Round 2, Game 1: Clippers at Jazz, June 8, 7:00 PM PCT

[madmaxmedia]

I say traditional lineup plus a point that has any chance at all of guarding Mitchell.

We can't be switching everything knowing that some of the stuff out there switching on to Mitchell is BBQ.
Rondo? Bev?

Just a thought. I doubt the sports gods will give us another 1st half like he did yesterday.

I agree- after it was clear that Kennard was toast against Mitchell, some type of adjustment should have been made- like putting Mann in the game

Wasn't just Luke. FFS, Rondo should be playing on him. If Donovan Mitchell has a big quarter, he gets 15-20 points. If Royce O'Neal or Ingles has a big quarter, they get half of that, maybe. Put your best defender on Mitchell. It's not rocket science. In the fourth. Mitchell got 16. We ran a lineup of Rondo, Luke, PG, Kawhi, and Morris. Shouldn't be hard to figure out defensive assignments.

Luke was never the primary defender though, they'd just pick and roll until they got the switch they wanted down the stretch in the 4th. But yeah- it's still a team defense thing too. Luke got abused though, I would have subbed him out at the end of the game.

[esqtvd]

just wanted to bump the actual game thread above the 3 garbage threads below it lol

we lost Game 1 by 3 on the road two days after a brutal 7-game series
after all the rubbish people posted after going down 0-2 to Dallas you'd think some people would be embarrassed to do it again

but no, lol

[Roscoe Sheed]

I agree- after it was clear that Kennard was toast against Mitchell, some type of adjustment should have been made- like putting Mann in the game

Wasn't just Luke. FFS, Rondo should be playing on him. If Donovan Mitchell has a big quarter, he gets 15-20 points. If Royce O'Neal or Ingles has a big quarter, they get half of that, maybe. Put your best defender on Mitchell. It's not rocket science. In the fourth. Mitchell got 16. We ran a lineup of Rondo, Luke, PG, Kawhi, and Morris. Shouldn't be hard to figure out defensive assignments.

Luke was never the primary defender though, they'd just pick and roll until they got the switch they wanted down the stretch in the 4th. But yeah- it's still a team defense thing too. Luke got abused though, I would have subbed him out at the end of the game.

It seemed like a replay of the Doncic debacle- they need to figure out how to play defense without switching or Kennard will have to sit the pine because he will get eaten alive every play

[Roscoe Sheed]

another issue is that it seems like the refs won't let the Clippers play defense on Mitchell. Any contact on him is a foul, while the Jazz were allowed to play very physically with Kawhi

[NickP]

another issue is that it seems like the refs won't let the Clippers play defense on Mitchell. Any contact on him is a foul, while the Jazz were allowed to play very physically with Kawhi

Then Lue needs to crap on the refs, pay his 25k fine and hope the reffing improves.

[esqtvd]

Wasn't just Luke. FFS, Rondo should be playing on him. If Donovan Mitchell has a big quarter, he gets 15-20 points. If Royce O'Neal or Ingles has a big quarter, they get half of that, maybe. Put your best defender on Mitchell. It's not rocket science. In the fourth. Mitchell got 16. We ran a lineup of Rondo, Luke, PG, Kawhi, and Morris. Shouldn't be hard to figure out defensive assignments.

Luke was never the primary defender though, they'd just pick and roll until they got the switch they wanted down the stretch in the 4th. But yeah- it's still a team defense thing too. Luke got abused though, I would have subbed him out at the end of the game.

It seemed like a replay of the Doncic debacle- they need to figure out how to play defense without switching or Kennard will have to sit the pine because he will get eaten alive every play

Ty was trying to give Kawhi and PG a bit of a breather in Game 1. Kawhi will simply have to take primary defensive responsibility for Mitchell if it's going to be a Doncic thing. I still think other people at least stepping up with the scoring load will be the difference. Kawhi just can't give 110% at BOTH ends for 42 minutes every 2 days for the next 6 weeks.

[SK21209]

Even if he can guard Mitchell some, Rondo is not the solution in this series. The Jazz are too smart for the usual Rondo chicanery and Rondo has no shot of finishing near the rim if Gobert is in the game. The Jazz are either helping off Rondo or rotating to bring help from somewhere else and have Rondo's man rotate into that position.

Defensively, Nate Duncan did a pretty good analysis on his Pod today. Our basic scheme against Luka P&R was to switch P&Rs with Luka and a big, because Luka is too good at keeping that defender on his back and working the midrange against a big playing drop coverage, and show hard and recover on Pick-and-Pops because Luka isn't really fast enough to split the defenders and the Mavs don't have enough shooting across the roster to make you pay on those.

