It was an absolute rout in Louisiana tonight, as the Clippers were beat down vs the Pelicans enough that I decided to combine the game recap and player grades together into one post, with hopes that this game can be forgotten sooner rather than later.
Clippers vs Pelicans Game Summary
Maybe the team missed Patrick Beverley’s defensive energy to start the game, or maybe they overlooked Sunday’s match-up against the 12th-place New Orleans Pelicans as they prepared for revenge Monday against the Dallas Mavericks, who obliderated the Clippers by 50 in December. But if the Clippers’ intent was to redeem themselves for an embarrassing loss on Monday, it’s rather ironic that their lack of focus tonight resulted in another dreadful blowout loss to an inferior opponent.
A lot of things didn’t work in the Clippers’ favor tonight. Even with some garbage-time production, they finished well below their average from beyond the arc–and, tellingly, key role players were ice cold, failing to punish the Pelicans for over-helping on Paul George and Kawhi Leonard defensively. Lou Williams, Marcus Morris, Nicolas Batum, and Serge Ibaka combined to shoot 0-8 from three tonight, which is absolutely brutal againt a Pelicans team whose greatest defensive weakness is that they consciously concede open threes, ranking near last in the league in both opponent attempts and percentage. New Orleans, for their part, was unconscious from the field, shooting 46% from beyond the arc (compared to their season average of 35%) and an unbelievable 41-57 on two-point attempts. Even with the Pelicans being a good offensive team and the Clippers playing poor defense, there was some stuff tonight that you just have to shrug at–like Josh Hart going between his legs, stepping back, and drilling a tightly contested 18-footer. Jaxson Hayes’ poster dunk on Reggie Jackson only cost the Clippers a point (Hayes picked up a technical foul and Kawhi Leonard made the ensuing free throw), but it was the perfect play to summarize how thoroughly dominant New Orleans was in the third quarter, as they shot 17-22 from the field and ran LA off the floor.
If this Pelicans team is defined by two things, it’s their offensive domination in the lane through points in the paint, led by Zion Williamson, and their poor three point defense. The Clippers were ice cold on good looks from three and lost the shooting variance battle, and were left without much size to combat the Pelicans’ inside attack as Serge Ibaka was ruled out after 8 minutes with lower back tightness and Ivica Zubac found himself in foul trouble thanks to some horrendous calls. The Pelicans have not been a good team this season, but they–and Zion in particular–are truly elite in the paint offensively, and the Clippers were forced to play long stretches tonight without a rim protector on the floor. Between that and the shooting, maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that LAC dropped this game.
But it’s not all about the things that were out of the Clippers’ control–makes and misses, availability and officiating. They still lost when Ibaka or Zubac were on the floor by about a point per minute, and they weren’t sharp on either end of the floor. Far too frequently, the Clippers’ reputable perimeter defenders allowed easy dribble penetration, whether it was Kawhi Leonard on Brandon Ingram or Terance Mann on Josh Hart. Offensively, they committed lazy turnovers early in the game and got flustered as New Orleans build momentum as the game wore on. It’s fair to point out that things out of LAC’s control didn’t go their way tonight–but it’s also fair to point out that when dealing with nothing coming easily, they didn’t put in very much effort to fight and earn things the hard way. It would be inaccurate to describe this performance as a struggle, because the Clippers simply didn’t put up much of one. It was a largely non-competitive contest.
Clippers Player Grades
Reggie Jackson: B-. With everyone in the supporting cast struggling to shoot, Reggie did hit 4-6 from beyond the arc en route to an efficient 18 points. But there’s going to be some brutal honesty up and down the gradebook tonight, and hitting some bad-process threes in the second half with the game out of hand isn’t going to save anyone from their share of the blame for this defensive performance.
Paul George: D. I think the rough whistle continued tonight for Paul, both in the lane and on at least one of his missed threes where he took a hit. But 15 points on 5-14 shooting, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 turnovers without making a noticeable impact on defense just doesn’t even approach enough.
