Making Sense of Our Current Win Streak

[Quake Griffin]

Seven in a row. Nine out of our last ten. Six out of seven on our road trip.
But what does it mean? We obviously haven't beat a "contender" during the streak and its obviously only December.


I'll keep my thoughts short:

1) It's a breath of fresh air. Sure we may not be beating contenders but do you remember our early season "wins" against the Thunder, Lakers and Jazz? They felt like losses. At the very least, you can compare our play to the lesser teams and say its better.

2) We're starting to develop an identity. Through the first 10 games, the ball wasn't moving. It was dying in Griffin's BS post ups. Redick couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. We were getting creamed on the boards. Throughout the streak, the ball has been moving beautifully. We've been communicating better on defense, though we are FAR from perfect on that end. We're rebounding the damn ball and winning the battle of the boards.


what does this mean and how does it translate?
Not sure. It's still too early for me to determine…but I'm very pleased that some of the errors we were making earlier in the season seem to be a thing of the past…soon we'll be at the point where we'll be focusing on imposing our will and making this system work against good teams and not worrying about comfort, rhythm and the ball stopping in Griffin's hands.



what are your thoughts on the streak?

[og15]

I I'm so happy the Blake Griffin 5 seconds of backing down has decreased massively, that was just some ugly basketball.

Great teams most nights will beat poor and mediocre teams handily, so seeing consistency in beating those teams is a very good thing.

The offense is looking great, not just because shots are going in but because of the motion, the sharing, the fluidity. I guess Mike Woodson is owed an apology.

The defensive rebounding has been good all season, so really happy about that.

The obvious last thing is still defense. Still not a shut down defensive team, but better defensive rebounding certainly helps the defense as well as giving up very few fast break chances.

I'll never use a streak where you're beating on poor teams to say a team is the best, but it's a sign that you're a very good team. So long steaks are always good. It's the 55+ win teams in the league that tend to have steaks like these, so it's just solidifying what level of team this is.

Sent from my LG-E970 using RealGM Forums mobile app

[LACtdom]

As said before, we haven't come close to beating a contender yet. I think this win streak is good for us to get some confidence back. I'm grateful we have easy games as I'm not sure how well we would handle say a losing streak of 5 games which could have easily happened if we had a harder schedule.

The offense looks great! That being said, we won't know how good our offense is until our goes through another shooting slump. At the start of the season our offense looked terrible when our J's weren't falling but maybe this time round we'll be better prepared with our exceptional ball movement.

We lost to a Chicago team who was missing Rose & Gasol. We need to get to the stage where we could possibly win most games even if we had injury problems.

If we want to prove that we are a contender then I think we need to win every game up until the Spurs as they are all against poor team.

[og15]

In terms of playing contenders, the best teams we've played:

@Golden State - got destroyed
Portland - won
San Antonio - melted down at the end and lost by 4
@Memphis - got destroyed

So 1-3, really should be 2-2 with that terrible ending to the SA game. So 1-3 against the top teams with 2 games on the road really isn't as bad in reality as our minds are probably thinking. This team has lost 5 games:

Sacramento
@Golden State
San Antonio
Chicago
@Memphis

Even with the slow start to the season, that's actually pretty good so far. 2 of the 5 losses were on the road against the teams that are currently #1 and #3 in the West. Let's compare to the 17-2 Warriors. They started the season 5-2, after their losses @Phoenix and to San Antonio, these are their wins in their win streak:

(L) @Phoenix | (L) San Antonio | Brooklyn | Charlotte | @Lakers | Utah | @OKC | @Miami | @ Orlando | @ Charlotte | @ Detroit | Orlando | New Orleans | @ Chicago

We actually have a very similar schedule to GS. If you look at our schedule, outside of Memphis getting tossed in there, here are our wins:
(L) San Antonio | Phoenix | (L) Chicago | @ Orlando | @ Miami | (L) @ Memphis | @ Charlotte | @ Detroit | @ Houston | @ Utah | Minnesota | Orlando | New Orleans

They beat the Bulls while we lost to them without 2 of their starters, they beat the Kings while we lost to them, those are the two blips that we have have. They lost to Phoenix while we beat them, we both lost to San Antonio. We both beat Portland, a Dwight-less Houston, both beat he no star OKC team, both beat the Lakers, but they got the Lakers twice and we only got them once. We had Memphis instead, they haven't played Memphis yet. Their best win was on the road vs Chicago, every other win was against a bad team, they got Miami without Wade like we did. We beat them 110-93, they beat them 114-97, lol. So GS just needs a loss to two teams like like New Orleans and Sacramento next game to make up our losses

So like us, they have primarily beat the teams they should beat.

