

As long as our offense overall is elite then I wouldn't complain even if our passing dipped.

[Captain Ballmer]

Is our first unit ball movement a lot better without Blake? I haven't been watching the last few games, but even though our strength of schedule has not been great the lack of a significant drop-off is pretty remarkable.

To me, this is not about whether we are better off or not without BG. What this is, is really a great opportunity for Doc Rivers and staff to figure sh*t out, because with BG we should only be THAT MUCH BETTER than we are playing now.

I was thinking that the ball tends to stop at Blake a lot, which ostensibly is okay since he is an efficient scorer and passes out of double teams well. But if he doesn't have an opening when he catches the ball, he should probably just move the ball instead of sizing up the defense. Cut to another spot on the floor, he can get the ball back later in the possession. If there are 8-10 seconds left, then he can always try to make something happen or take a long jumper.

Yes I think it is. Also our off the ball movement is much better, and no longer playing with Griffin indicates us Chris Paul controlling the ball much more than anytime. I remember that OKC game we lose(thanks to refs) while Luc was starting, first game Prigioni and Cole gets rotation minutes together on the bench. Also no pierce and Rivers so Lance was balling. That game was look like the game you find more idea how Blake would be looking like into the team we play now. And Blake was actually played bad that game.

The team now plays;
More CP3 with ball means less dribbling or passing for other guys on the floor,
All the other 4 guy just set screen for CP3 and than takes their position on offense, game fluids perfectly when CP3 on duty
Those leads us not only less turnovers, but also more decisive plays since cp3 killing it both
And most importantly efficent control on shot clock to avoid the oppenents get a run or having them a fast break chance.

All those things are contribute our offense with more true shooting, wide opens and makes room for more efficent plays like redicks 3's or DJ's dunk than Griffin's semi contested long J's. all those things helps our guys make defense, play pesky and enjoy the winning games.

I dont know how Griffin will be settled with less shooting, dribbling, 1 on 1 plays but he should play more execution game, staggering with bench with less time with CP3 on the floor.
but looks like his play is the one who needs the adopt CP3. Man I'm in love with CP3's game. F... Curry, WB, Lowry