WC | Rd. 2| (1) Jazz vs (4) Clippers, Part 2 [2-3]

[dautjazz]

Has there been any other team in NBA history getting recognized and awarded this many accolades? And they're still just in the middle of the playoffs! Championship, Finals MVP, and All Defense and NBA teams still up for grabs

All Star Selection
Mike Conley
Rudy Gobert
Donovan Mitchell

6th Man of the Year
Jordan Clarkson
*1st Runner Up - Joe Ingles

Defensive Player of the Year
Rudy Gobert

Coach of the Year
*2nd Runner Up - Quin Snyder

Let's also add Best Record for the regular season

What an organization

2001 76ers had a similar outcome.
Iverson won MVP and all star MVP
Mckie got the 6th man
Mutombo won DPOY
Pretty sure Brown won coach of the year

But yeah, Utah has had a great year.

That team was nowhere near as good as these Jazz.

[og15]

Other than the fact it has never been done before.

As a Jazz fan I am paranoid that this will be the first time but no team has ever gone down 0-2 in back to back series and won the second series. The only point I am making here is that the fact that they came back from 0-2 to Dallas does not mean they are more likely to comeback vs Utah.

It's tougher when a team loses both home games vs losing both road games. Losing both road games happens decently often between equally matched teams, the problem for the Clippers here is that there's no real HCA in terms of fan support in LA, so they don't particularly have that aspect of the home advantage.

The positive for the Clippers us that in terms of shot quality, even though it seems like just repeating the same, there is a similarity to the Dallas series.

The Clippers have created good shots, in fact they have created just as good, even better shots than the Jazz, but the Jazz have shot better than they should on the shots they have taken. This was a similar situation in the first few games of the Dallas series. Variance seems to not be working well in the Clippers favor, and that's both from then missing more than they should, AND their opponents making more than they should based on the shots they are taking.

The negative is that this can still happen in game 3, and well the problem you run into there is that you have to have everything then work in your favor for four straight games, and that is not going to happen.

I remember hearing this type of shot-quality analysis when the Jazz used to play the Warriors. The problem for the Jazz was that the Warriors just had better shooters than the Jazz. KD, Steph and Klay were comfortable taking and making difficult shots. While the Jazz were better at generating high-quality looks, the Warriors would keep pace with their superior shotmaking.

In Games 1 and 2, Mitchell and Clarkson have taken some difficult shots, but they're hunting those shots and they're pretty comfortable taking them. The Jazz are a better shooting team than Dallas.

They are certainly a better shooting team than Dallas, but even as a very good shooting team, with the looks they have gotten, their percentages last game were higher than expected.

The Clippers have a dual problem like I said, it's not just opponents that shot better than expected, it is that the Clippers shot worse than expected on the types of shots they got. The Clippers themselves are a good shooting team, especially a good open shooting team, but they have not had as good results as they should.

Utah Pull-Ups:
Regular Season: 16.6 3PA (2nd), 36.3% 3PT (4th)
Playoffs: 19.1 3PA (1st), 43.3% 3PT (1st)
vs Clippers: 26.5 3PA (1st in 2nd round), 45.4% 3PT (1st in 2nd round)

Utah Catch and Shoot:
Regular Season: 26.0 3PA (6th), 40.8% 3PT (3rd)
Playoffs: 22.9 3PA (5th), 39.4% 3PT (4th)
vs Clippers: 17.0 3PA (7th in 2nd round), 38.3% 3PT (4th in 2nd round)

So in terms of types of shots, compared to the regular season, vs the Clippers they are taking 10 more pull-up three's per game, but also shooting 9.1% better on those shots. On the other hand, their catch and shoot 3PT% while it has dropped it is not significant, 2.5%. The Jazz' eFG% on pull up shots overall is up 10% from the regular season.


