Game 1: Spurs Play Right into Clippers’ Hands

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There are three things you simply cannot do when playing the Clippers: Shoot 3s poorly, turn the ball over too much, and fail to sufficiently execute transition defense. San Antonio landed that trifecta of terribleness late Sunday night, and Los Angeles completed a 107-92 Game 1 mauling that’s set an unexpected tone in the Spurs’ run at defending their title.

Let’s go down the list, shall we? San Antonio hit just 10 of its 33 3-point attempts. That’s only the fifth time in franchise history they’ve missed at least 23 shots from deep in a single game, per Basketball-Reference. The only other times: in a 95-82 win over the Grizzlies on opening night after the 2011 lockout, and in an ugly 100-83 loss to the Knicks in January of 2013. Meanwhile, the Clippers hit 10 of their 18 shots from the 3-point line and went 14-of-25 on uncontested field-goal attempts (defender at least four feet away); San Antonio went 13-of-33 when uncontested.

Not great, Bob.

And how about turnovers? The Spurs had 14 of those, which led to 17 points for the Clippers. Los Angeles’ offense is good enough to hurt you badly without the help of easy shots and extra opportunities. And on the other hand, San Antonio needs all the chances it can get, especially on the road where it’s struggled mightily to score.

This is where it got really ugly. The Clippers posted 23 fast-break points last night, picking apart the Spurs’ transition defense … or lack thereof. For perspective, the Spurs gave up fewer than 14 transition points per game, and 23 would’ve led the league by several points (the Warriors were tops in the NBA this year at 20.8 fast-break points per game).

San Antonio shot the ball very poorly last night, plain and simple. I haven’t even mentioned the free-throw line, where the Spurs hit just 14 of their 26 attempts. But in this case, what else is there to say other than shoot better and cut back on the turnovers? The Clippers’ defense was good, and DeAndre Jordan’s presence around the rim was hugely impactful. Even when he wasn’t tomahawking basketballs out of the air, he was causing hesitation among Spurs players when they dribbled in and around the paint.

But there were still a lot of open looks for San Antonio. You can reason those shots that missed their marks last night will go in on Wednesday, but when the Spurs lost home court on the final night of the regular season, they lost any guarantee of that. They’re now shooting worse than 34 percent from the 3-point line this season when out on the road, a precipitous drop-off from the nearly 40 percent they shoot as a team in the comfortable confines of the AT&T Center. It’s a problem, considering they may not have home-court advantage at any point during their playoff run.

San Antonio will come back sharper on Wednesday. It’s just what they do when Gregg Popovich and Co. have a few days off to reflect and game-plan. But a lot of what has to improve isn’t exactly fixed by watching film.

Basketball can be a really simple game — sometimes it just comes down to making your shots. Last night, the Spurs didn’t do that, and they’re becoming increasingly unable to afford another poor performance. They’re still in OK shape — all they need is one of the first two games to swing momentum — but they’re going to have to solve the road-game riddle that’s been plaguing them all season.

Notes:

  • Los Angeles did a really good job defending Kawhi Leonard. The two early fouls did nothing to help his rhythm, but the Clippers had a help defender hedging toward Leonard all night, and it was clearly deterring his attack.
  • My goodness, Chris Paul was something else. It’s going to be particularly interesting to watch how Pop defends him going forward, because we didn’t see much of Leonard on CP3 until the later stages of the game. Before the series started, I wrote/talked about how I thought Kawhi would be used situationally on Paul, that he wouldn’t be his primary defender. That was the case last night, but I’m not sure how if that’s gonna fly anymore. Leonard has to shoulder a bigger load offensively these days, so I get the idea of conserving energy. But it’s not like chasing J.J. Redick all over the place is any less exhausting. Pop’s hand may be forced a bit here, especially with Parker’s bumps and bruises. And SOMEONE has to slow that guy down, or the Spurs are in trouble.
  • San Antonio needs Tiago Splitter in this series. They’re keeping kind of quiet on the seriousness of this injury, but it’s clearly a factor.
  • It’s pretty normal behavior to overreact to the outcome of games in the postseason. The stakes are so significant, it’s difficult not to. But my reaction to last night’s game is basically…meh. That did not look to me like a game the Clippers dominated. San Antonio became stagnant at times and missed a ton of shots, then things snowballed. The Clippers, with their size and athleticism and dunking and shot-making, can run a score up in a hurry and make it feel worse than it actually is. I’ve written on that subject for years. And keep in mind, L.A. absolutely needed that game. A loss and an immediate changing of home-court advantage would’ve been a huge blow to start their playoff run. Let’s see how the Spurs respond when they’re cornered.

Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference and NBA.com.


  • junierizzle

    I no people like to say -” Not to take anything away.from the Clippers,” but I’ll give it a shot. This is the same team that it always been. CP was great, Blake had a monster dunk, Jordan swatted a ball into the stands. ( A ball he could have just grabbed if he wanted to), Crawford hitting contested jumpers. What else is new? My point is — what team at this stage wouldn’t go on a run with the way the Spurs played? I second that meh.

  • spurs10

    Great write-up Matthew. While I don’t think we can play worse, that doesn’t guarantee a win. Yes on the big three ‘no can do’s’ you mentioned. Yes on finding a new friend for CP3. Hopefully the Spurs are as pissed off as I am about Barnes’ dirty and dangerous play. I’m sure Baynes is too much of a team player to exact his revenge on him, but I hope everyone plays them much more physical next game.

  • Comrade747

    I third the Meh

  • Tyler

    Not only did Kawhi struggle to attack the double team (especially when he caught it a few steps off the block), so did the rest of the team. There just weren’t precise cuts when and where they needed to be and the player movement seemed unorganized (spacing was poor I thought overall). Interesting to see the type of adjustments SA makes for game two.

