That being said, I didn’t like the defense either. Charlotte had absolutely no spacing and it looked like we’re gonna give up 115 for quite some time. The Clippers clearly had rebounding issues until the closing lineup and they also didn’t stop dribble penetration well.

Memphis is gonna be completely different. If Kawhi is out, they gotta be better on the boards because this is NOT a great matchup for Russ on the offensive end with their shot blocking inside, defenders like Smart and Bane and the athleticism of Ja. Vs their bench it’s fine but they gotta find ways to get stops and rebound against their starters without leaning on Zu and Russ that much. Also need to have a more balanced offense and much better ball movement. It’s gonna be tough. At least we got a rest advantage. However, we need Kawhi back for that game.

It felt to me as if Harden was freezing Coffey and Mann out, but then I noticed that Norm had been on the court for a while and had almost no touches. He had 2 points through 3 quarters, but it wasn’t his fault. No one who handled the ball actually looked in his direction. Ty Lue did a good job in Q4 out of a timeout forcing the team to get back to ball movement and to actually look for other players. That’s when Zu and Norm started getting the touches, and Zu especially had a good stretch where he was very effective in the short roll. Zu had 8 pts, 2 Rebs, 2 assists and 1 steal in the last 4-5 min of the game, and a lot of touches where he made decisions to move the ball effectively.

Believe it or not, that lackluster performance which resulted in a W has now catapulted the Clips to the #4 spot in the West as Sacramento lost and Clips have the tiebreaker with Dallas. In addition, the Clips also gained a full game on the Pelicans, Lakers, Rockets and Warriors. It’s really one of the more impactful wins we’ve had this season in terms of movement in the standings.

However, if we play this way vs Memphis on Friday, Ja is going to dust us.