Clippers STATEMENT vs. Thunder, where Kawhi & LA rank among NBA Finals contenders | Hoops Tonight

Clippers STATEMENT vs. Thunder, where Kawhi & LA rank among NBA Finals contenders | Hoops Tonight

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So you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball all right before we get out of here let’s talk Clippers big win against Oklahoma City last night as I expected as I told you guys after the Minnesota

Timberwolves win my initial kind of interpret interpretation of the Clippers is they’re kind of matchup dependent and they’re going to struggle lot with a lot of these bigger teams that can kind of bully them and then they’re going to especially the ones that have good perimeter Defenders that can make long

Perimeter Defenders that can challenge Paul George and kawhai pullup jump shots and then I thought they would kind of throttle the other perimeter teams the other finesse teams right and they kind of handled OKC last night albe it OKC on the tail end of a back toback Paul George was absolutely magnificent down

The stretch H had a huge pull-up jump shot over Jaylen Williams a couple of nasty tough Tight Windows short opening uh catch and shoot jump shot shots had a big reverse dunk and transition at the end it was crazy Paul George performance but as I said before the uh the

Minnesota game after these two games I want to add the Clippers to my Contender list and I just wanted to see those two games before we got there and those two games kind of legitimize most of my beliefs about this team at this point in the season so let’s talk Clippers big

Picture first and let’s start with the good they have diversity of shot creation that’s a major thing for me they have a finesse Wing a power wing and a pick and roll Maestro right Paul George is your you know dribble dribble dribble dribble pull-up shooter guy Kawhi Leonard is your fight for short

Range pull-up jump shots close to the basket that are a little more high percentage super super efficient right and then uh James Harden is a guy that can set them up in Advantage situations out of pick and roll they also are an excellent shooting team they get 1.12

Points per spot up possession which is the fifth best in the league and they shoot 39.6% from three which is the best in the league and play types they are the fourth most efficient postup team in the league they are the second most efficient ISO team in the league they

Are the seventh most efficient pick and roll team in the league on the defensive end they are 14th in defensive rating but it’s kind of confusing because they’re the fourth best halfcourt defense according to cleaning the glass but they’re the third worst transition defense according to cleaning the glass

So they’re a good halfcourt defense an atrocious transition defense which combines to make for an average defense that said typically the transition defense is something that can get cleaned up in the postseason they’re excellent on the perimeter they’re excellent on help recover situations they’re just not great in Rim protection but they do

Protect the paint reasonably well they 11th in points in the paint allowed they are also 12th in three-pointers made allowed and again a lot of noise there in terms of transition defense here’s the bat I have three main concerns and before I go any further every team I

Have major concerns for except for Denver and even with them I have the joic jump shot thing which I talked about earlier which is a little bit of a concern like Boston and Denver I have little concerns I’m a little concerned about Boston’s late game decision-making and just overall offensive process I’m a

Little bit concerned about Denver as it pertains to jokic’s jump shooting and whether or not he can reach the level he did last year in the postseason but all the other teams have major concerns like Milwaukee’s not as good offensively in my opinion as they need to be in order

To make up for their defensive deficiencies and their pick and roll or their point of attack defense stuff is a real problem the the Lakers have are just lifeless right now so it’s hard to even tell what they’re good and bad at they look terrible one night awesome the

Next and they certainly need to make a trade they’re weak in overall offensive skill they’re weak in kind of perimeter speed they’ve got a lot of stuff they got to address at the deadline right like the Phoenix Suns physicality is a major issue they fall apart offensively

In the fourth quarter as well Minnesota is a terrible halfcourt offense so they’re an excellent defensive team but they can really struggle in the chess match stuff at the end of game so like or in slow down environments so like every team has major issues so when I

Talk about these major issues ises for the Clippers don’t take it as like me trying to pick them apart I’m trying to pick everybody apart that’s the point I’m trying to get to the point where I can have a better understanding of this when we get to April here are my three

Concerns for the Clippers one they take the second most pull-up jump shots in the league two they are a bottom 10 defensive rebounding team they give up an offensive rebound on 43.3% of their opponent’s misses in clutch situations too that’s second worst in the league so they’re a bad