The best teams they have played:
@ Portland - win
LA Clippers - win
San Antonio - loss

Outside of beating us, they haven't done much against good teams either. They've had Charlotte and the Lakers twice and Brooklyn while we've had Utah twice, Minnesota and Memphis. So the difference in our schedules is Minnesota vs Charlotte, Brooklyn vs Utah which are a wash and playing the Lakers vs playing Memphis which is the only difference. Portland is in a similar boat.

Portland's best opponents:
Golden State - loss
Dallas - win
@LA Clippers - loss
Memphis - loss

The only good teams they have beat are Dallas and the no Rose and no Gasol Bulls, all their other wins are against poor or mediocre teams, just like us, just like GS, because the best teams beat the mediocre teams.

[LACtdom]

I agree that given how we've been playing, only losing 5 games is quite successful. The Spurs missed 4 FTs and gifted us that game and we still choked so I'm not counting that as an 'almost won'. I'm not focusing on our losses to GS, MEM & the spurs because they are good teams. I'm talking about the games we could've easily lost against OKC, Lakers, etc where we played horribly but got an ugly W. OKC almost beat us without KD & WB. If the tables were turned, could we beat a FULL strength OKC team without CP3 & Blake? I don't think so but hopefully we won't have to find out.

Knowing that our worst bball is behind us and our best is in front of us, only having 5 losses is really exciting.

[Quake Griffin]

keep in mind.

Spurs have convincing wins at GSW and at Mem.

[KyletheDingbat]

My hope: that we can become a new type of prototype; a team that can win with a massive hole at the wing position. Has a team ever won a championship without a big wing who can take it in and dunk on someone? I don't think that's ever happened. I doubt a team has ever won a ring without a single defender at the wing position either. But teams have won in unique ways before and we may be the first! Especially if CP3 keeps shooting better than Steph Curry.

[LACtdom]

My hope: that we can become a new type of prototype; a team that can win with a massive hole at the wing position. Has a team ever won a championship without a big wing who can take it in and dunk on someone? I don't think that's ever happened. I doubt a team has ever won a ring without a single defender at the wing position either. But teams have won in unique ways before and we may be the first! Especially if CP3 keeps shooting better than Steph Curry.

Agree. However I think our lack of defence at the 2-guard position is more critical than our need of a two-way SF. At the end of the day, If we want to beat the other contenders we need to be able to limit the opposition''s star player which is most commonly a wing or 2 guard player.

[Wammy Giveaway]

Clippers have defeated the teams they should beat: teams who are under .500. According to Steve Perrin of Clips Nation, they are perfect, 11-0.

Clip's only hope of winning has been making their 3's, nine of them or more. This season, they are 12-1 when meeting or beating the count of 9, 2-4 when they make 8 or less.

J.J. Redick has now become key to their wins. This season, 9-1 when he makes 14 points or more, but 5-4 when he makes 13 or less: http://bkref.com/tiny/hJekl

Another revealing record: 11-1 when Blake Griffin surpasses his current career points per game average of 21.8: http://bkref.com/tiny/TVp1I

I'm still not convinced though. All they've proven is that they can defeat lottery teams from the east. Against the west, they will have points of struggle. Not only have they given up leads, they've given into deficits as well. This accounts for all title contenders from both conferences, and playoff pretenders and lottery teams from the west only. A roster upgrade is still necessary, even if it means giving up DeAndre Jordan, since the small forward spot is still a question mark. All things change if DeAndre Jordan makes the All Star Game this year and gets his first selection.

[Quake Griffin]

I'm glad we were trash to start the year…semi-srs

y'all see how far under the radar we're flying?
I almost got upset that there's a story about DJ's contract with Ballmer.


dont mention ANYTHING about my team until Dec. 25th.
then…there's nothing I can do there….that day you have to talk about my team.

[LACtdom]

I'm still not convinced though. All they've proven is that they can defeat lottery teams from the east. Against the west, they will have points of struggle. Not only have they given up leads, they've given into deficits as well. This accounts for all title contenders from both conferences, and playoff pretenders and lottery teams from the west only. A roster upgrade is still necessary, even if it means giving up DeAndre Jordan, since the small forward spot is still a question mark. All things change if DeAndre Jordan makes the All Star Game this year and gets his first selection.

If we give up Jordan our defense will be even worse. He is a good rim protector when he is in form. We don't want to see players like Duncan, Gasol, Bogut, etc, getting easy points. I guess we have to choose between being able to defend bigs or wing players. I'd be more inclined to get rid of a package with JC to bring in a defender but maybe I'm wrong and we just need to score more points?

[og15]

Clippers have defeated the teams they should beat: teams who are under .500. According to Steve Perrin of Clips Nation, they are perfect, 11-0.

