OKC Thunder (32-9) @ LA Clippers (32-10)

[mkwest]

Oh perimeter/3PT defense. Need to try to force guys into more long pull up 2's

Of our 11 losses this season, the opposing team shot better than 38.5% from 3 in 9 of those games. The only games where the opposing team shot less than that were the New Year's game against the Nuggets (30.4%) by 14 and the Warriors in game 3 of the season (25%) by 4. 8 of those 9 were above 41% from the opposing perimeter shooters. In 7 of those games, we gave up a minimum of 11 3's of which the opponent shot at least 44% from deep.

Perimeter defense has been our Achilles heel. I'm not all that worried about the half-court offense that all the pundits focus on. I'm concerned about guarding the 3.

[Quake Griffin]

Oh perimeter/3PT defense. Need to try to force guys into more long pull up 2's

Of our 11 losses this season, the opposing team shot better than 38.5% from 3 in 9 of those games. The only games where the opposing team shot less than that were the New Year's game against the Nuggets (30.4%) by 14 and the Warriors in game 3 of the season (25%) by 4. 8 of those 9 were above 41% from the opposing perimeter shooters. In 7 of those games, we gave up a minimum of 11 3's of which the opponent shot at least 44% from deep.

Perimeter defense has been our Achilles heel. I'm not all that worried about the half-court offense that all the pundits focus on. I'm concerned about guarding the 3.

dunno how u guys feel about those numbers linked above.


but they're freaking pathetic.
definitely "uh oh a team got hot and bounced us out of the playoffs before we knew what happened" material.

[TheNewEra]

Vinny is a joke until he fixes perimeter D its been a issue for years

[mkwest]

dunno how u guys feel about those numbers linked above.


but they're freaking pathetic.
definitely "uh oh a team got hot and bounced us out of the playoffs before we knew what happened" material.

GSW (3x): Season % - 39.3%; vs LAC - 45.9% (1 game they were 4/16); Difference = +6.6%
OKC (2x): Season % - 39.3%; vs LAC - 52%; +12.7%
ATL: 38%; vs LAC - 41.2%; +3.2%
BRK: 34.7%; vs LAC - 38.5%; +3.8%
CLE: 34.8%; vs LAC - 48.3%; +13.5%
DEN: 33.1%; vs LAC - 30.4%; -2.7%
NOH: 37.1%; vs LAC - 60.0%; +22.9%+
ORL: 35.6%; vs LAC - 44.0%; +8.4%

Aside from Denver who is a bad perimeter shooting team, the teams that have beaten us have shot at least 3% better than their season average. It's easy to say that those teams just got hot against us, but why did they get hot? I'm sure we gave them many open looks from deep and these guys are professionals. You give a great shooter an open look and he's going to make it. If he's just a decent shooter, you're still giving him a lot of confidence by giving him excellent opportunities.

The top 5 perimeter shooting teams in the league are:
1.) GSW - 39.3%
2.) OKC - 39.3%
3.) Miami - 38.7%
4.) NYK - 38.5%
5.) SAS - 38.2%

If the Clippers are going to go all of the way, they'll have to go likely go through at least 2 of OKC/SAS/GSW at some point on the west and then Heat/Knicks would be waiting on the other side. We're capable of beating each of those teams. We've shown it against all of them except the Thunder and the Knicks (who we haven't played yet), but beating a team in a 7 game series is a whole lot different than besting them in a singular game. This team has to improve the perimeter defense period or they'll be watching somebody else play this June.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5RZpjUm7yc[/youtube]