Where: STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, CA
When: Monday, April 22nd, 2013 @ 7:30PM (PDT)
TV:
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Radio:
PG: #3 - Chris Paul SG: #1 - Chauncey Billups
SF: #5 - Caron Butler PF: #32 - Blake Griffin
C: #6 - DeAndre Jordan
A Tribe Called Bench
Bledsoe | Crawford | Barnes | Hill | Odom | Hollins
PG: #11 - Mike Conley SG: #9 - Tony Allen
SF: #21 Tayshaun Prince PF: #50 - Zach Randolph
C: #33 - Marc Gasol
Reserves
Dooling | Bayless | Pondexter | Arthur | Davis
Inactive List:
None to report.
None to report.
Head-to-Head Team Leaders and Statistics
Chris Paul - 18.0 Points, 8.3 Assists and 2.3 Steals in 36.3 MPG
DeAndre Jordan - 7.2 Rebounds in 26.2 MPG
Lamar Odom - 1.6 Blocks in 22.2 MPG
Team Performance
Home Record: 2-1
97.6 Points Per Game
41.8 Rebounds Per Game
11.6 Offensive Rebounds Per Game
21.0 Assists Per Game
12.4 Turnovers Per Game
32.2% on 3 point field goals
25.6 Free-Throws Attempted Per Game
0.340 FTA per FGA
Marc Gasol - 16.6 Points in 38.2 MPG
Zach Randolph - 10.4 Rebounds in 35.6 MPG
Mike Conley - 5.6 Assists and 1.6 Steals in 33.8 MPG
Austin Daye - 1.0 Blocks in 6.0 MPG
Team Performance
Road Record: 1-2
87.8 Points Per Game
37.8 Rebounds Per Game
13.4 Offensive Rebounds Per Game
19.8 Assists Per Game
12.2 Turnovers Per Game
35.2% on 3 point field goals
22.6 Free-Throws Attempted Per Game
0.285 FTA per FGA
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfQ1-P5iofA[/youtube]
Griffin focused on Randolph, not his offense"It's my job to keep him off the glass and everybody else rebound," Griffin said Sunday. "I do want to be more aggressive, but at the same time, I can't hurt us by being too aggressive.""We know they're great at rebounding the ball, being scrappy, getting in the paint and creating second-chance opportunities," Caron Butler said. "If we can control that, we got a great chance to win the game.""We were happy and surprised to be down by one in the fourth quarter with the opportunity to be in the game as poorly as we were playing," Tony Allen said. "On the other hand, they were playing very well, doing all the things right. That's what gives us a little bit of confidence looking at the film. We didn't play nearly as well as we could play."Conley's ability to defend was hampered by foul trouble, and he said the Clippers' change in pick-and-roll sets caught the Grizzlies off-guard.
"As guards, we have to do a better job of pushing up on the ball handler," he said. "But they were flipping the screen so our big would show one way but their big would flip the screen and Chris would see it and be able to get a full head of steam on our big man. You can't guard him when he's got a full head of steam and with the confidence he has in the paint, he's tough to deal with."
NBA.com
The Clippers started off their 2013 postseason campaign with a 112-91 victory over the Grizzlies at home. While the momentum teetered back and forth the majority of the game, a late 4th quarter explosion (of offense and defense) allowed the Clippers to secure a 21 point victory. Any series with the Grizzlies will probably be the most physical series. 57 fouls were called between the 2 teams. It was impressive for the Clippers to dominate the boards, but the game remained closer than numbers would suggest prior to that blazing finish. It's not likely that Memphis will get obliterated in the rebounding department in such a manner again, but the Clippers must make it a consistent effort to keep them off of the glass.
The two biggest match-ups in this series are at the pg position and the 4 spot. Paul handily had his way with Conley. Griffin and Randolph essentially neutralized each other. Blake finished the game with 10 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers and 6 fouls. Z-Bo was a little more efficient from the field, but only put up 13 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist to go along with his 3 turnovers and 5 fouls. Between the 2 bigs, 11 fouls were called which led to them both only playing around 25 minutes. While we all want Blake to have his way more often, this was not a terribly bad game by him due to his him negating what Z-Bo was able to do. Gasol is a beast and is hard to contain, but there are only so many load bearing options on the Grizzlies. If Blake and Z-Bo cancel each other out, it's essentially Gasol & Conley vs a host of Clipper players that are capable of carrying the offensive burden.
Tayshaun Prince had a field day in his regular season Memphis debut against the Clippers, but was pretty quiet on Saturday night. Tony Allen is one of the league's top defenders, but only saw 16 minutes of action. Some of that can be attributed to being in foul trouble, but the fact of the matter is that he was not having the greatest game and Memphis needed all the offense that it could get. Jerryd Bayless filled that need by putting up 19 points off of the bench. Over the course of the 5 games that he has played against the Clippers this season, he's shooting 40% from beyond the arc. Perimeter shooting is not really Memphis' strong suit, but players like Bayless and Pondexter can make you pay if you give them the space.
Oh I overthought it, here's the real reason Tony Allen got benched...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJywHJcll10[/youtube]
In order to protect home court, we need to rebound, defend and push the tempo.
