The Clippers had one of the worst quarters of basketball you will ever see, but it ultimately didn’t matter due to a Kawhi Leonard gamewinner with 1.4 seconds to go, resulting in a 119-117 victory over the Hornets.
Summary
The first half was pretty boring. The Hornets are not very good at basketball, and the Clippers clearly looked like the better and more talented team, but the Clipperss made enough flubs and the Hornets made just enough shots to hang around. Ty Lue had some interesting rotations, inserting John Wall and Luke Kennard together at around the 5 minute mark of both the first and second quarters for Paul George and Kawhi Leonard to go small with three guards, and then coming back with PG and Kawhi at the start of the second unit with small-ball. To close the first quarter, Moses Brown played a few minutes at center, but did not get any blow in the second period. Overall, the Clippers’ offense looked good, moving the ball and generating consistently easy looks. George had seven assists and no turnovers, Wall had eight dimes and one miscue, and the role players hit their open shots. If the defense was tighter, it would have been a blowout.
The Clippers’ third quarters is one of the more embarrassing in recent memory, not just by them, but by any NBA team. They started out sloppy on offense and soft on defense, and neither trait let up the whole quarter. The Hornets swiftly cut the lead from nine to three, but George had a couple buckets to keep the Clippers ahead. At that point, the Clippers fell apart, with their defense not offering any resistance at the point of attack, around the rim, or on the offensive glass. The Hornets went up by nine, and would have been up more without a couple mistakes of their own. Ty Lue went to his bench, and while a Wall-led 9-0 spurt got the Clips back on top, the Hornets came right back, spurred by some brilliant defense by Theo Maledon, and led by six going into the final frame. The worst offensive team in the league scored 36 points against one of the best defenses, and did it without insane shooting.
The Clippers flipped the switch extremely quickly, bursting out ahead behind a Luke four-point play and Nic Batum three. The Clippers’ continued to hit threes, buoyed by great ball movement and fantastic passing by John Wall, but could not gain a huge edge because the Hornets continued to score. Still, the Clippers were able to build an eight point lead when the starters began coming back round the seven minute mark. At this point, the Clippers promptly lost the plot again and the Hornets tied the game up around the two-minute mark after an idiotic Paul George technical foul. The Hornets went ahead on a Rozier jumper, but then a Kawhi putbck on an offensive rebound tied the game up at 117 with 40 seconds left. McDaniels missed an open three, George collected the rebound, and Kaawhi buried a midrange jumper with 1.4 seconds left to give the Clips the lead. The Hornets missed a tough contested shot at the buzzer and the Clippers won, 119-117.
Notes
Saved by Kawhi: This would have been the worst loss of the season for the Clippers, but instead, they get a win and a great storyline with Kawhi’s jumper. And gamewinner aside, Kawhi looked pretty good on offense, scoring 16 point on 7-15 shooting and looking comfortable from his midrange spots. His defense, like most of the Clippers, was not great, and he continued to misfire on his threes, but his mobility and athleticism look good. If the Clippers can just keep him healthy, their offense will improve immeasurably through the attention he draws.
Baffling Rotation Decisions: Look, Ty Lue is a good coach. He knows a lot about NBA, even more about basketball, and is great at leading a team. But I remain very, very confused by his rotations this year. Moses Brown is very, very bad. He had 8 points on 4-5 shooting, collected 7 rebounds in 10 minutes, and was a +8 in those minutes – but his defense is just awful. His feet are too slow to play in anything but a very deep drop, which allow ballhandlers to have free, open space from the 3 point line to within about eight feet of the rim. Not only that, but he doesn’t even go up strong at the rim, and its clear nobody fears him on defense. If the Clippers don’t want to go small, that’s fine – but they should either sign a center to the 15th roster spot or play Moussa Diabate. Moses Brown is not it.
There’s also the Marcus Morris issue. Morris played great to start the year, looking more limber than he has in years. That has not been the case recently, as he’s shown the effort of helping to carry the offense with so many guys out. Not only are his shots misfiring, but his defense has suffered immensely. Tonight, he was moving like he was about 80 years old out there, especially on closeouts, and was more or less invisible on defense. Playing him 30 minutes on such a night (he was -15) when Nic Batum was outstanding in his 20 minutes (+23, hit four threes, played his usual great defense) was bad, and could have cost the Clippers the game. Robert Covington got a DNP-CD on a night when the Clippers’ defense was as strong as tissue paper, an odd situation for a guy who is one of the best help defender perimeter defenders of his generation. Overall, just not good rotations.
The Good and Bad with Wall: John Wall lived up to his old Optimus Dime nickname, dishing 12 assists in 27 minutes to just three turnovers. He did, however, also shooting 4-13 from the field, with many of those misses being awful pullup jumpers or hopeless shots at the rim. His defensive tactic of letting guys go by instead of trying to stay in front and then poke the ball away from behind works one in 20 tries, and on the other 19 results in blown defenses. He was definitely a net positive tonight – but still could have been so much better.