Utah Open Three's:
Regular Season: 16.6 3PA (3rd), 37.4% 3PT (6th)
vs LAC: 26.0 3PA (1st in round 2 by far), 36.5% 3PT (5th in round 2)

LAC Open Three's:
Regular Season: 14.3 3PA (12th), 40.9% 3PT (1st)
vs Utah: 14.0 3PA (3rd in round 2), 53.6% 3PT

Utah Wide Open Three's:
Regular: 21.1 3PA (1st), 42.4% 3PT (4th)
vs LAC: 14.0 3PA (T-6th in round 2), 42.9% 3PT (T-1st in round 2)

LAC Wide Open Three's:
Regular: 15.7 3PA (19th), 44.4% 3PT (1st)
vs Utah: 16.0 3PA (2nd in round 2), 28.1% 3PT (7th in round 2)

Now, the Clippers are allowing 9 more open three's a game for the Jazz vs what the Jazz created during the regular season, and the Jazz are shooting about the same, (0.9% difference). What the Clippers have done is reduce the Jazz's wide open three's, and that is the correct defense, so far they have taken away 7.1 wide open three's and made them just open three's, that's pretty good. (As we saw before, they had taken away more catch and shoot looks, Utah (-9 catch and shoot 3PA), and forced more pull-ups (Utah, +10 pull-up three's). The Jazz in the two games combined (obviously game 2 was different than the first) are shooting basically the same percentages as they did in the regular season on those types of shots. The difference is that since more of those shots are pull-ups, technically they should be shooting a little lower, but they haven't.

Clippers' own shooting is suffering the same problem as their previous series. They generate the looks, but they are not making them like they should. They are generating a similar amount of open and wide open looks as they did during the regular season, but they are not converting. Wide open three's (-16.3%), but they have outshot their open three percentage by 12.7% (probably mainly Kennard helping this). The net result though is still lower for them.

So overall the Clippers have done this:
-force more pull-up three's than catch and shoot
-force more open three's than wide open three's

Those things, "technically" should reduce the opposing teams 3PT%, even if they are a good 3PT shooting team, but in the two games overall, it hasn't particularly worked that way, but then combine that with the Clippers own inability to hit good shots as they should, and that's life for them.

Like I posted in response on the Clippers board, it's not even that the Clippers are overall having "bad" percentages, it is that they are not having the really good games and variance is working against them.

The Clippers have just had a bad time with variance, technically the team isn't supposed to be high variance, but they have had more of an issue with not having their positive variance games happening much. In the regular season the Clippers shot:
50%+ 3PT (15/72 games), 21% of games
45%+ 3PT (27/72 games), 38% of games
40%+ 3PT (43/72 games), 60% of games
<30% 3PT (7/72 games), 10% of games

Playoffs:
50%+ 3PT (0/9 games), 0% of games
45%+ 3PT (1/9 games), 11% of games
40%+ 3PT (2/9 games), 22% of games
<30% 3PT (2/9 games), 22% of games

[Beethoven]

Clips got to win this one to keep their season alive.
However i don't see it that way. I want to see the first nba team ever to come back from 0-3 and win the series.

[dautjazz]

Clips got to win this one to keep their season alive.
However i don't see it that way. I want to see the first nba team ever to come back from 0-3 and win the series.

Yeah that aint going to happen, we've been doing it without Conley, he'll be back soon.

[GuyverX]

Clips got to win this one to keep their season alive.
However i don't see it that way. I want to see the first nba team ever to come back from 0-3 and win the series.

As fun as that might be, I'll take a win at home today.

It's do or die. Playoff P and Kawhi better bring it or it's another disappointing season. Depending on Reggie Jackson to save the season is not good enough.

[Nate505]

Jazz are finally on ABC today. I'm guessing that's because they're playing a team from LA.

You know it pains those executive tv **** so much to put the Jazz on an ABC game.

[Catchall]

It's tougher when a team loses both home games vs losing both road games. Losing both road games happens decently often between equally matched teams, the problem for the Clippers here is that there's no real HCA in terms of fan support in LA, so they don't particularly have that aspect of the home advantage.

The positive for the Clippers us that in terms of shot quality, even though it seems like just repeating the same, there is a similarity to the Dallas series.

