Comments on: Re-examining Recent Clippers – Mavs Matchups

By: osamu6238

osamu6238 — Fri, 21 May 2021 08:08:40 +0000

Will be interesting how Ty handles Luka. I don’t recall the matchups Ty leaned on in the regular season. Doc seemed to land on sticking a lot of Morris on Luka…. and Reggie for some reason… I assume we won’t see the Reggie on Luka matchups too much this year.

Batum I think is biggest difference maker as far as new roster additions in this playoff matchup. I think he might be a very good option to defend Luka. While obviously Kawhi and PG are great defenders, I feel like with the load they carry on offense, they aren’t able to focus on what it takes defensively to spend the majority of the game on Luka. Batum is the kind of role player I think you’d want to focus on hounding Luka.

I’d almost want to tell Kawhi to go out there and shut down Luka, and don’t worry about his own offense. After Kawhi came back from his last injury, he did seem to take a little back seat on offense. If they just take the isolation post-ups off his plate, I think might help.

By: osamu6238

osamu6238 — Fri, 21 May 2021 07:57:34 +0000

Last year Powell was out with an Achilles, and Kleber shot like 19% from 3. I really don’t think we’re going to see Boban this year outside of any garbage time.

I mean he was playing like 5 minutes a game recently, so maybe he could continue to see that, but more likely with a limited rotation, he sees those minutes cut.

By: John Maclean

John Maclean — Fri, 21 May 2021 07:36:00 +0000

I’m happy to see you’re bullish on the Clips in this series Rob. I think we’re all a bit shellshocked by the past but when that’s all put aside this is an insanely loaded team. And Saturday will be the first time all season that we’re 100% healthy and not trying to rest guys or squander victories. They might just come out and destroy everything in their path. If it weren’t for the ghosts of Clippers past I’d GUARANTEE it like Chuck.

By: Stanman

Stanman — Fri, 21 May 2021 06:57:07 +0000

Yes, he was the Nugget-killer. Every time !

By: dhpat

dhpat — Fri, 21 May 2021 03:51:20 +0000

When he was a Clipper, Boban was pretty effective in a regular season game against Denver.

By: Robert Flom

Robert Flom — Fri, 21 May 2021 03:17:45 +0000

Carlisle will probably go to him at some point, but only when things get desperate I think.

By: Robert Flom

Robert Flom — Fri, 21 May 2021 03:17:25 +0000

Agreed, the Clippers should be able to handle the Mavs in 5 or 6.

By: chogokin

chogokin — Fri, 21 May 2021 03:11:15 +0000

Yea I don’t expect to see much of Boban in this series. He really only got significant burn last year because he was such an amazing weapon against Doc/Trez. He should have a tougher time against Zu/Ibaka/Cousins, and I think would struggle to stay on the floor when the Clips go small, and Carlisle is smart enough to understand that.

By: Stanman

Stanman — Thu, 20 May 2021 22:12:55 +0000

Great article Cole. I’d like to think Clippers can finish the job in 5, but Luka can go off for 40+ pretty easily on any night. Make the right adaptions, no cool nights and Clips will be fine.

Also, if anything, the fact that the Center rotation is all actual bigs should stop the Boban-factor. The team has better overall basketball IQ this year, the playoffs should be where this shows.