Clip's only hope of winning has been making their 3's, nine of them or more. This season, they are 12-1 when meeting or beating the count of 9, 2-4 when they make 8 or less.

J.J. Redick has now become key to their wins. This season, 9-1 when he makes 14 points or more, but 5-4 when he makes 13 or less: http://bkref.com/tiny/hJekl

Another revealing record: 11-1 when Blake Griffin surpasses his current career points per game average of 21.8: http://bkref.com/tiny/TVp1I

I'm still not convinced though. All they've proven is that they can defeat lottery teams from the east. Against the west, they will have points of struggle. Not only have they given up leads, they've given into deficits as well. This accounts for all title contenders from both conferences, and playoff pretenders and lottery teams from the west only. A roster upgrade is still necessary, even if it means giving up DeAndre Jordan, since the small forward spot is still a question mark. All things change if DeAndre Jordan makes the All Star Game this year and gets his first selection.

This early in the season, not that many teams have had enough games against the good teams to prove much. Golden State has basically had the exact same schedule as the Clippers except they haven't played Memphis, and instead got an extra game vs the Lakers.

It would be problematic for the rest of the West if the Clippers were breezing through good Western competition. The good Western teams do exactly what the Clippers have done, breeze through the majority of the weak / borderline .500 teams.

Team (games vs WC)

Houston (14 games):
vs WC: 10-4
vs 7 +.500 Western opponents (4-3)
Wins: San Antonio, Dallas, Memphis, Phoenix
Losses: Golden State, @Memphis, LA Clippers

Clippers (13 games):
vs WC: 9-4
vs 6 +.500 Western opponents (3-3)
Wins: Portland, Phoenix, @Houston
Losses: @Golden State, San Antonio, @Memphis

Memphis (13 games):
vs WC: 11-2
vs 6 +.500 Western opponents (4-2)
Wins: @Phoenix, Houston, Clippers, @Portland
Losses: @Houston, San Antonio

San Antonio (12 games):
vs WC: 8-4
vs 6 +.500 Western opponents (4-2)
Wins: Dallas, @LA Clippers, @Golden State, @Memphis
Losses: Phoenix, Houston

Phoenix (12 games):
vs WC: 6-6
vs 6 +.500 Western opponents (3-3)
Wins: San Antonio, Golden State, @Dallas
Losses: Memphis, @LA Clippers (b2b), @Houston (b2b)

GS (11 games):
vs WC: 9-2
vs 5 +.500 Western opponents 5 (3-2)
Wins: @Portland, LA Clippers, @Rockets
Losses: @Phoenix, San Antonio

Portland (11 games) :
vs WC: 7-4
vs 4 +.500 Western opponents 4 (1-3)
Wins: Dallas
Losses: Golden State, @Clippers, Memphis

Dallas (10 games):
vs WC: 6-4
vs 4 +.500+ Western opponents 4 (0-4)
Losses: @San Antonio, @Portland, @Houston, Phoenix

* did not count Sacramento who is right at .500

The Clippers have played the second most games vs the West and have 9 of their 14 wins vs the West.

If we really want to get on a team about their wins vs the West, it would be Dallas or Portland.

Portland has 7 wins vs the West: Denver x 3, OKC, Dallas, New Orleans, Minnesota. Their only win vs a +.500 Western team is against Dallas who has lost all their games to +.500 Western teams, but 3/4 were on the road for Dallas.

Dallas has played only 10/22 games vs the West and have 6 wins vs the West: Utah x 2, New Orleans, Sacramento, Minnesota, LA Lakers

The only teams that so far have done anything "impressive" vs the good West teams are SA and Memphis. SA beat Golden State, Clippers, and Memphis all on the road. Still, with about 4-7 games vs the other playoff teams in the West, there's just too small of a sample size to say anything fully conclusive one way or another about anyone so far. The Clippers just look average for a top West team against the other top Western teams. The Warriors had their wins early but have played 1 <.500 team in their last 12 games, and that was Chicago.

I didn't look at the circumstance of everyone's games, but did note that Houston drew both the Clippers and Rockets on the road during the second night of a back to back.

Still a lot of basketball to be played

[og15]

I agree that given how we've been playing, only losing 5 games is quite successful. The Spurs missed 4 FTs and gifted us that game and we still choked so I'm not counting that as an 'almost won'. I'm not focusing on our losses to GS, MEM & the spurs because they are good teams. I'm talking about the games we could've easily lost against OKC, Lakers, etc where we played horribly but got an ugly W. OKC almost beat us without KD & WB. If the tables were turned, could we beat a FULL strength OKC team without CP3 & Blake? I don't think so but hopefully we won't have to find out.

Knowing that our worst bball is behind us and our best is in front of us, only having 5 losses is really exciting.