The Clippers have created good shots, in fact they have created just as good, even better shots than the Jazz, but the Jazz have shot better than they should on the shots they have taken. This was a similar situation in the first few games of the Dallas series. Variance seems to not be working well in the Clippers favor, and that's both from then missing more than they should, AND their opponents making more than they should based on the shots they are taking.

The negative is that this can still happen in game 3, and well the problem you run into there is that you have to have everything then work in your favor for four straight games, and that is not going to happen.

I remember hearing this type of shot-quality analysis when the Jazz used to play the Warriors. The problem for the Jazz was that the Warriors just had better shooters than the Jazz. KD, Steph and Klay were comfortable taking and making difficult shots. While the Jazz were better at generating high-quality looks, the Warriors would keep pace with their superior shotmaking.

In Games 1 and 2, Mitchell and Clarkson have taken some difficult shots, but they're hunting those shots and they're pretty comfortable taking them. The Jazz are a better shooting team than Dallas.

They are certainly a better shooting team than Dallas, but even as a very good shooting team, with the looks they have gotten, their percentages last game were higher than expected.

The Clippers have a dual problem like I said, it's not just opponents that shot better than expected, it is that the Clippers shot worse than expected on the types of shots they got. The Clippers themselves are a good shooting team, especially a good open shooting team, but they have not had as good results as they should.

Utah Pull-Ups:
Regular Season: 16.6 3PA (2nd), 36.3% 3PT (4th)
Playoffs: 19.1 3PA (1st), 43.3% 3PT (1st)
vs Clippers: 26.5 3PA (1st in 2nd round), 45.4% 3PT (1st in 2nd round)

Utah Catch and Shoot:
Regular Season: 26.0 3PA (6th), 40.8% 3PT (3rd)
Playoffs: 22.9 3PA (5th), 39.4% 3PT (4th)
vs Clippers: 17.0 3PA (7th in 2nd round), 38.3% 3PT (4th in 2nd round)

So in terms of types of shots, compared to the regular season, vs the Clippers they are taking 10 more pull-up three's per game, but also shooting 9.1% better on those shots. On the other hand, their catch and shoot 3PT% while it has dropped it is not significant, 2.5%. The Jazz' eFG% on pull up shots overall is up 10% from the regular season.


Utah Open Three's:
Regular Season: 16.6 3PA (3rd), 37.4% 3PT (6th)
vs LAC: 26.0 3PA (1st in round 2 by far), 36.5% 3PT (5th in round 2)

LAC Open Three's:
Regular Season: 14.3 3PA (12th), 40.9% 3PT (1st)
vs Utah: 14.0 3PA (3rd in round 2), 53.6% 3PT

Utah Wide Open Three's:
Regular: 21.1 3PA (1st), 42.4% 3PT (4th)
vs LAC: 14.0 3PA (T-6th in round 2), 42.9% 3PT (T-1st in round 2)

LAC Wide Open Three's:
Regular: 15.7 3PA (19th), 44.4% 3PT (1st)
vs Utah: 16.0 3PA (2nd in round 2), 28.1% 3PT (7th in round 2)

Now, the Clippers are allowing 9 more open three's a game for the Jazz vs what the Jazz created during the regular season, and the Jazz are shooting about the same, (0.9% difference). What the Clippers have done is reduce the Jazz's wide open three's, and that is the correct defense, so far they have taken away 7.1 wide open three's and made them just open three's, that's pretty good. (As we saw before, they had taken away more catch and shoot looks, Utah (-9 catch and shoot 3PA), and forced more pull-ups (Utah, +10 pull-up three's). The Jazz in the two games combined (obviously game 2 was different than the first) are shooting basically the same percentages as they did in the regular season on those types of shots. The difference is that since more of those shots are pull-ups, technically they should be shooting a little lower, but they haven't.

Clippers' own shooting is suffering the same problem as their previous series. They generate the looks, but they are not making them like they should. They are generating a similar amount of open and wide open looks as they did during the regular season, but they are not converting. Wide open three's (-16.3%), but they have outshot their open three percentage by 12.7% (probably mainly Kennard helping this). The net result though is still lower for them.

