![]() ![]() We understand you've fallen in love with it, Blake, we just want you to make it your side fling, not your main squeeze. But for the Clippers to return to their lofty offensive heights, Blake must realize that his jumper is best-used as a change-up to his inside game. We'll give him a pass for Saturday, when he battled a stomach bug. In this OC Register piece from Friday, he admitted that he needs to attack more. According the NBA's play-by-play data, 14 of Blake's 24 attempts on Saturday were jump shots. Steve wrote about this yesterday, but with Glen Davis returning from injury and Hedo Turkoglu excelling in limited minutes, Doc may choose to play big for short stretches, likely with Blake Griffin guarding the opposing 3. He'll be a handful for the Clippers if they don't box out conscientiously. ![]() The Spurs aren't the most prodigious offensive-rebounding team, but Tim Duncan has grabbed 3.5 offensive boards per game this season, exceeding his career mark of 2.9. The Clippers are dead-last, behind even the woeful 76ers. San Antonio enters the night 3rd in the NBA in rebound rate. On paper, Kawhi should dominate Crawford (or Redick, depending on Doc's choice), but if he can't see, he can't shoot. He is shooting just 30.8% from the field this season and has made just one of his nine 3-point attempts. ![]() According to the San Antonio Express News, Kawhi's right eye is still blurry following a preseason infection. The Spurs could be just the team to take advantage. But Barnes' inability to shoot so far has hampered the Clipper offense to the extent that Doc feels more comfortable playing a 6'5" defensive sieve alongside his diminutive backcourt. One oft-repeated basketball trope says that it's not who starts that matters, it's who finishes, and Crawford has regularly been on the floor at the end of halves this season, so perhaps this change isn't as drastic as it first seems. On Saturday, Doc Rivers shook things up and inserted Jamal Crawford into the starting lineup for struggling small forward Matt Barnes. After tonight's game with the Spurs, the Clippers have four days off before facing the Suns next Saturday and the Bulls two nights after that. Having flunked their first game against the Warriors, the Clippers recovered against the Blazers on Saturday. The Clippers are in the middle of a nasty five-game test against quality opponents. We talked about both teams' scuffling starts and our respective levels of concern. Which unit will find some traction tonight? San Antonio enters tonight's contest as tied for 24th in offensive efficiency with the punchless Pacers, a far cry from their 6th-place finish last season. This season, the offense remains in the top-10 but the defense has fallen to 23rd. Last season, the Clippers entered elite territory by earning top-10 rankings in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Just a few months removed from their league-shaking obliteration of the Miami Heat, the Spurs remain the class of the league, and their clinical pass-and-shoot game will pose another stiff challenge to a Clipper defense looking to build momentum. San Antonio enters tonight like no ordinary 10th seed. As always, he will plug new names into his lineup and the Spurs machine should roll on. Neuman, has continued to value extra rest for his core players, benching them for whole games, even with important role players like Tiago Splitter and Patty Mills out for extended periods due to injury. For the first time in several seasons, the Spurs seem to have quieted rumors of their inevitable age-related demise, ironic when considering the team is off to its worst five-game start since 2009-2010. Tonight, can they do it again?Ĭoincidentally, the defending champs' season carries the same question: can they do it again? Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich have won five titles together, none consecutively. The Clippers played up to our weighty expectations. Finally, Clips Nation let out a (brief) sigh of relief. Finally, DeAndre Jordan asserted himself as a force of destruction. Finally, they played 24 minutes with sustained focus and effort. The Clippers are coming off of a Saturday filled with finally. The Back Story (The Spurs won last year's season series 2-1): Date NBA TV, Prime Ticket, KFWB 980 AM, KWKW 1330 AM ![]()
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