Quake Griffin wrote:MartinToVaught wrote:This **** only happens to the Clippers.
Well, not only do I detest the Make-Or-Miss League Docism. I am doubly less inclined to provide that here to this team. At some point, the trends we are seeing demonstrate something - this team can't shoot under playoff pressure for some reason.
Choking?
Some hex put on us by Vi Stiviano?
Paul George's shaky hand nervousness permeating to the team?
I dunno but whatever it is, I think it would be incredibly naïve for us to just pretend that we will get back to the mean just because. There's enough of a sample size here to demonstrate we lay lots and lots of bricks in the postseason. It's supposed to be Lee Jenkins (Chairman of Clipper Roster Feelings) to figure out wtf is going on here.
Of course while the phrase can be overused, it is reality. Clippers did shoot 41.1% 3PT in the regular season, but Kennard did take 224 of those three's (9%), and he's only played 3 of the 9 playoff games so far and taken just 5% of the total three's, that could be a factor. Overall in the post-season, the team is at 37.3% 3PT technically not bad. Even consistency wise, they have shot ~37% 3PT or higher in 7/9 games, the actual problem is that they have not had hot games like they did in the regular season. If you keep creating those shots, you're not supposed to miss forever, but that doesn't mean it can't happen.
During the regular season, they shot
above that 41.1% 3PT mark 40 times (55.6% of games), and 27 of those were 45%+ (37.5% of games). In the post-season they have only eclipsed the 41.4% mark once, game 7 vs Dallas. Now someone might argue playoffs, better defenses, and while true, Dallas wasn't particularly good on defense.
The Clippers Ortg is at 119.7 (BBallref numbers), above their regular season 117.6 and 5th in the playoffs. vs Utah in the two games, they posted 118.1 Ortg (Game 1) and 115.0 Ortg (Game 2). Certainly above average and good offensive production overall without saying they should have made this or that shot at this or that time. So one a large scale, the same problem as the Dallas series remains. Can't defend well enough and need to out-offense their opponents which leaves a lot less room for error.
Now, PG is a big culprit, and his decrease can also be expected, because he takes the most off dribble and isolation type three's on the team, so the less efficient overall three's. In the playoffs, those shots are more likely to miss more often vs the catch and shoot and open ones. One his career, PG goes down 3.2% from 3PT range from RS to PS.
So PG is down 8.3% 3PT, and that hurts the team numbers. Minus George, the team is shooting 38.7% 3PT, better, but still not as good as the regular season since Morris is also down. Efficiency wise though,
PG subsidized his efficiency with FT's, where his FT rate has about doubled in the post-season, and therefore his overall shooting efficiency is not much different,
59.8% TS regular season to 58.2% TS playoffs. All in all, it is certainly tough, Clippers have issues defensively, but their opponents have also have shooting that is exceeding what is supposed to happen on average in those situations. That part you really can't control. It's not a coincidence that Utah transformed it's offense from 35.2 3PT (10th) last season to 43.0 3PT (1st) this season. They know the power of the 3PT shot, especially in the modern day.