Dupp wrote:Texas Chuck wrote:I'm not understanding all the Kawhi hate. He's been great all series until last night when Rick went jumbo lineup and played zone to keep him from just straight lining the rim. And after 10 playoff games of him trucking Maxi Kleber when they went man he gave Dorian a shot at him and Dorian played the defensive game of his life. Sometimes we got to credit the other team.
I guess the thing is kawhi and PG are both playing really well but that impact doesn’t translate to the rest of the team. At least not as much as you’d think.
Kinda seems like kawhis lack of playmaking and leadership has caught up with him in LA.
Yeah no question that Kawhi's offense individually is great but doesn't elevate his teams as much as other offensive stars. Though even as I say that the Clippers with good, but hardly world-class shooters shot the 4th highest percentage from 3 as a team this season in NBA history and much of that is about how much attention Kawhi requires in the mid-range and going to the basket.
In this series Dallas going to that zone and taking away what Kawhi wants to do exposed some of his liability as a passer. He's pretty good at making basic reads and passes, but Dallas was doing a great job of taking those passes away getting lots of deflections.
I think initially the idea was just let him eat against Kleber but don't let their shooters do to us what ours are doing to them. Same thing Lue talked about with Luka. Obviously that wasn't working because Kawhi was like okay I'll take a layup or dunk over and over again thanks. And on the other end well Luka is so gifted a passer than even when you play him to score he's still going to create a bunch of good 3's.
Fascinating series. I would have said Kawhi was the better player going into it, but now I'm not sold he's actually more valuable than Luka.