Defensive rebounding team who’s in incredibly bad in close game situations late and then three they do not score in the paint they’re 17th in points in the paint per game now let’s elaborate that on on that a little bit number one they take the second most pulled jump shots

In the league why does that matter because they hunt and depend on difficult shot making and that’s just a tough way to win in the playoffs we’ve seen that with Phoenix we’ve seen that with you know the Nets teams right like when you rely on difficult shot making

Not as a counter not like late clock situations you know being really picky about when you take pullup jump shots based on the coverage but like you lean on interior shot making and Advantage creation and shots close to the rim and wide open Catch and shoot situations and

Stuff like that it should be the other way around like you should rely on that stuff and then have the pull-up shooting be a counter or something you’re more selective with that to me is the best shot profile for a playoff team the Clippers are the other way around they

Depend and lean into and hunt and and and rely on difficult shot making and just what ends up happening a lot of times is like guys that you see make tough shots in the regular season gets more physical guys start to wear down the grind of the playoffs takes a toll

Over two three series and then suddenly it’s like he’s just not quite getting as much lift on that pull-up jump shot and he starts to miss him right so that’s something that’s not unique to the Clippers that’s something I talk about around the league for example four of

The five Champions since Kevin Durant and Steph Curry were playing together for the Warriors and won in 2018 four of the five Champions were low volume pull-up shooting teams the one high volume pull-up shooting team was Milwaukee and they had Giannis bulldozing to the rim throughout

The entire playoff run it was Chris and Drew taking all the pull-up jump shots so like NBA history tells us typically high volume jump shooting teams aren’t going to be the ones who Hoist the trophy at the end of the day also Milwaukee wasn’t second in the league in

Attempts there secondly rebounding four of the five teams that won the title since Kevin Durant Steph hoisted the trophy in 2018 were 11th or better in defensive Rebound in percentage and the Clippers are bottom 10 in absolutely atrocious and clutch situations like we talked about the one

Exception the one team out of that five was Toronto with Kawhi Leonard they were 18th in defensive rebounding and they were a much better defensive rebounding team than this particular Clippers team is lastly lack of paint scoring is pretty simple they don’t get a lot of

Easy shots close to the rim they depend on guys making jump shots there’s more variance in Jump shooting that you know the you can control jump shooting for the most part but there is a variance element to it and that variance element is not there with around the rim

Shooting or at least to a much much smaller extent so NBA history tells us that this kind of team construct typically doesn’t win that doesn’t mean they won’t win doesn’t mean they can’t win just means it’s less likely right as far as like the you know the the other

Narrative stuff like everyone James Harden isn’t just called it playoff choker you know as as some sort of caricature of himself like it’s it’s a basketball thing he at this phase of his career struggles to beat people off the dribble and finish around the rim in a playoff setting when the intensity and

Physicality goes up a level last year outside of two games was downright atrocious in the in the playoffs and so that doesn’t mean it can’t happen and again Philly fans will tell you he was hurt uh coming off of an Achilles thing that was bothering him during the

Regular season I don’t want to deny that but we have a long extended sample that when we get to that level james’ efficacy drops a level it’s worth mentioning doesn’t not the end all Beall but it’s worth mentioning so the question is where do they go in my list

Of contenders so right now I have Denver at one Boston at two Milwaukee at three I’ve decided that the teams below that have bigger question marks the Lakers have to nail their trade have to Reby in by tricking off the regular season they put themselves in a situation where if LeBron or Anthony

Davis s suffer a significant injury they will miss the playoffs so like they’ve removed their margin for error the Warriors same thing have to nail a bunch of Trades Minnesota’s half court offense I think is a real issue I think I think they’re going to run into some problems

Where they get absolutely shut down at some phases of the playoffs so I’m putting the Clippers in at number four also I want to add Oklahoma City and Philly to this list eventually but I want to do some deep Dives on film and some numbers with them so I’m going to

Wait uh uh until further down the line to do so but I will be adding Oklahoma City and Philly to that as well but Clippers right now my fourth leading Championship Contender

Jason Timpf reacts to Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and the Los Angeles Clippers’ win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. This statement win has the Clips playing with the confidence they need in order to compete in the West. Ever since adjusting to the addition of James Harden, the Clippers have been playing some of the best basketball in the league, and are firmly in play to compete for an NBA title.

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