The calculation against the Jazz is the opposite. Mitchell isn't as good as Luka but he's lightning quick so he'll blow by Morris, Batum and even Kawhi in a switch and is very capable of splitting the defenders in the action. In pick-and-pop, the Jazz have better shooters so its very difficult to show hard and recover.

I think we really need Bev in this one, I'd even consider returning to that Bev/PG/Kawhi/Morris/Zu starting lineup. We need a guard that can at least stay with Mitchell at the point of attack, so more Bev, more Mann and less than Rondo. We can still close with the small lineup.

[SK21209]

Luke was never the primary defender though, they'd just pick and roll until they got the switch they wanted down the stretch in the 4th. But yeah- it's still a team defense thing too. Luke got abused though, I would have subbed him out at the end of the game.

It seemed like a replay of the Doncic debacle- they need to figure out how to play defense without switching or Kennard will have to sit the pine because he will get eaten alive every play

Ty was trying to give Kawhi and PG a bit of a breather in Game 1. Kawhi will simply have to take primary defensive responsibility for Mitchell if it's going to be a Doncic thing. I still think other people at least stepping up with the scoring load will be the difference. Kawhi just can't give 110% at BOTH ends for 42 minutes every 2 days for the next 6 weeks.

Mitchell isn't the right matchup for Kawhi, he's just too fast. Kawhi's strength as a defender is the strength and wingspan so he's good against guys like Luka, Butler, LeBron, etc. but has always struggled with guards. The Spurs used to always try and put him on CP3 and it always felt like a waste. I think it has to be Bev or Mann for 48 minutes.

[esqtvd]

another issue is that it seems like the refs won't let the Clippers play defense on Mitchell. Any contact on him is a foul, while the Jazz were allowed to play very physically with Kawhi

Then Lue needs to crap on the refs, pay his 25k fine and hope the reffing improves.

Hear, hear. Ty's oncourt demeanor is underwhelming. Doc's Clippers were #1 in FTAs and now this year so are his Sixers. In the NBA today, Whining is Winning.

[esqtvd]

It seemed like a replay of the Doncic debacle- they need to figure out how to play defense without switching or Kennard will have to sit the pine because he will get eaten alive every play

Ty was trying to give Kawhi and PG a bit of a breather in Game 1. Kawhi will simply have to take primary defensive responsibility for Mitchell if it's going to be a Doncic thing. I still think other people at least stepping up with the scoring load will be the difference. Kawhi just can't give 110% at BOTH ends for 42 minutes every 2 days for the next 6 weeks.

Mitchell isn't the right matchup for Kawhi, he's just too fast. Kawhi's strength as a defender is the strength and wingspan so he's good against guys like Luka, Butler, LeBron, etc. but has always struggled with guards. The Spurs used to always try and put him on CP3 and it always felt like a waste. I think it has to be Bev or Mann for 48 minutes.

You could be right

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although Kennard often ended up with him on the switch. Ty's problem is that Bev is not an offensive force, and Kennard was at least getting us points. I suppose Mann is the compromise between offense and defense.

[SK21209]

Ty was trying to give Kawhi and PG a bit of a breather in Game 1. Kawhi will simply have to take primary defensive responsibility for Mitchell if it's going to be a Doncic thing. I still think other people at least stepping up with the scoring load will be the difference. Kawhi just can't give 110% at BOTH ends for 42 minutes every 2 days for the next 6 weeks.

Mitchell isn't the right matchup for Kawhi, he's just too fast. Kawhi's strength as a defender is the strength and wingspan so he's good against guys like Luka, Butler, LeBron, etc. but has always struggled with guards. The Spurs used to always try and put him on CP3 and it always felt like a waste. I think it has to be Bev or Mann for 48 minutes.

You could be right

Read on Twitter

although Kennard often ended up with him on the switch. Ty's problem is that Bev is not an offensive force, and Kennard was at least getting us points. I suppose Mann is the compromise between offense and defense.

Not having Ibaka really sucks against this Jazz team. With Ibaka, you can get away with playing Bev just for his defense on Mitchell while still spacing the floor enough for Kawhi and PG to get to the basket. If you play the small lineup, you don’t have anyone to meet Mitchell at the rim.

