Key to beating the Clippers - limit their role player shooters

Yep. If you stop Reddick & Crawford (their shooters) the Clippers offense crumbles. There was a possession last nite where Ariza smothered Reddick, causing Blake to hesitate and get his chit swatted in the stands by Smith (I loved every bit of typing that lol).

 

Jon Barry mentioned that he had talked to Popovich during the first round and Pop pretty much said exactly this.

 

We need to do an even better job at it. Crawford had plenty of open looks. He just missed them.

 

JJ Redick's shooting has pretty much torpedoed the Clippers. 4/17 on 3 pointers in the last two games. Ariza getting that job done.

 

Yeap. Said this since prior to start of the series. The stars are going to get their number. Nothing much to do about that. Just contain them to be scorers. Limit their assists. Stop role player and you have a great chance of winning.

 

Yup. We can't stop the entire clippers team.

It's easier to stop the role players than the 3 stars.

Funny thing is Jon Barry kept crying about how we are not doubling Blake. Dude shut up! That's not our plan!

 

that's what the announcers were saying

 

This is 100% correct.

My defensive keys:
1. Crash the glass defensively. The team that has won the rebounding battle has won every game.

2. Transition defense. We have to get back quickly to pick up Griffin down low and their corner 3 shooters. They are much better when they get quick shots and don't have to rely on their half court sets.

3. In their offensive sets that involve Reddick off of screens, we have to stay with him and give him nothing. We've seen that the ball stops once he's contested and they are forced into a poor shot. This isn't the easiest task because Griffin and Jordan set excellent (moving) screens. Switching Ariza off of Paul and onto Reddick was the thing to do.

4. Keep Austin Rivers from penetrating. His outside shot has come back down to Earth and he seems to be rushing them.

5. You have to live with what Paul and Griffin do. Don't foul them unnecessarily, but make life as difficult as possible. Do not allow them to get easy lob passes into Jordan. Foul him before he can catch and dunk.

My offensive keys:
1. No hero ball. We saw what happened when Harden came out of the game. Harden was trying to do it all on his own and this allows 4 out of 5 Clippers to rest on defense.

2. Find the right combination of being aggressive in transition and not turning over the ball. Brewer and Smith found it yesterday. We can't let up! The Clippers ran out of gas yesterday, but we won't have that much of an advantage with them off of 2 days rest.

3. Force Griffin to stop Smith and Jones from their dribble penetration. When they are aggressive, they pull Jordan off of Howard and that leads to easy baskets one way or another. We saw a lot of Howard/Smith PnR. They don't have an answer if Smith is hitting 3s.

4. We need to find the balance of crashing the offensive glass and transition defense. Both the Spurs and Rockets have shown that the Clippers aren't a great defensive rebounding team. With that being said, outside of Dwight, you have to be selective on when to crash the O glass.

5. Find a way to get Harden going. He hasn't put a game together yet.

 

Be curious to see our own 3pt %s for those same games.

Winning the rebounding and 3% battles seems to be everything.

 

The needed big games from reddick and Rivers to beat us in game 3 and 4.

 

That's some crazy stats. Hope the coaches are smart enough to see what has been working and what hasn't. Stupid stuff like killing momentum with the Hack a DJ needs to be put out the window and let the Rockets beat them with great defense.

For the love of God, look over the film and keep doing what's been working.

 

The crazy thing about Crawford is that he has the potential to win Clippers games by himself if he's on but he also has the potential to shoot them out of games.

 

Agree with OP. Limiting the role players 3-pounters made has been huge for the rockets and a big reason why the rockets have won the last two games. Maybe more crucial then getting DeAndre into foul trouble.

 

Totally agree. Once Crawford, Reddick and Rivers get going its over. Limit them and you win the series.

 

Rivers is their spark plug off the bench and it seems like almost every single Clippers' run is triggered by him making some some key play.

 

Also, the team that has won the Rebound battle has won the game.

I said this in another thread.....Paul, Blake, Harden...they will get theirs.
The keys are

1) Howard vs Jordan. Who wins this matchup? Who gets in foul trouble and has to sit on the bench

2) Role Player Shooting: Reddick, Barnes, Crawford, Rivers vs Terry, Ariza, Brewer, Smith. Who wins this shooting battle.

 

No doubt! Can't really expect Paul or Griffin to play much better than they did yesterday. Limit Reddick, Rivers, and Crawford and we'll be fine.