The Spurs and the Clippers just finished one the best first round series the Playoffs have ever seen. A look back at the fun series we just witnessed.
by Austin Peters
The NBA seriously needs to reconsider the playoff seeding. There has been so much noise about it that change is going to be inevitable. After the Spurs lost to the Clippers in an epic Game 7 on Saturday night, I think everybody would welcome the change.
This series seriously could've been a conference finals. Going into the season, and even heading into the playoffs, there was definitely a situation where you could've seen either of these teams making it to the Finals. The Clippers led the league in offensive efficiency this season, rolling out two of the top ten players in the league and a guy who finished top three in defensive player of the year voting. The Spurs..... Well they're the Spurs.
This first round battle was anything and everything you want in an NBA series. Outside of Games 1 and 3, every game was basically a coin flip. Everybody knew it was going to be the best series, and it more than lived up to the hype.
Why The Spurs Lost
This series didn't come down to just one thing. The Spurs had a few matchup disadvantages that played into their downfall.
Super Blake
The biggest disadvantage came with Blake, who came back from injury late in the season to average a 24/13/7 (!!!) against the Spurs in the first round. He was beating the Spurs in just about every way imaginable. The main guys assigned to Blake were Boris Diaw and Tiago Splitter, who were clearly mandated to give him a world of space at the top of the key and force Blake to beat them with the jumper. Blake torched them by shooting 42% from 10-19 feet, making them pay for giving him so much space.
We already know how much of a problem he is to defend in transition. Diaw was to slow chasing him around and Splitter wasn't healthy enough to guard Blake either. San Antonio just had to watch Blake beat them over and over again because they didn't have an answer for him. Face up, pick and roll, post up. Blake had it all going against the Spurs in round one.
Hack-a-Shaq
Everybody made such a big deal about the "Hack-a-DeAndre" that went on, and there are several reasons why it might not work. One, the Clippers play their starters more than anyone else, so stopping the game to take free throws gives them all time to rest. Second, it gives Doc Rivers time to set his defense and talk to his team while play is stopped. It gets your team out of a rhythm as well because of how much you're stopping. It might not have even been a reason for the Spurs losing, but there are definitely disadvantages to this tactic.
Poor Shooting
San Antonio as a team struggled a ton to hit shots. Sometimes, the ball just doesn't fall for you. They shot a pretty low 37.4% on wide open shots (defender more than six feet away). Danny Green, the Spurs' main sharp shooter, shot an abysmal 30% from three. Boris Diaw, a guy who torched teams in the playoffs with his shooting, shot an even worse 22.2% from three. Marco Bellinelli was able to give them a lot of lift off the bench (46.7% from deep), but they needed Green in the game to guard Chris Paul. This was one of several matchup problems the Spurs ran into. Go with Bellinelli, you get better shooting but are limited defensively. Go with Green, you'll be able to get the matchups you want on defense but won't have the knock down shooting you need.
Chris. Paul.
The Clippers shut up all the criticism they faced during the season by knocking off the defending champs in seven games. As I already pointed out, Blake Griffin was a huge part of that. But we haven't even talked about the MVP of the series, Chris Paul, whose legendary Game 7 on one hamstring willed the Clippers to a win in one of the best games I've ever seen. You can even see on the game winning shot how hobbled he was.
He literally limped around Danny Green, who had been sensational the whole game defensively, then finished over Tim Duncan, who had done an incredible job protecting the rim all series. He averaged 23/5/8 with 51/43/97 shooting splits. He had 27 and 6 on 9-13 shooting and 5-6 from three on one leg in game seven. Words can't even describe how insane that is.
Looking Ahead
As good of a story as it was for the Clilppers, they have a tough task moving forward. The Clippers only play eight guys in their rotation consistently. Their starting lineup of Paul/Redick/Barnes/Griffin/Jordan plays the most minutes per game of any five man lineup in the playoffs so far. Despite having a bad series, Jamal Crawford still gives them a viable sixth man in the rotation. Outside of those six, only Austin Rivers and Glen Davis are a part of the Clippers rotation and play more than 12 minutes per game. Rivers was a net negative 3.6 in the series and while Davis played well in the Spurs series, he is also playing with an ankle injury.
With an already thin playoff rotation, it just adds fuel to the fire that Chris and Blake are both going to be battling injuries moving forward. The Rockets have had around a week to rest while the Clippers grinded it out for seven games against the Spurs. That can't be good for the Clippers' chances in the next round. They don't have any answer for James Harden if Paul isn't 100%, and the Rockets have athletic power forwards in Terrance Jones and Josh Smith that they can throw at Blake to try and hold him in check.
The playoffs are the time of the year where rotations become important and matchups can make or break a series. The Clippers lucked out a bit with their matchup with the Spurs, but don't matchup nearly as well with the Rockets. Throw in the fact their star players are battling injuries on top of small rotation, and things don't look to good for the Clippers moving forward.
Prediction: Rockets in 5
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