The Clippers fell to 0-3 in the preseason with Monday night's 102-89 loss to the Jazz, but who cares? It's preseason. However, that's not to say that there aren't things that actually do matter that take place during the preseason, because there most certainly are. The fact that the Clippers seem vulnerable to dribble penetration from the wing seems fairly concerning, but it's early yet.
Anyway, let's focus some attention once again on Blake Griffin. After a "meh" effort during Sunday night's loss in Portland, Griffin was back to his dominant was against the Jazz on Monday. In 29 minutes (he sat out the fourth quarter), No. 32 scored 31 points (14-22 shooting) and pulled down five rebounds. He made three of his four free-throw attempts, but missed both of his threes.
Like we did last week with Griffin's potential ability to stretch the floor, let's focus in on a couple of offensive sets the Clippers ran late in the third quarter using the video below.
Griffin's newfound versatility has the potential to open up several options for the Clippers on offense. Starting at around the 2:15 mark of the video, we see Paul feed the ball into Blake on the left block from beyond the arc, with the other three Clipper players spread out on the other side of the floor. Pretty simple look here, with Griffin isolated on his man with his back to the basket. Trey Burke hedges on Griffin off of Paul for a tick in a half-attempt to cut-off the paint. DeAndre Jordan screens Burke has he attempts to get back to Paul, leaving CP3 open from deep. Instead of making the pass, Griffin simply backs down Rudy Gobert and finishes with a nifty little righty hook. The play finishes with all five Jazz players in the paint, which is pretty strong evidence of the attention Griffin commands from the defense.
Not all of the next plays are included in the embedded video, but a couple of them are. The Clippers ran the same Griffin-Paul two-man game for each of the next four possessions, and L.A. scored on every single trip.
One example is shown starting at the 2:31 mark. Paul sets up near the left elbow as Griffin shovels a little pass in his direction. The other three Clippers (Chris Douglas-Roberts, Spencer Hawes and J.J. Redick) are lined-up on the other side of the floor beyond the three-point line. Griffin then sets a screen on Paul's man, Dante Exum, and Paul uses the pick and gets into the middle. Griffin's man, Gobert, hedges to keep Paul from the rim before getting back over to Griffin as Paul delivers a bounce pass back to Blake. But Gobert is just a fraction late in trying to stop Griffin and he's forced to foul. It's tough for the defense to really defend this play any better than the Jazz did on this possession, yet the Clippers still wound up with two points via Griffin free throws.
On the next play shown in the video, after having been burned by the same play on the previous two possessions, Exum attempts to thwart the entry pass to Paul on the elbow by fronting the Clipper point guard. So instead of forcing things, Paul instead slides over and sets a mini-screen on Gobert that frees Griffin to simply drive to his left and finish with an easy dunk.
Because Exum had been fronting CP3, he wasn't in any position to switch onto Griffin and stop his path to the rim. And the other three Clippers lining-up so far from the basket prevented any help defense from being able to come over, either. In the event that the help did arrive to try and stop Griffin, any of those other three Clips now has a free look at a three if Griffin is able to deliver the simple pass. This is a set I'd imagine we'll see quite a bit of this season, particularly with Hawes, a shooter, on the floor instead of Jordan.
The subsequent pair of plays (not in the video) resulted in a Chris Paul 14-footer and a pair of Paul free throws. The final play of the quarter (not in the video) once again features the Paul-Griffin set, with Griffin coming free off a screen for a wide-open corner three. Griffin misses, but there's more evidence that the Blake three-ball is something Doc Rivers thinks can be featured in L.A.'s offense from time-to-time. Given the passing ability, skills in the post and improved jump shot, Blake Griffin is quickly developing into one of the league's most unique offensive weapons, and Doc is finding a variety of ways to unleash him upon opposing defenses.
The Clippers obviously have plenty of kinks to work out prior to the beginning of the regular season in about two weeks, but some of the things we've already seen in the preseason give us plenty of reason for optimism and excitement.
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