    I assume LA will use the same strategy on Kawhi in game 2. And if they do, I’d expect Kawhi to take on more of a facilitator role. Instead of using his post up for him to score, I’d like to see SA take their chances with a 4 vs 3 on the backside, but spacing needs to be better. Take advantage and make LA scramble. Interesting tactical problem.

  • fkj74

    meh..we cannot play worse..they will not shoot as well. Must win game 2. Go Spurs!

  • Joyflyer

    I think the comments section of 48MoH needs to be more like Popovich/Duncan and less like Bill Walton. Pop understands that it’s a long game. There are going to be some runs. Crap, this website is called 48 minutes of Hell. Duncan never gets too high, never gets too low. Basically, they never overreact to anything. A lot can happen in 48 minutes. A lot can happen in 7 games.

    Bill Walton, on the other hand, was a rather entertaining color commentator. But he overreacted to EVERYTHING. Specifically, in deciding which teams were done in a playoff series. After the first half of game 1 “Team X has won this series. They have crushed the spirit of Team Y. Team Y is flat, lifeless and dead, it is going to take a miracle for them to bounce back.” At the end of game 1: “Team Y came out of that locker room and turned the tables on Team X. All the momentum has shifted in Team Y’s favor. They have taken control of this series and it is theirs to lose. I don’t see how Team X can ever recover from that devastating loss.” For Bill Walton, every game was a must win. And the winner of the previous game was unbeatable.

    All season long, I feel there have been more Bill Waltons posting on this message board than I can remember. (Most often about Tony Parker being completely washed up.) I don’t know how you can call yourselves Spurs fans and still not trust the process. How many playoff series have these guys won in the past 16 years? And haven’t they had a few bad games sprinkled in there? And yet, I think the overall results (championships/sustained success) have been fantastic.

    I also think that every single person who posts on this message board (myself included) is an idiot compared to Popovich, when it comes to running the Spurs. HE. KNOWS. WHAT. HE’S. DOING. And while he might make a mistake from time to time, his mistakes are way better than your mistakes. I think we can question why he is or isn’t doing something. It it should be from an attitude of “I don’t understand why Pop’s doing X, and it’s because I’m not knowledgeable enough to see the reasons behind it.” Not: “Why is Pop doing X? Any idiot could see that you shouldn’t do that.”

    I have enjoyed this season immensely. A few Spurs fans were writing them off in December and January when they struggled through that rough patch. But somehow, March was worth it, wasn’t it? And I believe April, May (and June?) will be as well. Be like Pop. Not like Bill Walton.

  • brunostrange

    Thanks for that. However, there are a number of people on here for whom a comments section filled with posts of the “I trust the system, everything will work out,” variety would be exceedingly boring. Some of us like to talk about the games, the trends, what’s working, and what’s not working. And one can still be a fan of the team while making such comments.

  • ferscia

    I fourth the meh. Still, the Spurs won´t win a single game this series if they play as badly as on Sunday. I´m not worried about the Clippers, I´m worried about my Spurs!

  • Joyflyer

    Sure. I see that. I just got a little tired of people flat out saying “Parker is done” in January. Has he lost a step? Maybe. But does that mean is useless to the Spurs and he should come off the bench, or we should just kiss out title chances good-bye? Because that seemed to be a general vibe that trickled throughout the comments.

    But yeah, I think critique and criticism is to be expected. (And fun!) But maybe not to the Bill Waltonish extreme that some people take it. Games and series can swing in a heartbeat. (WCF 2012?)

  • Gabbo

    I agree, it was a ‘meh’ game. The Clips played about as well as they could play. The Spurs were in a funk much of the night. Game 1 on the road is always a huge hurdle. All things considered, if you’re going to throw in a clunker…this was the game to do it.

    The goal is to get a split and that’s still in play. There are still some major mismatch issues…especially with Tiago hobbled, but I trust the depth and experience of the Spurs to make a difference as the series wears on.

  • thedrwolff

    Danny Green is officially slumping. 6-24 in his last 5 games. which gives him an avg of 5.6 points per game. With Kawhi dropping off aggressiveness that means our starters are draining BELOW 3 made threes a game. This is very bad news. On the flip side Patty Mills is officially HOT. Unfortunately his minutes aren’t enough to get him more then a few looks a game. Don’t be surprised if POP goes to Ginobilli over Danny early then the MOMENT . 8-35 from the field his last 5 games is killing the offense.

  • thedrwolff

    Sorry, Then mills coming in for Tony for some early minutes. I don’t buy the 40 min a game is a big deal for the Clippers either. There are no back to backs in the playoffs and there are a few 3 days rest tossed in as well.

  • TD BestEVER

    I have never really liked Parker, always thought he was a volume scorer who wasn’t very good at it and that he took too many looks away from Duncan. But even I don’t think he is DONE!! He can still get you around 12-15 ppg and shoot a high%. Get about 5 ast and not turn it over more than 1-2 times in about 25-30 mpg.

    What we can’t have is him just holding onto the ball too long looking for his own shot so much that every body just stands and watches him. WE need every one involved. BTW this also goes for KL who still struggles getting out of double teams. WE need that ball moving so we can find the one lazy defender who doesn’t want to rotate and take full advantage of it.

    But no matter how long a series is or how much time you have to turn it around, you can still end up in the 6th seed like we did. So basically not all losses are equal. Some you really have no shot at, and others you basically give away. I felt like we played so poor we basically gave it away. I mean at some point the Clippers were like… Meh!! I guess we will go on a little run and open up this game.

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