I think in the end all good teams have those games. One of the Spurs losses is to Brooklyn. Memphis beat everyone in the league and then lost to Milwaukee. Portland also lost to Sacramento like us, but Sacramento isn't a bad team. At least we didn't actually lose those games outside of SA, and we've been killing teams of that caliber the since then, even teams a little better like the Pelicans.

I think a few games like that will show their ugly heads again, it is a long season, but that's okay as long as the general theme of the team is playing well.

[pageC4]

Seven in a row. Nine out of our last ten. Six out of seven on our road trip.
But what does it mean? We obviously haven't beat a "contender" during the streak and its obviously only December.


I'll keep my thoughts short:

1) It's a breath of fresh air. Sure we may not be beating contenders but do you remember our early season "wins" against the Thunder, Lakers and Jazz? They felt like losses. At the very least, you can compare our play to the lesser teams and say its better.

2) We're starting to develop an identity. Through the first 10 games, the ball wasn't moving. It was dying in Griffin's BS post ups. Redick couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. We were getting creamed on the boards. Throughout the streak, the ball has been moving beautifully. We've been communicating better on defense, though we are FAR from perfect on that end. We're rebounding the damn ball and winning the battle of the boards.


what does this mean and how does it translate?
Not sure. It's still too early for me to determine…but I'm very pleased that some of the errors we were making earlier in the season seem to be a thing of the past…soon we'll be at the point where we'll be focusing on imposing our will and making this system work against good teams and not worrying about comfort, rhythm and the ball stopping in Griffin's hands.



what are your thoughts on the streak?

Quake, excellent post. I tweeted Isaac Lowekron about this as well. Frankly, I am concerned for one good reason. The current streak against sub par teams may give us the false impression that we are a balanced team and contender. It can also lead the FO to not make necessary upgrades because on paper the win-loss ratio looks good. But I remember a few years back when we had a chance to trade Caron Butler for a better wing(it might have been Afflalo or Ariza), yet we didn't make the trade because the record was good and Sterling felt that he didn't want to ruin chemistry. I'm still extremely worried about our efforts on the defensive end, and hope to see some wins against the top western teams to convince me.
We have it together offensively, and with Hawes our back up big situation is very stable. But I still am ging to be the lone voice in the wilderness calling for packaging some of our guys for a quality SF. Hopefully, one that plays great defense

[pageC4]

Clippers have defeated the teams they should beat: teams who are under .500. According to Steve Perrin of Clips Nation, they are perfect, 11-0.

Clip's only hope of winning has been making their 3's, nine of them or more. This season, they are 12-1 when meeting or beating the count of 9, 2-4 when they make 8 or less.

J.J. Redick has now become key to their wins. This season, 9-1 when he makes 14 points or more, but 5-4 when he makes 13 or less: http://bkref.com/tiny/hJekl

Another revealing record: 11-1 when Blake Griffin surpasses his current career points per game average of 21.8: http://bkref.com/tiny/TVp1I

I'm still not convinced though. All they've proven is that they can defeat lottery teams from the east. Against the west, they will have points of struggle. Not only have they given up leads, they've given into deficits as well. This accounts for all title contenders from both conferences, and playoff pretenders and lottery teams from the west only. A roster upgrade is still necessary, even if it means giving up DeAndre Jordan, since the small forward spot is still a question mark. All things change if DeAndre Jordan makes the All Star Game this year and gets his first selection.

Another great breakdown of our situation.

[og15]

Don't forget the Sterling factor in not making the trade because I believe VDN actually wanted the Ariza trade, as well as the front office, but it was Sterling that blocked it. We don't have that craziness anymore.

[QRich3]

Every year every team on a winning streak gets shat on because most of those wins come against weak teams. Well guess what, the majority of the games in the season come against weak teams, specially when you're a top 5 team in the league. Beating the Pelicans, the Suns twice, and the Rockets, in such an effortless way as we've done it, is no short feat. And in any case, there's no sense in putting much weight on if we lost one game against the Spurs or if we lost another against Memphis. The post season is a whole different animal and you can't take serious conclusions about the results of games played in December to other top teams. What the regular season is important for, is playoff match ups. And guess what, good seeding position is achieved mostly by beating on bad teams. So let's keep doing what we're doing and worrying about getting to April in good form and with a good record to get good match ups. Other than that, it doesn't matter what happens in December.

[thanumba2clippersfan]

Our streak lives, honestly I didn't see it coming. We still need to improve on defense but there are plenty of games to get better.

[Quake Griffin]

need a meme.

Says Clippers aren't contender; Uses victory over them to prove his own team is a contender.

just for the lulz.

[Ranma]

Something to take note of our formidable foes up in No. Cal.:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/AlexKennedyNBA/status/542428843441541120[/tweet]