The Clippers’ Final Bullet

[RatherUnique]

Ivica.
Zubac.

+/- of -16. Plus minus is a bad stat…. unless the film shows that you’re the focal point of the leaks.

For all the talk about Trez last year, Zu also cannot defend in space…. At all. He’s in drop in the PnR, several Mavs are capable of hitting that floater. They catch him on the perimeter & it’s an open jumper or a straight line drive & the Clippers’ communication on the backend is nonexistent.

All….game… long

Whether PG/Kawhi switch off of Luka or not, put this guy in the PnR with Luka or ANYONE on the ball, make him make a decision on the perimeter. Make his teammates figure out the rotations behind him. Good things will happen

2nd half they went back & forth between switching and not switching so their coverage was somehow worse. I really want to know what’s going through Ty’s head. What is he seeing

Kawhi going UNDER the screen here :lol

You get it by now All game long, they’d put Zu in, get in a hole, take him out & go small to get out of it.

So Zu has to go completely. DNP-CD. Luka killed the switch, his teammates killed the trap, everybody had their turn with him in G2. There is no adjustment to make with him on the floor.

Gotta go small. Luka’s gonna try & pick on the guard or Morris so this isn’t an adjustment to make switching easier, or you end up with the exact same issues.

Here’s Porzingis doing what Portland failed to do in G2, cutting behind the help when the trap comes

Beat the trap again by sitting someone at the free throw line. Again, Portland should take notes

So PG/Kawhi still have to be the primary on Luka and still have to fight over screens, refusing the switch. On the other end KP is just as bad as Zu so you gotta target him just as often as they targeted Zu. That’s important because Dallas was very disciplined sticking to the script with Zu. You gotta involve Porzingis every play.

You want to encourage Luka to go 1on1 & make tough contested shots against those two, and the same for the other Mavs against your other guards & wings. Your bigs are useless at this point and have to be removed from the equation. That’s about as hard as you can make it on Luka & the others. Trapping & switching DOES. NOT. WORK.

If they come out next game starting Zu, they’re done. There is nothing they can do with him on the floor. You don’t even need to watch.

[BlazersBroncos]

Zu is nice, and can be really, really good in certain sitations. But they should have complimented him with a bouncy, twitchy backup. A Zu / Noel duo would be about as deadly as a tandem under 12M AV could be.

[Raps in 4]

Will Ty Lue learn anything from this? Probably not.

[vcdplaya3007]

I actually agree with this analysis. The clippers need to start the following five if they want to win:

Mann, George, kawhi, batum, and either Morris and Ibaka. Just switch every single pick and roll and keep everyone in front of you. If Luka kills you In isolations for 40+ you shake his hand and you go home.

Doubling, hedging, going under, none of that is working. The clippers need to remove all their bigs from the equation and just switch every single screen and live with their 1 on 1 defense.

Beverley, Reggie Jackson, and Zubac cannot play again in this series or they will go home.

[PistolPeteJR]

First off, appreciate the effort and work.

Secondly, I’m shocked this wasn’t done by OKCfansinceSGA.

[Texas Chuck]

Luka and 4 shooters is an impossible task and yes it makes it very difficult for a big uncomfortable in space to defend. You'll also note that Zubac mostly defended Dorian in game 1 and he had a big game and so they switched him to Maxi and he went off in the 1st until they got away from that.

Clippers have to start Batum or Mann and then bring in Zubac only to play the minutes Luka is on the bench.

[levon]

I'm sorry but some of Zubac's effort on these is pathetic. He's capable of way more than this. It just feels like there's something going on in that locker room

[HySquared]

I think Zu might fare better off the bench, but I have a feeling they would walk straight into a trap because Carlisle wants to Unleash the Boban.

[gottamakeit]

if i'm the clips, i'd opt to go under screens meant for Luka everytime (without switching). He'll be forced to jack up shots, maybe even make 50% of them. But you do it, since this is the only guaranteed way of taking THJ and the other sharp shooters outta the game

[kenwood3333]

Not sure why they dont play Ibaka more. He is older but is still a capable defender, plus can hit open jumpers. They can even play morris at center, since KP is not a low post threat.

[vcdplaya3007]

The clippers need to make the mavs pay the same toll for porzingis that they are paying for Zubac on defense.

[Dirk]

It doesn't change the fact that in the two games he was shot out of the game, but Zubac has done very well against the Mavs in the past.

To illustrate it, here is an headline just before the series from a Mavs blog

Here is the headline from the Clippers blog after the bubble last year


And here is an headline from a game this season

TL;DR

Zubac has been a beast against the Mavs historically.

[clyde21]

some really weird rotations/sets by Lue, not really sure what his thought process is, Serge Ibaka needs to be playing all of Zubac's minutes essentially, at least the ones with Luka on the floor, also defensively he needs to do a much better job of having his guys fight thru screens and deny switching as much as possible, Luka is headhunting Bev all game long, either stop switching altogether or your guys gotta fight thru those screens.

[Bobbymcgee]

There is absolutely no reason the Clippers should look this lost on defense. A team full of veterans, two superstar players, one a former DPOY. Embarrassing.

[FinnTheHuman]

Yes, a big guy is gonna look bad if you collect all the instances of him being scored on in pick n roll. But the idea is that he should be able to dominate the boards, disallow layups, bully his defender on both sides of the court with his size. But Mavs shots are falling so much that he’s kinda turning out to be useless rn. But if Mavs start missing, Zubac will look much better than he has. But who knows if they’ll ever start missing lol

[Johnny Bball]

You cannot play a slow big that can't play good defense in the playoffs and expect your defense to hold. I'm surprised it's this early in the playoffs, but they were going to get exposed eventually playing Zubacs so much.

He's been a liability against the better teams for too long and it's nice to see a post like this OP that illustrates it so well. He's going to get killed in the PNR all game not playing out at the line and dropping back, or worse, by trying to guard it.

And there is no amount of rotating that can cover up for this guy. What it does is leave wide open threes. Oh hey Mr. Lue, maybe that's where you start looking at why they are shooting so well. Dummy.

Ibaka, 6 minutes.

[whatisacenter]

It was Doc's fault
It was Trez's fault
It was Lou Will's fault
It is now Zubac's fault
and soon the finger will pointed at Serge and Rondo

[zimpy27]

The irony was that Doc got killed for not playing Zubac enough

[Statlanta]

the Clippers’ communication on the backend is nonexistent.

Great post and quality post for the forum

It would help if the leader of the team and former DPOY was a communicator, too bad he is a robot.