The Clippers will try to get back in the winning column in Houston after a brutal loss in Milwaukee on Monday night.
Game Information
Where: Toyota Center, Houston, Texas
When: 4:30 PM PT
How to Watch: ESPN, Watch ESPN, Bally Sports SoCal, AM 570
Tickets: For great deals on Clippers tickets, check out Barry’s Tickets!
Projected Starting Lineups
Clippers: James Harden – Terance Mann – Paul George – Kawhi Leonard – Ivica Zubac
Rockets: Fred VanVleet – Jalen Green – Dillon Brooks – Jabari Smith Jr. – Alperen Sengun
Injuries
Clippers: Russell Westbrook Out (Hand)
Rockets: Tari Eason Out (Leg), Steven Adams Out (Knee)
The Big Picture
The Clippers keep seesawing between good wins and horrible losses. The common denominator, Wolves win aside, has been middling defense. Even in games the Clippers win, it’s usually just because of their hot offense, not because they’re playing well-rounded basketball. Over the last 15 games, the Clippers are 9th in offense. Pretty good. On the other hand, they’re 21st in defense. There’s no excuse for that with how much defensive talent on the Clippers’ roster, and speaks to their lackadaisical nature as well as some questionable coaching decisions. The Clippers’ offense will be very good. If they can get their defense to around 10th (or even around 13th) they will look a lot better on a consistent basis.
The Antagonist
The Rockets were 6-3 to start the season and then 13-9 at the quarter mark of the season, surpassing expectations that they would be just a mediocre team that would be on the fringes of the play-in race at best. Since then, they are 14-25, and are in the exact same spot that people predicted, which is not close to playoff contention but also ahead of the true bottom feeders in the NBA. The Rockets actually remain the 7th best defense in the NBA, which is excellent for a fairly young team. However, they’re 24th in the NBA – and dead last of any team outside of that horrible tanking tier. Until their offense gets better, they just won’t be better than an ok team, even if the defense keeps them competitive in most games.
Notes
Watch for Cam and Amen: The Rockets are unusual in that they’re a young, not-great team that brings two of their three most talented young players off the bench in Cam Whitmore and Amen Thompson (Sengun is their best player now). Whitmore wants to shoot every time down the floor, but he’s an effective scorer with a combination of shooting touch, size and physicality, and athleticism. Thompson is an insane athlete who can’t shoot but is already a tremendous defender as a rookie who plays with insane energy and is a dangerous cutter and offensive rebounder. Those two young, athletic players are the exact guys the Clippers can struggle with at times, so it will be important to see how the Clippers handle them.
Getting Bones Going: Bones Hyland hasn’t been bad in the 2.5 games he’s played since unexpectedly rejoining the rotation. Even though he’s shot 3-14 from the field in that stretch, most of those misses were in garbage time against the Wizards. He’s taken good care of the basketball and the Clippers have done well in his minutes. That said, he’s the most dangerous as a scorer, and if he’s going to be the backup point guard with Russ out, the Clippers should try to get him going more on offense. He’s a guy who can be a sparkplug off the bench and give life to a currently moribund Clippers team, but he needs to be empowered to do so. Hopefully in one of these games we get a hot Bones performance where he knocks down a few threes and helps really get the team pumped.
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