So overall the Clippers have done this:
-force more pull-up three's than catch and shoot
-force more open three's than wide open three's

Those things, "technically" should reduce the opposing teams 3PT%, even if they are a good 3PT shooting team, but in the two games overall, it hasn't particularly worked that way, but then combine that with the Clippers own inability to hit good shots as they should, and that's life for them.

Like I posted in response on the Clippers board, it's not even that the Clippers are overall having "bad" percentages, it is that they are not having the really good games and variance is working against them.

The Clippers have just had a bad time with variance, technically the team isn't supposed to be high variance, but they have had more of an issue with not having their positive variance games happening much. In the regular season the Clippers shot:
50%+ 3PT (15/72 games), 21% of games
45%+ 3PT (27/72 games), 38% of games
40%+ 3PT (43/72 games), 60% of games
<30% 3PT (7/72 games), 10% of games

Playoffs:
50%+ 3PT (0/9 games), 0% of games
45%+ 3PT (1/9 games), 11% of games
40%+ 3PT (2/9 games), 22% of games
<30% 3PT (2/9 games), 22% of games

The pull-up 3pt shots are coming from Mitchell and Clarkson mostly, with a couple from Ingles and Bogdanovic. They can all shoot those shots with confidence. When Mitchell goes into attack mode, he takes more of these. His numbers on pull-up 3s in the Bubble last year were insane (like ~50%). I would compare Mitchell's numbers this playoffs to the bubble rather than to the regular season. The Jazz don't rely on him as much in the regular season.

If a defense plays a drop-big coverage, like the Clippers were doing with Zubac, that off-the-bounce 3pt shot is always going to be open. Mitchell, Clarkson and Conley can all hit those at a high rate. They can use a Gobert screen or reject the screen and get an open look just about any time. The Jazz also shot these really well against the Grizzlies' drop coverage.

The Clippers' smaller lineup with its switching defense is more likely to force Mitchell to drive. In some cases, however, Mitchell will hunt a switch and just pull up from 3pt anyway.

[OldSchoolNoBull]

Has there been any other team in NBA history getting recognized and awarded this many accolades? And they're still just in the middle of the playoffs! Championship, Finals MVP, and All Defense and NBA teams still up for grabs

All Star Selection
Mike Conley
Rudy Gobert
Donovan Mitchell

6th Man of the Year
Jordan Clarkson
*1st Runner Up - Joe Ingles

Defensive Player of the Year
Rudy Gobert

Coach of the Year
*2nd Runner Up - Quin Snyder

Let's also add Best Record for the regular season

What an organization

1996 Bulls:

MVP / Finals MVP / ASG MVP: Michael Jordan
All-Star Selection: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen
Sixth Man Of The Year: Toni Kukoc
Coach Of The Year: Phil Jackson
Executive Of The Year: Jerry Krause

Also, not technically awards, but Jordan won his eighth scoring title, and Rodman won his fifth rebounding title.

Also, won the second most games in NBA history at 72-10, which stood at #1 for 20 years until the 2016 Warriors won 73.

[Dupp]

I think the Yazz might sweep this

[Catchall]

I think the Yazz might sweep this

For all intents and purposes, this is an elimination game for the Clippers. I'm expecting Kawhi to play over 40 mins again.

Jazz can go for the killshot.

The Clippers' gameplan seems to be:

1) Try to slow down Mitchell -- That could mean trying a zone again, trying more Pat Beverly or trying Kawhi defensively.
2) Try to make more shots -- Clippers have been missing a bunch of looks, though fatigue could be a factor.
3) Hope the Jazz don't shoot as well as they did in Game 2.

[Dupp]

That’s gotta be one of the all time game plans. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought to try slow down Mitchell, let alone to make more shots. Genius!

[KillMonger]

might have missed it but any conley updates?

[Jedi32]

might have missed it but any conley updates?

he's been ruled out tonight

[Catchall]

Here's a live look at Clippers fans filing into Staples Center....

[WeTheOther]

LOL PG aint a superstar

[KillMonger]

damn...doris burke again? her commentary seemed so biased the last game...do i have suffer through it again?

