Why The Clippers Should Be Very Happy; Thoughts From Day 1!
Here are my thoughts from the first day of the NBA Restart from the Orlando Bubble!
As the first day of the NBA regular season is over, we can now dissect what we saw from the first two games.
Utah Jazz
The Jazz won their first game in the bubble against the New Orleans Pelicans. Here is what I thought about the Jazz’s first performance.
I thought that the Jazz looked horrible in the first half. The Jazz were not shooting the ball well, and they looked sluggish. They weren’t passing the ball very well and they looked off. Obviously they weren’t used to playing without Bojan Bogdanovic, but they were losing pretty badly.
But come the 2nd half they started to piece together stops on the defensive end and they started to attack the rim more. They were able to win the game late in the 4th quarter.
But my problem with the Jazz was that they can’t afford to play like they did in the first half and expect to win games. When they play in the playoffs against the tougher teams they can’t afford to be down by double digits and expect to come back and win the game. We’ll see more of the Jazz throughout these seeding games and we should all be looking for consistency from the Jazz.
Nobody on the Jazz played amazing as most of them shot below 50% from the field. I think Rudy Gobert played the best as he had 14 points and 12 rebounds with 3 blocks. Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley, and Jordan Clarkson all played ok, but they will need to be more efficient from the field
Like Royce O’Neale shot 2/7 from 3. Mike Conley was 2/7 from 3 and Jordan Clarkson was 1/8 from 3. Those are not a recipe for success for the Jazz.
Defensively the Jazz were horrendous in the first half, and they were great in the 2nd half. The Pelicans scored 60 points in the first half, but then the Jazz tightened down and only allowed 44 in the 2nd half.
Again, things like this cannot happen. You can’t have poor defensive halves against the better teams in the Western Conference. Some of the best players and offenses are in the West and if you are not on your A-game defensively, you will get run out of the gym, or bubble. Same thing.
Of course the Jazz have no wing defender and that is why they will fail. Brandon Ingram played well and guys like Lebron James, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George will feast on a team like the Jazz who have no wing defenders.
Conclusion
The Jazz were very hot and cold during their first game back, and we will have to wait and see if they can become more consistent on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. The Jazz need to keep their offense moving and they just need to hit their open shots. The Jazz defensively need to do their best but without a wing defender, it will be tough for them in the Western Conference.
New Orleans Pelicans
The Pelicans lost their first game in the bubble against the Utah Jazz. Here is what I thought about the Pelicans first performance in the bubble.
The Pelicans started off their first game in the bubble very well. They played a near perfect first half. They scored 60 points with their fast paced offense, and they seemed to be the better team. Brandon Ingram had 15 points in the first half, and Jrue Holiday had 14 points. Zion Williamson was not playing much for the Pelicans, but he was effective with 9 points in the first half.
But like the Jazz, they had a collapse half. In the 3rd quarter they continually allowed the Jazz to come into the paint for easy points. They were lucky that the Jazz were missing their shots, but they allowed them to be within striking distance. But the 4th quarter is where the collapse would really begin to show.
In the 4th quarter, the Pelicans offense grew cold and they could not seem to make their shots. And defensively the Jazz continued to score down low. And the Pelicans lost a very winnable game.
This just shows how much experience matters. While the Jazz are not a old team, but most of their roster has playoff experience. But most of the Pelicans have never been in the playoffs. The Jazz know how win those type of games while the young Pelicans are still learning how to keep their leads.
Brandon Ingram had a good night, but he was pretty inefficient. Jrue Holiday was solid as was JJ Redick. But Lonzo Ball was bad. He shot 2/13 from the field. While Ball is never the focal point of the offense, he gets lots of open shots from 3, and he didn’t make them. Zion Williamson played very well in limited time as he shot 6/8 from the field and had 15 points.
It seems like the Pelicans really play much better with Williamson on the floor. Without him during the late stages of the 4th quarter, they struggled. I think that they need Zion to be on the floor to be successful.
JJ Redick was great. He was shooting well and attacking the rim. I would say he had the best game for the Pelicans.
Conclusion
Like the Jazz, the Pelicans need to be more consistent. They had a great first half and a bad 2nd half. Obviously the Pelicans are a very young team, but if they want any hopes at making the 8th seed in the Western Conferee, they are going to need to learn how hold on to double-digit leads. Another thing is that they play very well when Zion is on the floor, and sub-par when he is not. This isn’t a knock on the Pelicans for not playing Zion Williamson, but if they actually want to make the playoffs, then they might consider playing him more.
LA Lakers
The LA Lakers started their NBA restart with a win against the LA Clippers. Here is what I think about their first performance.
The Lakers started off with a great first quarter. They were playing through Anthony Davis as he scored 14 points in the first quarter. Their defense was great as the Clippers went 0/7 from 3 and only scored 23 points.
