Yup, this is what I'm alluding to.TrueLAfan wrote:Well, one reason—maybe the main reason—why we’re not getting much bench scoring is that the games are. Being. Played. At. This. Pace.
Seriously—the pace is 89.1 for the first three games. That’s not a low pace. That’s grind it out, score under a hundred a game pace. The last team to play at that pace was the Grizz in 2013—a team with Zach Randolph, Mark Gasol, Mike Miller and Tony Allen. Not exactly a speed burner of a team. They won 50 games—and averaged 96 points a game.
I’m sticking with the idea of playing the occasional zone and pushing the pace. I don’t think our scoring is that bad. The problem is that we’re averaging six fewer shots per game than in the regular season. PG and Kawhi and still getting theirs; the loss is from the lower parts of the lineup and rotation—and that means fewer points out of them. Better D = more defensive rebounds. That and pick up the pace a bit—more shots. Higher pace. More points. Problem solved.
(As long as we shoot pretty well, that is.)
And it's reinforced by both teams generally shooting pretty high percentages (Dallas 51% FG, Clippers 52% FG), not as many live rebounds to push in transition, both teams are taking the ball out on most defensive possessions. Offensively they are taking their time.
Both teams are slower paced relative to the rest of the league, but this is still 7 possessions or so below both their averages.
Lower possession playoff games can also tend to skew to more shots for the stars. Clippers are below their average on 3PT, but are shooting 64% inside the arc (+11% compared to regular season).