Easiest way to think about it is list all of OUR strengths, then think about how those teams stop them. -Ability to get to the rim. OKC and the Clippers have strong shot blocking at the rim with Ibaka and DJ. They're also athletic and fast, so able to block shots off help side defense and close the paint quickly. TJones can't even get to the rim to score. He has hops, but he's not nearly long or strong enough to power through Ibaka or DJ. Harden gets stripped more than usual and his shots get blocked as help defenders swarm for the block. Lin's lay ups aren't nearly as effective as Ibaka and DJ have sufficient length to block him even when he uses his body to protect the ball. -3 point shooting. Floor spacing is great, but when the other team is VERY fast, they can rotate quickly and close out shooters. Our half court execution isn't nearly good enough (You basically have to be near SPURS level) to distort their defense sufficiently to get open jumpers. OKC and the Clippers both have the foot speed to contest the perimeter. -Transition offense. One of our greatest strengths due to our youth and speed down the court. Unfortunately, OKC and the Clippers are just as fast, and actually FASTER down the court when you go past the starters. How many times have we seen Harden, TJones or Lin get chased down, blocked, picked off, fouled or contested against most teams. Against the Clippers and OKC, it happens a LOT. -Post up scoring and above the rim scoring. Dwight and TJones have enough length to take alley oops and score above defenders MOST of the time. However, OKC and the Clippers are two of the most athletic teams in the NBA. Ibaka, Durant, DJ and Blake can ALL get enough height to intercept our alley oops or straight out block them. And Dwight suffers greatly when double-teamed. Dwight isn't nearly fast enough passing out of a double team for us to exploit the coverage. OKC and the Clippers are fast enough to double and STILL contest off the double on passes. So, offensively many of our greatest weapons are either neutralized or highly reduced in effectiveness. Toss in that we turn over the ball a LOT and those teams are two of the best in both forcing TO's AND converting TO's into transition (speed/athleticism), and we get severely penalized every time a ball gets stripped, blocked, or an errant pass is made. In terms of our ability to defend, we have Nobody that can defend Griffin straight up (Tjones/Dmo aren't nearly good enough) or Chris Paul (can only slow him down with doubling and really good team defense). And we can't match their athleticism when they get above the rim (Asik isn't a shot blocker, TJones is okay but he eats a LOT of fouls, DMo is okay with better length but he's not terribly fast) and that pretty much leaves Dwight as our only consistent weapon to limit dunks and alley oops. I could go on for quite a while, but I think you see what I'm getting at.... the Clippers AND OKC are terrible match ups. While we're arguably on the same tier as the Clippers as an all around team, in a head to head match up their strengths run directly into our weaknesses, while we aren't sufficiently well rounded to fully exploit their weaknesses. And I haven't even really talked about play off experience, age, advantages in chemistry due to years played together, coaching, talent differential on the bench, etc. Long story short... Avoid them as long as possible. Hope we play *really* well when we do run into them.
We may be thunderstruck and clipped, but we haven't been Spurred!! I hope we have the chance to knock the spurs out of the playoffs.
In a simplistic way, they are more athletic than us and have better depth. Also they have stars at our weakest positions. The 1&4. KD is the best player in the NBA along with LBJ. That being said though. Their teams and superstars have been together quite a bit longer than ours. The clippers are very good this year, sure. But what happened to them last year? It takes time to gel things out. They've had more time.
Inconsistencies at the 1 and 4 spot. Superior coaching. Having one of the worst benches among playoff teams. I would seriously consider bringing up Troy Daniels and get him acclimated with the team before the playoffs and make him a regular off the bench and just give him the green light.
Well considering the way the playoffs are shaping up it looks like we will probably only meet them if we make it to the conference finals.
They have a rim protector, Harden's kryptonite. Like Kwame said, all-stars not superstars. There's offense and defense, it's a two game process, you have to have both to be a superstar.
The only way to over come this is for Harden to keep developing the midrange. Before, he was just a lay up king and a 3 point chucker. An open 2 is money compared to an open 3, and it takes an X and O's coach to get us those easy buckets.
Like any sport, basketball is like rock, paper, scissors. It's clear we match up much better with the Spurs, Warriors, and Blazers and do not match up well with the Thunder and Clippers. As for WHY we match up poorly with OKC/LAC? Just look at the positions of strengths/weaknesses. Defense from our PFs and the perimeter stinks so it's not surprise that Griffin/CP3 and KD/Westbrook consistently destroy us either with their size/athleticism and shooting. On the offensive end, they have players that can shut us down offensively. OKC's Sefalosha and Perkins have already proven they can frustrate Harden and Howard.
The Clippers aren't, or if so, only very slightly. The problem is that we match up poorly with them. But yes right now OKC is a better team than us.
1) OKC and LAC have players (Stefolosa, Barnes) who can contain Harden 2) They can score 3) They can protect the paint... Ibaka, Jordan 4) They can contain Dwight.. Ibaka, Jordan 5) They take care of the ball 6) They exploit our TOs
