Despite remaining right in the thick of the mad dash to the final eight spots in the ultra-competitive Western Conference, the L.A. Clippers, by their recent standards, have had a fairly rough season so far. Of course, for a team like the Clippers with a rather uninspiring franchise history, it's kinda hard to complain about a season in which the team is still winning over 68% of their games. Given the expectations coming in, though, they've been a bit of a letdown.
But, things feel quite a bit better of late. L.A. is currently carrying a five-game winning streak into their annual Grammy road trip, and they've won eight of their last 11 games overall. Sunday's afternoon tilt with the frisky Phoenix Suns was always going to be an important test, and it was one the Clips passed with flying colors. (What does "flying colors" even mean? Who knows. Sounds like something Bill Walton would see.)
Phoenix is never an easy place for a visiting team to play, but on Sunday the Clippers shut-down the Suns' high-octane attack with one of their own. Very quietly, L.A.'s offense has been ablaze all month long. In 12 games since we shifted into 2015, the Clips have scored at least 100 points eight times, winning seven. The only loss in which L.A. topped 110 points was the 126-121 barn-burner against Cleveland; another team that seems to have figured some things out.
Excluding the awful, mid-afternoon loss at home to a substandard Heat team on January 11th, the Clippers have finally started to look the way we thought they'd look back in October. Only one of the five they've beaten during their current win streak is a playoff-caliber team (Phoenix), but the important thing is that they've been whipping those bad teams. (The Nets, despite being in the mix for an Eastern playoff spot, are awful, and we all know it.)
Barring some kind of unfortunately injury situation or an epic, unforeseen slump for the Warriors, the Clippers can kiss their Pacific Division title hopes goodbye. They're 6.5 games back of Golden State for that top spot, and that's not ground they're going to be making up. However, they are just 1.5 games back of the Grizzlies for the conference's No. 2 overall seed. That's much more reasonable.
Before the end of January, LAC has games with Utah, New Orleans and San Antonio. Monday's game with the Nuggets was the Clippers' final home game for quite some time, with the annual Grammy road trip set to start Wednesday. The Pelicans are eagerly chasing that No. 8 seed, but only the Spurs are likely destined for the playoffs of these four opponents. Anything short of a 2-1 record in that stretch would be a bit of a blow for the Clippers. Especially because their February schedule looks brutal.
February starts with five road games for the Clippers in Brooklyn, Cleveland, Toronto, OKC and Dallas. There's four playoff teams. They then return to Los Angeles for a four-game stretch where they'll meet Houston, San Antonio, Sacramento and Memphis. Three more playoff teams. The month concludes with another road swing that will take them through Houston and Memphis. So, of the 11 February games, nine of them will see the Clippers facing-off with fellow postseason-caliber clubs.
So, this is as good a time as ever for the Clippers to have (hopefully) figured out how to play together. With Sunday's 120-point effort against the Suns, LAC has climbed ahead of the Mavericks for the No. 1 spot in offensive efficiency in the league. L.A. is averaging 111 points per 100 possessions this season, which would be the best season-long mark for any team since the 2009-10 Suns. As we know, those D'Antoni Suns teams were historically excellent on offense.
As of today, the Clips rank No. 3 in the league in assist ratio (percentage of possessions that end with an assist) behind only the Hawks and Warriors, which happen to be the two teams that are currently bulldozing their way through the rest of the NBA. LAC is also No. 3 in turnover ratio (percentage of possessions that end with a turnover), while Atlanta and GS are tied for 19th. So, the Clippers are an excellent passing team that also takes care of the ball. Come playoff time, when the stakes of every possession are heightened, being able to keep the ball is a hugely important trait for a team to own.
Another big part of the Clips' possible turnaround has been their better rebounding. After dwelling near the cellar of the league in rebounding for most of the season, the Clippers have climbed to 18th in rebounding rate. While it's still below-average, you don't necessarily have to be an elite rebounding team to have a realistic shot at winning it all. Miami was a subpar rebounding team during the last two years of LeBron, but that didn't really matter considering how excellent they were on both offense and defense.
But what about that defense? That's the area in which the Clippers have dropped-off the most from last year to this year. They finished seventh in defensive efficiency last season (allowing 102.1 points per 100 possessions), but are currently sitting 14th in 2014-15 (103.4).
However, lately there have been indications that the defense is coming around, too. In the 12 games this month, the Clippers have allowed 100+ points in six of them. On the bright side, they allowed Dallas and Phoenix to each score exactly 100, which is well below the per-game and per-100 possession averages of both clubs. The Clippers also scored 120 points of their own in each of those games, so allowing 100 points while winning handily isn't a bad trick if you can pull it off. L.A.'s best win of the season was the recent 100-94 win in Portland against a mostly-healthy Blazers squad. It was only Portland's fourth loss at home all season, and the Clippers held them to just 94 points. Quite impressive, indeed.
While they've shown signs of turning things around, there's still plenty of reason for concern. The primary concern, as it has been all year, is the team's relative lack of depth. We've been over this, but the Clips are going to have to upgrade over the likes of Glen Davis if they really want to contend with the brutes of the West come playoff time. As long as Austin Rivers can hold his own defensively and not completely bog-down the offense, they should be fine in the backcourt. One more reliable rotation big would do wonders for L.A., and they'll surely be scouring the waiver wire once veterans from other teams start getting buy-outs. That's how the Clips got Davis and Danny Granger last season, of course.
The next month or so will tell us a lot about how far the Clippers will be able to go once the postseason rolls around, but their recent play has given plenty of reason for optimism.
No comments:
Post a Comment