East Bay Sports wrote:mttwlsn16 wrote:og15 wrote:People keep calling out Steph, but you have to realize that despite what some people have wanted to think, Chris Paul is an All-NBA defender at PG, and he's been locked in all series. Couple that with the team helping him and defense, it hasn't been easy for Curry.
These are those situations where a team game plan needs to alleviate you, but also learning situations where Steph watches film and sees how he can avoid getting trapped here and there, the openings he was missing, etc.
My prediction was Clippers in 6, so obviously I'm now expecting a game 6 win in GS. Whether it happens or not, we'll see.
The questions for Clippers fans is: of we win this series,who would you rather player, OKC or Memphis?
i think we match up better with OKC, but i would expect us to get by either team so i dont really care. i just hope okc and memphis goes 7, and let game 6 and 7 also be OT games.
gotta take care of business on our end first though, tomorrow night in oakland
I would want no part of the Grizz if I'm the Clippers. Assuming you get by us, matching up with OKC is definitely in your favor over having to take on Memphis. Blake doesn't want to have to deal with Z-BO for 7 more games.
I'm not sure I mind either matchup. Like I said on the general board, Blake had foul trouble in game 1, okay. He got injured in practice after game 4. Here's what he did in game 2-4 vs what Randolph did, Memphis won 2/3 of those games though.
Game 2-4Griffin: 18.7 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 2.3 APG, 3.0 tov, 48.8% FG, .555 TS%, 33.0 mpg
Randolph: 21.3 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 1.3 APG, 3.0 tov, 55.6% FG, .600 TS%, 35.1 mpg
The problem here is that this is way above Randolph's regular season production. He also shot 6 FTA. The last two games with Griffin injured, Randolph also averaged 24/8/2.5/57.6% FG/.620 TS%. But you say, well didn't Paul put up 31.5/5/6/0.5 tov/55% FG/.645 TS%
Yea, he did, but he couldn't make up for multiple high efficiency production by Memphis.
Gasol game 2-4: 19.0 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 2.7 APG, 51.2% FG, .567 TS%
Gasol game 5,6: 15.5 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 2.5 APG, 45.5% FG, .577. TS%
Conley game 5,6: 21.5 PPG, 14.5 FTA/g, .656 TS%
Memphis had their 3 main guys averaging about 61 pts on about .630 TS% in games 5-6. Paul made up half of that, who was going to do the rest? That was the Clippers problem against Memphis, they played such bad defense (especially with fouls) that they set themselves up to have to produce so much on offense that it wasn't reasonable, especially with Blake playing so little and hampered in the last two games. Barnes blew up in game 6, but the team still needed something like 20 pts on high efficiency from someone like Griffin to win that game.
The Clippers as a team can score better and more efficiently against Memphis in a series than OKC seemingly can. That was true last season even with Griffin being injured in the last two and minimally playing, but again, even with Westbrook back it is showing itself to be true again.
The problem last season was whether the Clippers could defend enough. Can the Clippers defend Memphis as well as just an above average team would be capable of? If yes, then their chances of beating them are quite good. Against OKC, for LAC, the individual defender to stick on Durant is not there. If CP was 6'5 or taller, then sure, but I don't think there's anyone at SG or SF to really bother him like the Memphis guys.
Against Memphis the individual perimeter defense is only an issue at PG and if Paul has the proper help and his bigs aren't fouling all the time, he can contain Conley. The other guys, it is about closing out, not individual iso defense ability.
So Clippers actually don't have a bad matchup vs Memphis as long as the defense isn't porous. As long as they don't allow 30 FTA/game in a slow paced series and 14-15 a game between Randolph and Gasol, they should make more shots than Memphis.
, we had the same thought process.