Kawhi Leonard: B-. Despite his offensive efficiency (23 points on 9-13 shooting), Kawhi simply didn’t make his presence felt in tonight’s game. This goes for PG, too, althoug Kawhi did a little bit better in his passivity: when you’re getting run out of the gym, someone has to take ownership of the collective performance. Individual numbers aren’t enough, and Kawhi wasn’t nearly enough tonight.
Nicolas Batum: C. Nic might have been the Clippers’ best defender against Zion tonight… but Zion was 13-16 from the field with 27 points and 5 assists. Nic took at least 3 bad shots tonight, which is pretty remarkable for a guy who shoots as infrequently as he does, and his drop-off from beyond the arc has continued.
Serge Ibaka: NG. Serge gets a break tonight, since he checked out early with an injury. When a guy leaves with back tightness after 8 minutes, it sort of leads me to believe he wasn’t feeling great before tip either.
Terance Mann: B. Terance had a fine performance tonight in his role. He wasn’t particularly good on either end of the floor, but he was far from the problem either–and it’s hard to ask the sophomore wing playing in a 10th man role to be the solution to problems higher up in the food chain.”
Marcus Morris: F. The Clippers got absolutely nothing from Morris tonight, who settled for poor shots en route to 0 points on 0-5 shooting, added only 2 rebounds in 20 minutes, and got burned defensively.
Patrick Patterson: D+. Similarly to Terance, Patterson wasn’t the Clippers’ problem tonight and it’s unfair to expect him to be the solution. But it’s been apparent all year–his time playing at an NBA-caliber level is over. The Clippers need a better emergency big for situations where they’re dealing with foul trouble and/or injuries.
Luke Kennard: B+. I said last game that I wasn’t going to give a guy with Luke’s contract & expectations better than a B for garbage time, but his + tonight comes from a successful first-half stint. Overall, he had 15 points and 4 assists on 6-10 shooting in 19 minutes, and the Clippers actually won his minutes by 10 points. Even in the first half, the Clippers won his 5:30 by 3 points as he added 5 points and 2 assists.
Lou Williams: D-. I appreciate Lou earning trips to the foul line in the third quarter to slow the tide of a Pelican offense that had picked up about as much momentum as you’ll see an NBA team accumulate. But 6 points, 2 assists, and 2 turnovers on 1-3 shooting isn’t just a bad game for Lou–it’s a non-impactful game, as if he thought he was going to take this one off.
Ivica Zubac: D. Zu made a few good plays in his 13 minutes of run tonight–a great block in help defense, stepping up and staying vertical to force one of Zion’s few misses around the basket after he split a double team, chasing down 3 offensive rebounds. But he also allowed offensive rebounds to both Adams and Hayes, continued to be foul-prone (even if the third one was a really bad call against him), and had a relatively poor game around the basket offensively.
Amir Coffey: A-. To whatever extent tonight’s 20-point final margin could be considered respectable when compared to the game as a whole, Coffey joins Kennard in deserving credit for the Clippers actually competing in garbage time and winning the fourth quarter. He had 13 points on 4-6 shooting and also came up with a couple of assists and a steal.
Daniel Oturu: B-. Aside from finishing a lob from Luke Kennard early in the fourth quarter, Daniel really didn’t do much in his 12 minutes of burn, but it was nice to see him back healthy and on the floor, even if he was mostly just watching Luke, Amir, and Terance take turns offensively. You would really like to see more than 2 defensive rebounds in 12 minutes from a center, though.
Onward
People always get frustrated with me when I say that every team has bad losses, and the Clippers need to just put a game like this one behind them and focus on being better tomorrow. But… it’s true. That’s not to excuse tonight’s performance, but I’m not sure what folks are really looking for as some type of major, overreactive course correction after a bad loss. If there’s a trade out there that will make the Clippers better, they should make it–but that was just as true after Thursday’s blowout win as it is after Sunday’s blowout loss, and the limitations LAC has in trade talks makes such a deal unlikely. Ty Lue dropped an F-bomb in his press conference tonight. But that sign that the team also views this outing as unacceptable doesn’t really do anything for me. Truly, the best thing the Clippers can do to appease their fans is also the best thing for them to do from an internal perspective: be frustrated, vent a little, and show up tomorrow with a bit more focus and intensity than they did tonight. The answer is in between the lines.
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