[og15]

I remember hearing this type of shot-quality analysis when the Jazz used to play the Warriors. The problem for the Jazz was that the Warriors just had better shooters than the Jazz. KD, Steph and Klay were comfortable taking and making difficult shots. While the Jazz were better at generating high-quality looks, the Warriors would keep pace with their superior shotmaking.

In Games 1 and 2, Mitchell and Clarkson have taken some difficult shots, but they're hunting those shots and they're pretty comfortable taking them. The Jazz are a better shooting team than Dallas.

They are certainly a better shooting team than Dallas, but even as a very good shooting team, with the looks they have gotten, their percentages last game were higher than expected.

The Clippers have a dual problem like I said, it's not just opponents that shot better than expected, it is that the Clippers shot worse than expected on the types of shots they got. The Clippers themselves are a good shooting team, especially a good open shooting team, but they have not had as good results as they should.

Utah Pull-Ups:
Regular Season: 16.6 3PA (2nd), 36.3% 3PT (4th)
Playoffs: 19.1 3PA (1st), 43.3% 3PT (1st)
vs Clippers: 26.5 3PA (1st in 2nd round), 45.4% 3PT (1st in 2nd round)

Utah Catch and Shoot:
Regular Season: 26.0 3PA (6th), 40.8% 3PT (3rd)
Playoffs: 22.9 3PA (5th), 39.4% 3PT (4th)
vs Clippers: 17.0 3PA (7th in 2nd round), 38.3% 3PT (4th in 2nd round)

So in terms of types of shots, compared to the regular season, vs the Clippers they are taking 10 more pull-up three's per game, but also shooting 9.1% better on those shots. On the other hand, their catch and shoot 3PT% while it has dropped it is not significant, 2.5%. The Jazz' eFG% on pull up shots overall is up 10% from the regular season.


Utah Open Three's:
Regular Season: 16.6 3PA (3rd), 37.4% 3PT (6th)
vs LAC: 26.0 3PA (1st in round 2 by far), 36.5% 3PT (5th in round 2)

LAC Open Three's:
Regular Season: 14.3 3PA (12th), 40.9% 3PT (1st)
vs Utah: 14.0 3PA (3rd in round 2), 53.6% 3PT

Utah Wide Open Three's:
Regular: 21.1 3PA (1st), 42.4% 3PT (4th)
vs LAC: 14.0 3PA (T-6th in round 2), 42.9% 3PT (T-1st in round 2)

LAC Wide Open Three's:
Regular: 15.7 3PA (19th), 44.4% 3PT (1st)
vs Utah: 16.0 3PA (2nd in round 2), 28.1% 3PT (7th in round 2)

Now, the Clippers are allowing 9 more open three's a game for the Jazz vs what the Jazz created during the regular season, and the Jazz are shooting about the same, (0.9% difference). What the Clippers have done is reduce the Jazz's wide open three's, and that is the correct defense, so far they have taken away 7.1 wide open three's and made them just open three's, that's pretty good. (As we saw before, they had taken away more catch and shoot looks, Utah (-9 catch and shoot 3PA), and forced more pull-ups (Utah, +10 pull-up three's). The Jazz in the two games combined (obviously game 2 was different than the first) are shooting basically the same percentages as they did in the regular season on those types of shots. The difference is that since more of those shots are pull-ups, technically they should be shooting a little lower, but they haven't.

Clippers' own shooting is suffering the same problem as their previous series. They generate the looks, but they are not making them like they should. They are generating a similar amount of open and wide open looks as they did during the regular season, but they are not converting. Wide open three's (-16.3%), but they have outshot their open three percentage by 12.7% (probably mainly Kennard helping this). The net result though is still lower for them.

So overall the Clippers have done this:
-force more pull-up three's than catch and shoot
-force more open three's than wide open three's

Those things, "technically" should reduce the opposing teams 3PT%, even if they are a good 3PT shooting team, but in the two games overall, it hasn't particularly worked that way, but then combine that with the Clippers own inability to hit good shots as they should, and that's life for them.

Like I posted in response on the Clippers board, it's not even that the Clippers are overall having "bad" percentages, it is that they are not having the really good games and variance is working against them.

