On the Clippers' first possession of the game, they dump it down to Chris Paul on the block matched-up against Tony Parker. J.J. Redick swings around to the weak side, isolating Paul down low with Blake Griffin shaded near the free-throw line.
Griffin's man, Tiago Splitter, comes down to help on CP3, leaving Blake free at the top of the key. Rather than rotating to Griffin, Kawhi Leonard decides not to leave Matt Barnes open behind the three-point line, instead conceding the 17-foot shot to Griffin, which he misses in this case. The Spurs are as smart and disciplined as any team in the league about when to rotate, and Leonard's decision not to leave Barnes (a 36% three-point shooter this season) paid off.
Another thing San Antonio is excellent about is recognizing mismatches and taking full advantage. This play is coming after a fastbreak lay-in by Chris Paul. The Spurs were quick to inbound the ball to their off-guard, Danny Green, as Tony Parker was already in the frontcourt. Rather than rush back to switch back on to his rightful man (Parker), Paul tracks the much bigger Kawhi Leonard.
The 6'8" Leonard wastes no time in asserting himself on the block against the 6'0" Paul, and the Spurs get him the ball quickly.
Leonard takes one dribble and shoots over Paul before Griffin can help in time. This one resulted in a miss, but it's a shot Kawhi is going to knock-down more often than not. The Spurs have also begun running more and more of their offense through Leonard as the year has progressed, so look for them to get him involved early and often, regardless of who's defending him.
We know the Clippers like to run and take advantage of their athleticism in transition, but the Spurs are also known to be quite advantageous of similar situations. The Clippers do a good job about getting back on defense following a miss on this next play, and the center, Splitter, comes out to Parker and looks as though he's going to set a screen on Paul. Griffin tries to cheat over to his right in order to cut-off the lane he thinks Parker is going to take around the pick.
Tim Duncan, at the top right, just seems like he's ambling into the play a little late. But it's a trick! Instead of taking the predictable route left around the screen, Parker whips the ball to Duncan at the top of the three-point line. Splitter, the original "screen"-setter, then dashes through-the-middle, where Duncan immediately finds him with a quick bounce pass.
Griffin is way out-of-position as a result of falsely anticipating where Parker would go with the ball, so Splitter easily gets a step on him. He receives the pass from Duncan and finishes at the rim before J.J. Redick's feeble help gets there. Matt Barnes, covering Leonard in the corner, wasn't even looking at the ball when all of this was taking place, so he wasn't about to help, either. Splitter's the last option on offense (among the starters, at least) for San Antonio, so running a play that directly results in him getting to the basket off-the-bounce is some deft misdirection. In other words, it's the Spurs.
Not to be outdone, the Clips can come up with a lil' offensive trickeration of their own from time-to-time. On this play, we immediately see DeAndre Jordan come out high at the top to set a would-be screen on Paul's man, Parker.
Rather than using DJ's screen, Paul zips the ball over to Matt Barnes on the right wing.
As you can see, Barnes receives the pass and immediately recognizes the lack of help on Griffin. So he quickly dumps a pass down to Blake, who has Diaw pinned away from the bucket, resulting in an easy two for L.A.
While the Spurs may start with Kawhi defending J.J. Redick, they're sure to move him on to Paul at some point during each game. He's the best perimeter defender in the league, so, naturally, San Antonio surely wants him marshaling CP3 at least a little bit.
Regardless of the defender, expect the Clippers to run Redick around screens like a madman in an effort to get him as many open looks as possible. He's been sizzling over the last two months, and finished the season averaging a career high in points per game (16.4) and shot his highest-ever three-point percentage (nearly 44%). Other than the sometimes-reluctant-to-shoot Paul, Redick's really the only above-average long distance bomber L.A. has, so it's crucial to get him going early in order to establish a rhythm.
Given the fact that we have just one game's worth of evidence from this season with both teams at full health, there's really no telling what kinds of curveballs we're going to be seeing from either side. Popovich and Rivers are both excellent tacticians, so surely we're in for all sorts of chicanery. One thing's for certain: we're in for quite the fun series.
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