But they seemed to run out of steam in the 2nd quarter as the Clippers outscored them 29-19. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were really hurting the Lakers and showed the them how much they miss Avery Bradley.
The Clippers continued to play well in the 3rd quarter as they led by as many as 11. But the Lakers managed to come back and make it a game once again. The Lakers were really on the ropes, but they managed to come back and make it a game again. The Lakers continued to assert their dominance in the 4th quarter and they led by double digits with under 8 minutes left.
But, they again let down and the Clippers managed to make it a game once again. But late-game heroics from Lebron James saved the Lakers and they held on to win the game.
Here is my problem with the Lakers. They were inconsistent. At times they were really dominating the Clippers, and at other times they were mediocre at best. There were times where they should have easily held onto their leads and won the game. And they showed some great resilience when they were down.
I think that this inconsistency is good and bad. They showed they can come back from leads, but they also allowed teams back into the game. This can’t happen in the playoffs as they try and put teams away.
Anthony Davis was the real star tonight. With 34 points and 8 rebounds, he was the reason the Lakers won. He was great in the 1st and 3rd quarters. Lebron James was struggling to score with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George guarding him for most of the night, but he scored when it mattered most. Kyle Kuzma played very well as he had 16 points and Dion Waiters was very good as well as he scored 11 points in 21 minutes.
So some of the Lakers roster played better than expected. Kuzma has been inconsistent all season, but he played well. Dion Waiters played great in his Lakers debut. The Lakers better hope that they can keep this up to support Lebron and AD.
Alex Caruso was 2/7 from the field, Danny Green was 2/6 from 3 and KCP was 0/3 from 3. So there is room for improvement from the Lakers supporting cast, but some of them played well.
Conclusion
I think the supporting cast of the Lakers played ok, but some of them definitely need to play better. Lebron James and Anthony Davis played well, although Lebron should look to be more aggressive. Anthony Davis can’t play much better than he did today. I think that this game is ok for the Lakers, but if they can clean up around the edges, then they can really put their foot down on the Western Conference.
LA Clippers
The LA Clippers lost their first regular season game against the LA Lakers. Here is what I thought about their first performance.
Without Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell, the Clippers would be missing 38 points off the bench. So, the Clippers would be at a very big disadvantage. But even without two 6th Man of the Year Candidates, the Clippers made it a very competitive game.
The Clippers started off very slow in the 1st quarter after Kawhi Leonard left the game after picking up two fouls. But in the 2nd quarter Paul George and Leonard really started to put in work and they managed to make the game close. The Clippers extended their lead in the 3rd quarter. But they took out PG-13 and Kawhi Leonard and the Lakers got back in the game.
The Clippers trailed for most of the 4th quarter, but they kept within striking distance. Paul George hit some big 3’s, but the Clippers came up short and they lost by 2.
Like every other team today, they were inconsistent. It was a tough learning curve without Williams and Harrell, but they managed to stay in the game with the great play of Leonard and George. But after they went out of the game in the 3rd quarter, they were playing from behind the rest of the game. I think the Clippers played the best basketball out of the 4 teams today, it’s just that they made some questionable substitutions.
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were amazing. They were the sole reason that the Clippers were in that game. Patrick Beverley played well as he had 12 points with 2 3-pointers. And he gave you the usual Beverley, tough defense and a pest mentality. Reggie Jackson had 10 points and he was solid as well.
Two players played bad for the Clippers – Marcus Morris and Landry Shamet. Without Williams and Harrell, I expected Morris to score 15+ in this game. Instead he went 0/4 from the field and had 0 points. Morris was averaging 20 points per game during the season. Add this with Williams and Harrell, and the Clippers were without nearly 60 points tonight.
Landry Shamet shot 1/8 from the field. Shamet is a very good shooter so hopefully he can get out of this slump come playoff time.
Other than that, you got what you could out of the support pieces. Again, without Lou Williams and Harrell, the Clippers were at a big disadvantage.
Conclusion
The Clippers played the best basketball of any team from Day 1 of the restart, and the only reason they were in the game was because of PG-13 and Kawhi Leonard. They didn’t have 38 points from their bench, and they still managed to make the game competitive. Marcus Morris scored 0 points, and he has been averaging 19.6 points this season. So the Clippers only lost by 2, without having nearly 60 points between Morris, Harrell, and Williams. They should be very happy that they only lost by 2 to the #1 seed in the Western Conference. When everybody gets back and the Clippers are at full strength again, they will be a very tough team to beat.
What did you think about Day 1 of the NBA Restart? Leave a comment on any thoughts you had from Day 1 and what you expect from each team going forward.
Stay Tuned for Day 2 later today!
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