The Clippers have just had a bad time with variance, technically the team isn't supposed to be high variance, but they have had more of an issue with not having their positive variance games happening much. In the regular season the Clippers shot:
50%+ 3PT (15/72 games), 21% of games
45%+ 3PT (27/72 games), 38% of games
40%+ 3PT (43/72 games), 60% of games
<30% 3PT (7/72 games), 10% of games

Playoffs:
50%+ 3PT (0/9 games), 0% of games
45%+ 3PT (1/9 games), 11% of games
40%+ 3PT (2/9 games), 22% of games
<30% 3PT (2/9 games), 22% of games

The pull-up 3pt shots are coming from Mitchell and Clarkson mostly, with a couple from Ingles and Bogdanovic. They can all shoot those shots with confidence. When Mitchell goes into attack mode, he takes more of these. His numbers on pull-up 3s in the Bubble last year were insane (like ~50%). I would compare Mitchell's numbers this playoffs to the bubble rather than to the regular season. The Jazz don't rely on him as much in the regular season.

If a defense plays a drop-big coverage, like the Clippers were doing with Zubac, that off-the-bounce 3pt shot is always going to be open. Mitchell, Clarkson and Conley can all hit those at a high rate. They can use a Gobert screen or reject the screen and get an open look just about any time. The Jazz also shot these really well against the Grizzlies' drop coverage.

The Clippers' smaller lineup with its switching defense is more likely to force Mitchell to drive. In some cases, however, Mitchell will hunt a switch and just pull up from 3pt anyway.

They can certainly make those shots, but there's a limit of the expectation of how many will drop on average.

Regular season pull up:
Mitchell: 5.5 3PA / 36.3% 3PT / 49.8 eFG% overall on pull-ups

Clarkson: 4.7 3PA / 33.3% 3PT / 47.8 eFG% overall on pull-ups

Vs Clippers pull-up:
Mitchell: 11.5 3PA / 43.5% 3PT / 64.7 eFG% overall on pull-ups

Clarkson: 7.0 3PA / 57.1% 3PT / 83.3 eFG% overall on pull-ups

Bubble Regular Season:
Mitchell: 4.5 3PA / 37.0% 3PT / 50.0 eFG% overall on pull-ups

Clarkson: 3.4 3PA / 29.6% 3PT / 42.1 eFG% overall on pull-ups

Bubble Playoffs:
Mitchell: 7.3 3PA / 51.0% 3PT / 61.0 eFG% overall on pull-ups

Clarkson: 3.0 3PA / 47.6% 3PT / 58.1 eFG% overall on pull-ups

So basically they were hot in the bubble playoffs, but bubble regular season, meh. You combine the 13 games, and it's nothing special. Obviously vs the Clippers is a two game sample size, and the whole playoffs so far is just 7 games. I don't know about the argument that in the post-season altogether Mitchell should be expected to double his pull-up three's while also having a statistically significant increase in percentage. It can happen in a series, sure, but in general it would be considered an outlier. Of course we'll see how the rest of the series plays out, would definitely be tough for the Clippers if it continues.

[Zeno]

I expect Kawhi to really try to assert himself early. Morris probably won’t suck as bad, Reggie Jackson won’t be as good likely and Paul George, who knows? Hopefully Mitchell ankle is better and Gobert isn’t targeted for fouls. Expecting a Clippers to win.

[tugs]

1996 Bulls:

MVP / Finals MVP / ASG MVP: Michael Jordan
All-Star Selection: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen
Sixth Man Of The Year: Toni Kukoc
Coach Of The Year: Phil Jackson
Executive Of The Year: Jerry Krause

Also, not technically awards, but Jordan won his eighth scoring title, and Rodman won his fifth rebounding title.

Also, won the second most games in NBA history at 72-10, which stood at #1 for 20 years until the 2016 Warriors won 73.

Still amazing how AI took that team to the Finals

And here's to hoping Utah will have the same outcome similar to the '96 Bulls at the end of the season

[Sofia]

Seppos need to relax on the anthem