GDHQNBA15_2pg-L.A. Clippers

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WESTERN CONFERENCE PACIFIC DIVISION Los Angeles NBA actors Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan would have been all too happy to get their Jerry Maguire on and re-enact the You-Complete-Me scene with backup bigs Spencer Hawes, Ekpe Udoh and Glen Davis. After years of coming up short in their search for second-string power forwards and centers, the Clippers on the court continually came up short in playoff bids to go beyond the Western Conference Semifinals. As great as Griffin was, as much as Jordan would improve and as well as Paul would lead, it was never enough. Simply put, it was because the L.A. Clippers were never big enough. It helped a bit when Big Baby Davis joined L.A. for half a season last year. But the Clips still never had a stretch big, who could open up the floor. They seldom had an imposing force to protect the paint. They rarely had a big, who was, you know, really big, as in wide big. Now they have all three, respectively, with Spencer Hawes, Ekpe Udoh and Davis. Big-man depth is what you need when you go up against the Spurs, Thunder and Grizzlies in battling for those Final Four berths. And the Clippers are now complete, now that they have that. DEFENSE While Doc Rivers got Jordan to buy into the defensive program and play D like no Clippers’ center since Marcus Camby (a Clippers mentor during Jordan’s rookie year), this year’s challenges for Doc are much bigger. Now Rivers must convince the entire team to buy in to a system he and Tom Thibodeau once devised for a Kevin Garnett-led championship squad. To put it lightly, it’s still a work in progress. The Clippers were good enough on D last season, posting a 102.1 points allowed per 100 possessions, ranking seventh in the League, while Jordan himself became a top 10 defensive center. The team, however, has much room for improvement, especially when it came to bench play from the bigs. The stat that glaringly stood out was how the Clips only retrieved 49.6 percent of their rebound opportunities, ranking 20th in the league. But that’s what happens when none of your players who log 500-plus minutes—besides Griffin (14.7 rebound percentage; +1.99 defensive Real Plus-Minus) and Jordan (21.6 rebound percentage; +3.38 dRPM)— grab more than 10 percent of their rebound opportunities, like last season’s scrawny bunch. That’s where Hawes (14.6 rebound percentage), Davis (11.9 percent) and Udoh (10.5 percent) come into the picture, not only bringing halfway-decent rebounding skills, but good defensive reps as well (Hawes, +0.40 dRPM), Davis (+2.04 dRPM) and Udoh (+2.83 dRPM). It’s a known fact that the Clippers can only get so much defense from a guard and wings squadron that features Chris Paul, Jamal Crawford, J.J. Redick and Matt Barnes (CP3 is the only one amongst them that can be confused for an All-Defense candidate). Yes, if the Clippers are going to be true championship contenders, they cannot afford for their backup power forwards and centers to do less than their share. Yes, at minimum, they must rebound and defend when Griffin and/ or Jordan hit the bench. OFFENSE Nobody does it better than the Clippers, when Paul is floating alleyoops to Lob City co-mayors Griffin and Jordan, whilst the team posts the No. 1 offensive efficiency in the League at 109.4 points per 100 possessions, as was the case last season. Mix in floor-spacing phenoms Redick (makes 40 percent of threes, and attempts triples on 47 percent of his shots), Crawford (36 and 44, respectively) and Barnes (34 and 54), and you see how Rivers has set the table for his top six players to overwhelm his foes in all facets of the game. It’s doesn’t hurt either when his Big Three keeps making big strides in their individual games. Griffin, who played his first NBA game just four years ago, shot 30 percent on midrange twos (10-16 feet) as a rookie and 34 percent on long twos (16-22 feet) with only 26 percent of his shots coming within that range. Four NBA seasons later, Griffin has gone from a horrible outside shooter to a mediocre one, now making 40 percent on mid-range twos and 37 percent on long twos, with 29 percent of his shots coming from that range. You see, Griffin is not shooting that inefficient shot a whole lot more than he used to, but he has worked to make it better when he does shoot it. And he continues to dominate in the paint in a way that Chris Paul Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images


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