Comments on: Clippers Fend Off Pelicans, 111-106

By: chogokin

chogokin — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 18:31:27 +0000

I imagine CP3 wouldn’t be too keen on Run and Gun at his age…

By: TheGreatestShowman

TheGreatestShowman — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 16:38:26 +0000

In general, I like that Ty isn’t coddling our stars and limiting them to 30 mpg. That said, the Kawhi process vs the team process is interesting. Ideally, one benefits the other but you can see the early bumps in the road. Last night our offense got stagnant once again with Kawhi-ball in the 4th. His shot was falling and you need your star to take over when it counts especially in the playoffs. The way PG has been playing, he should be getting more looks, and, if the shot selection were reversed, perhaps the game wouldn’t have been as close. Ty and the guys will sort this out but it’s something to follow.

By: TheGreatestShowman

TheGreatestShowman — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 16:23:37 +0000

We could definitely benefit from picking up the pace. We’re third to last in the league and no reason why we shouldn’t at least be up closer to the middle. Part of it is guys adjusting to the new scheme(s) and the lineup shifts. Eye test tells me we’ve picked up the pace the last couple of games but I could be wrong.

Factoid for you, most would view the Suns as a young and athletic team, yet, they’re behind us in pace.

By: ksihoo

ksihoo — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 10:51:09 +0000

Yes, the Lakers obviously have had a very soft schedule so far, but apart from the Spurs game, it seems like they are usually able to take care of their business against weaker opposition playing LeBron and AD less than 32 mpg this season with many blowout wins. We on the other hand need 38 and 39 min of Kawhi to secure wins against shorthanded Bulls and Pelicans, which is the difference between the two LA teams at this stage in my opinion.

By: Lucas Hann

Lucas Hann — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 10:46:54 +0000

Yeah, I mean you definitely want to keep Kawhi’s minutes down by winning by big margins and resting him late in games. But also, he’s averaging 35.1 minutes per game this year, same exact amount for PG. LeBron averaged 34.6 last year; AD 34.4. And LeBron is 6.5 years older than Kawhi and 5.5 years older than PG (though, to be fair, LeBron is superhuman). But the Lakers did get a four-month break between the regular season and the bubble, which surely helped with fatigue.

By: ksihoo

ksihoo — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 10:39:14 +0000

The age average looks just right for the championship contention. There have been very few teams significantly younger or older winning the chip.

The other thing is that without young and athletic players able to join the rotation AND by not being able to pull away with easy wins, we are forcing our key guys to play way too much we should in the regular season (Kawhi: 37,35,34,38,39 the last 5 games).

By: Lucas Hann

Lucas Hann — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 10:20:28 +0000

I get that feeling but I also think that it’s part of having such a zoomed-in perspective on one team.

The Lakers have some blowouts like tonight vs OKC, but we blew out Minnesota and Portland. The Lakers also lost to the Spurs (like we did) and only beat the Bulls and Grizzlies by 2 points each. Those are games where you might accuse them of “playing down to their competition.” Everyone has good nights and bad nights. We’re still at a small enough sample where the 50-point loss is fucking up all of our catch-all numbers (SRS, net rating, pythagorean, MOV, etc). but if you remove the one extreme outlier the Clippers are +6.1 on average while the Lakers are +10.5 on average.

+10.5 is really, really impressive. But if you were to do a lazy, crude classification of “good” NBA teams (LAL, LAC, DEN, PHX, UTA, DAL, MIL, BKN, BOS, PHI, MIA, ATL, IND), the Clippers have played 5 in 12 games and the Lakers have played 2 in 13. The Clippers will play 16 before the mid-season break and the Lakers will play 12. Like I said it’s a lazy and crude breakdown that doesn’t account for differences in quality among those teams or among the “bad” teams. And maybe teams like POR (LAC/LAL have each played once) or GSW (LAC has played twice, LAL hasn’t played) belong on the “good” side of the divide. But you get the gist. The Lakers have had a much softer early schedule and will have a softer first half overall.

By: ksihoo

ksihoo — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 10:00:14 +0000

I actually feel better watching our games against tougher opposition. It almost look like we are locked in against teams like the Lakers or the Nuggets, but struggle consistently against teams which we should convincingly beat (and quite often losing some games we have no interest losing). That was the case last season and hopefully it does not continue this year.

With the unpredictability of this season I would say that every W gets extra importance, as you might be struck with COVID anytime and go to unfortunate losing streak.

By: Lucas Hann

Lucas Hann — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 09:38:03 +0000

The Clippers have also played the second-toughest schedule so far, according to ESPN’s RPI, and have the 7th-easiest remaining schedule (for the first half of the season that has been released). I actually think the second half of the schedule will be easier than the first for LAC considering the amount of playoff teams we’ve already played and will face in February.

And because we’re dealing with early seasons and small sample sizes, the SOS measurement devalues, for example, our game against Denver because they started 5-6. COVID contact tracing is unpredictable. If the Clippers lose a bunch of games because they get hit hard and are extremely shorthanded, it will obviously suck on many levels, first and foremost the threat to the health and lives of our guys, but the losses wouldn’t be an indictment of the team because it wouldn’t be the actual team playing those games.

By: ksihoo

ksihoo — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 09:33:32 +0000

Kawhi looked much better and not gassed. He played 9 minutes in the 4th quarter which helped him get it going. It was his best 4th in a while if not the whole season. I think he played all but 3min of the second half. It is a bit worrisome that we need to expand him so much against shorthanded Pelicans to secure the Win.