The Clippers come out of their Thanksgiving break with a shockingly important November game against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Game Information
Where: Intuit Dome, Inglewood, California
When: 7:00 PM PT
How to Watch: FanDuel Sports SoCal, AM 570
Projected Starting Lineups
Grizzlies: Vince Williams Jr. – Cedric Coward – Jaylen Wells – Jaren Jackson Jr. – Zach Edey
Clippers: James Harden – Kris Dunn – Kawhi Leonard – John Collins – Ivica Zubac
Injuries
Grizzlies: Ja Morant Out (Calf), Ty Jerome Out (Calf), Scotty Pippen Jr Out (Toe), Brandon Clarke Out (Knee), Javon Small Out (Toe)
Clippers: Bogdan Bogdanovic Questionable (Hip), Bradley Beal Out (Hip), Derrick Jones Jr. Out (Knee), Jordan Miller Out (Hamstring)
The Big Picture
The Clippers once again played two-plus solid quarters against a good Lakers team before becoming unglued and losing in a rout. Their defense has fallen to 28th in the NBA, better than only the tanktastic Wizards and Nets – yes, they are worse than the Hornets, Pelicans, Kings, and Pacers on that end of the court. These game previews are beating a dead horse, but the Clippers’ defense is perhaps the most shocking unit in the entire NBA, and shows no signs of improvement. The only hope is that as Kawhi Leonard gets healthy and as the Clippers get more reps together that their cohesion and togetherness on that end takes several steps forward. But the Clippers’ regression on that end is team-wide: every single player is worse on defense than they were last season. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and its unfortunate it has happened to the Clips.
The Antagonist
The Grizzlies have had a season just about as tumultuous as the Clippers’, mixing player drama with mostly poor on-court results. They have, however, strung together a stretch where they’ve won three of four games, powered by the return of second-year big man Zach Edey. Controversial star Ja Morant has missed those games, and it’s perhaps not a surprise that the Grizz have looked better without Ja on the court considering how meh he’s been this season. The Grizz are getting good production from their young players such as Edey, rookie Cedric Coward, and third-year guard Vince Williams (who is manning point guard in Ja’s absence), which makes their situation somewhat more hopeful than the Clippers. Still, they are below average on both ends of the court and their wins have come against the Kings, Pelicans, and Mavs – other teams in the same “miserable” bucket as the Grizz and Clippers. Regardless, we need a larger sample before saying that the Grizz have officially turned things around this season.
Notes
Must Win: It might sound crazy to label this game a must win. It is, after all, not even December. But these are the kinds of games that the Clippers have to win if they want to at least make the play-in tournament in April. The Grizzlies are two wins ahead of the Clippers despite dealing with seemingly worse injury luck and more internal strife than the Clippers – if that’s not a sign of the Clippers’ horrific play, I’m not sure what is. The Clippers certainly have more “talent” than the Grizzlies in this game even with their own injuries, are playing at home, and have had a few days off to rest their old legs. Losses in these sorts of games will truly put the Clippers out of postseason reach by the time we hit New Years.
Small-Ball Second Unit: Ty Lue finally did something on Tuesday against the Lakers that fans have been asking for a while; benching Brook Lopez. Instead, Ty went with small-ball, adding Kobe Brown into the rotation alongside Nic Batum and John Collins on the second unit. That unit looked good in the first half before imploding (along with the rest of the Clippers to be fair) in the second half. I do think that going away from Brook Lopez is the right call, and I’m quite wary of giving minutes to Yanic Konan Niederhauser, so I’m stuck in the unfortunate position of advocating for second-unit small-ball, which is something I’ve been mostly against for a half-decade. I also don’t really think Kobe Brown is an NBA player (though he had moments against the Lakers), but the Clippers might go with Bogdan Bogdanovic in that spot when he’s healthy. A Harden-Bogi-Sanders-Nico-Collins unit sounds like a pretty good offensive unit, but the defense and rebounding will likely be awful. Then again, the defense and rebounding have been atrocious with Brook, so going younger and more athletic probably can’t hurt. It’s a tough situation.
