That being said, I saw the box score and expected a better performance than I actually saw. Zu confirmed it but there was no structural change on offense or a fully-locked-in defense as I had hoped. It was more the Blazers playing terribly and hot shooting plus an okay-ish performance rather than a great one or a systemic change.

The second unit’s offense being completely carried by Kawhi and Bones’ play are also less encouraging than seeing Coffey or Bones take it to a different level, a different approach to offense or PJ taking 5 shots consistently. Furthermore, watching more games without Russ and Norm solidifies my impression how much those two actually do for both the bench units and the in-between units with starters plus one or two reserves. Ideally we’d want Russ to take fewer shots to get even more out of those lineups. He can do that with the in-between units. With the bench units though, we’d need a different approach to offense and more wings raising their productivity on a regular/reliable basis. They don’t. We’d be more efficient and more balanced if they did and Ty would design more balanced offenses with more ball movement and actually demand aggression and correct reluctancy to shoot. He doesn’t.

It’s an okay win. We also need to PLAY better and different.

Bones was horrible. Might be relegated to the deep bench if he can’t figure out how to get out of his own feelings. Boston Jr does good things on the floor defensively and on loose ball plays. Not great offensively, but he’s become a long, lanky, strong defender and we can do something with that. Thought Coffey was terrible in the first half. Played better in the 2nd half.

Ty Lue seemed really annoyed at PG’s comments that the team does not have an identity. That might’ve been a good thing for Ty to work on some things too. If the Clippers are playing with the type of serious approach that they displayed for most of this game, then they could go 10-4 in the last 14 games. Don’t know if that keeps them at the #4 spot but I think they’ll be more ready for the playoffs.