[TheNewEra]

Wasn't just Luke. FFS, Rondo should be playing on him. If Donovan Mitchell has a big quarter, he gets 15-20 points. If Royce O'Neal or Ingles has a big quarter, they get half of that, maybe. Put your best defender on Mitchell. It's not rocket science. In the fourth. Mitchell got 16. We ran a lineup of Rondo, Luke, PG, Kawhi, and Morris. Shouldn't be hard to figure out defensive assignments.

Luke was never the primary defender though, they'd just pick and roll until they got the switch they wanted down the stretch in the 4th. But yeah- it's still a team defense thing too. Luke got abused though, I would have subbed him out at the end of the game.

It seemed like a replay of the Doncic debacle- they need to figure out how to play defense without switching or Kennard will have to sit the pine because he will get eaten alive every play

I saw Luke do everything he should on Mitchell. Contest the shot when he’s supposed to and when he’s driving to stay with him and hope for help. When you don’t have rim protection it’s going to be difficult

[esqtvd]

uh oh Cowherd

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[TucsonClip]

Difficult turnaround from games 6 and 7 to tonight, PG and Kawhi mostly off, bad third quarter and the chance to somehow tie at the end.

Game 2 will tell a lot about this series, as I expect another war. However, there was little I saw tonight which leads me to buy into any doom and gloom.

Fully expect Kawhi to come storming back, hope PG can find his jumper from three and Mitchell isn't burning down the nets again.

Win game 2, head home and everyone should be very happy.

Obviously Luke was on the floor at the end for his shooting, but we didn't get him a single attempt in the last couple of minutes, meanwhile he had to guard Mitchell every other Jazz possession. That was painful to watch at the end, luckily they didn't PnR to him again the last possession and we got a miss. Too bad we couldn't get off a good look though.

Yeah, he was in there for any semblance of offense, because nobody else was bringing it. He did well on those hard show/hedges against Luka and survived early against Mitchell. Problem is, you have to hedge with him out there, but the fact we were actually giving up those soft switches, until the final two minutes, with Luke is absurd. We saw the same thing early in the series against Luka.

You CANNOT concede soft switches against the teams primary scoring option, especially guys as dangerous as Luka and Mitchell.

[Roscoe Sheed]

Difficult turnaround from games 6 and 7 to tonight, PG and Kawhi mostly off, bad third quarter and the chance to somehow tie at the end.

Game 2 will tell a lot about this series, as I expect another war. However, there was little I saw tonight which leads me to buy into any doom and gloom.

Fully expect Kawhi to come storming back, hope PG can find his jumper from three and Mitchell isn't burning down the nets again.

Win game 2, head home and everyone should be very happy.

Obviously Luke was on the floor at the end for his shooting, but we didn't get him a single attempt in the last couple of minutes, meanwhile he had to guard Mitchell every other Jazz possession. That was painful to watch at the end, luckily they didn't PnR to him again the last possession and we got a miss. Too bad we couldn't get off a good look though.

Yeah, he was in there for any semblance of offense, because nobody else was bringing it. He did well on those hard show/hedges against Luka and survived early against Mitchell. Problem is, you have to hedge with him out there, but the fact we were actually giving up those soft switches, until the final two minutes, with Luke is absurd. We saw the same thing early in the series against Luka.

You CANNOT concede soft switches against the teams primary scoring option, especially guys as dangerous as Luka and Mitchell.

very frustrating- it's like they didn't learn their lesson. However, fatigue may have played a role

[Clemenza]

another issue is that it seems like the refs won't let the Clippers play defense on Mitchell. Any contact on him is a foul, while the Jazz were allowed to play very physically with Kawhi

A lot of those continuation and-one's he got were bogus. On a few different messageboards -had to check a few different opinions since RealGM has a serious anti-Clipper slant to it, even on our Clipper board- and a lot of people said we got hosed on the calls

[esqtvd]

another issue is that it seems like the refs won't let the Clippers play defense on Mitchell. Any contact on him is a foul, while the Jazz were allowed to play very physically with Kawhi

A lot of those continuation and-one's he got were bogus. On a few different messageboards -had to check a few different opinions since RealGM has a serious anti-Clipper slant to it, even on our Clipper board- and a lot of people said we got hosed on the calls

Mrs TVD agreed 100

[Quake Griffin]

Conley out again.

[madmaxmedia]

Conley out again.

Not that I hope for opposing team injuries, but tonight's game will give us a chance to see if it really was fatigue that hurt our play and affected our substitutions.

[Scoundreldays]

Let's go Clips!