“ It was a kick in the butt! ” There formula is from Mike Brown and it designates the performance of the Clippers (8 wins – 9 losses) against their Kings. The latter, renowned for their speed of execution and their offensive qualities, were beaten at their own game last night against the Californians.
The Clippers, who nevertheless suffered a bad defeat at home against the B team of the Nuggets, undoubtedly delivered their best collective performance since the arrival of James Harden.
“ We had this difficult defeat against Denver. Everyone talks about it, but I still see positives in this team. When we find the solutions and have more matches like tonight, where we make quick decisions, we make the right pass, the right choice, we go into the paint to come out for 3-point shots… We will play like this “, thus displays Tyronn Lue.
This night, the coach largely insisted with his trio of stars in the major five: Kawhi Leonard (34 points and 9 rebounds), James Harden (26 points and 6 assists) and Paul George (19 points and 7 assists) all had the three played at least 37 minutes. Less used and less successful in shooting, Russell Westbrook (9 points and 8 assists) at least had the merit of supplying his team’s quota of assists (28).
“This is what it should look like, this is exactly what it should look like”
The difference with previous matches? The tempo. “ We didn’t monopolize the ball, we made quick decisions. I thought Kawhi really set the tone by playing fast early in the match. They wanted to take it together, but they didn’t get there in time and it was already in the basket. And James, he controlled the game, especially in the first quarter, with the pick-and-rolls, the 3-pointers, the good passes, the good reads », Continues Tyronn Lue, who believes that the work with Ivica Zubac, on the “pick-and-roll”, is bearing fruit.
This is precisely the style of play advocated by the technician who found that “ it was a nice game to watch offensively “. “ The first thing is to secure the rebound and make the recovery pass. We want to attack quickly with PG, Kawhi, T-Mann (Terance Mann)… They can attack before the defense is in place », wishes the coach, without falling into the excess of the attack in “seven seconds or less”: “ These are not the Phoenix Suns of the day. We have a lot of old people, they’re not as fast!»
Tyronn Lue considers that this match gives a good overview of what this new version of the Clippers can produce: “ This is what it should look like, this is precisely what it should look like. Now we have to reproduce it again and again and again… »
Next great opportunity to do it next night, on the floor of Stephen Curry’s Warriors.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Paul George | 16 | 35.0 | 45.2 | 37.6 | 93.6 | 0.8 | 5.6 | 6.3 | 3.6 | 2.7 | 1.9 | 0.2 | 2.9 | 24.2 |
| Kawhi Leonard | 16 | 33.9 | 45.1 | 37.2 | 84.8 | 1.0 | 4.6 | 5.6 | 3.4 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 1.5 | 21.1 |
| James Harden | 11 | 32.8 | 44.2 | 36.7 | 83.7 | 0.4 | 4.3 | 4.6 | 6.2 | 2.4 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 14.1 |
| Norman Powell | 16 | 24.4 | 50.0 | 46.4 | 80.4 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 12.9 |
| Russell Westbrook | 16 | 27.7 | 44.3 | 27.9 | 60.5 | 1.4 | 5.1 | 6.5 | 5.3 | 2.7 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 2.7 | 12.3 |
| Ivica Zubac | 16 | 25.6 | 61.2 | 0.0 | 60.4 | 3.3 | 5.7 | 8.9 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 2.8 | 11.3 |
| Bones Hyland | 10 | 19.6 | 42.5 | 36.2 | 90.0 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 2.4 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 2.1 | 10.0 |
| Daniel Theis | 6 | 16.9 | 48.6 | 40.0 | 50.0 | 1.8 | 3.0 | 4.8 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 6.8 |
| Terance Mann | 10 | 25.7 | 41.5 | 13.0 | 58.3 | 1.2 | 2.9 | 4.1 | 2.4 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 5.4 |
| Mason Plumlee | 6 | 17.0 | 63.2 | 0.0 | 42.9 | 1.3 | 4.2 | 5.5 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 5.0 |
| Kj Martin | 2 | 15.7 | 40.0 | 20.0 | 50.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 5.0 |
| Moussa Diabate | 8 | 6.8 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 70.0 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 3.1 |
| Robert Covington | 3 | 23.1 | 33.3 | 25.0 | 50.0 | 0.7 | 2.0 | 2.7 | 2.3 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 2.3 | 3.0 |
| Nicolas Batum | 3 | 18.0 | 37.5 | 28.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 2.7 |
| Jordan Miller | 2 | 3.4 | 66.7 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.5 |
| Kobe Brown | 7 | 8.1 | 43.8 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 1.6 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 2.4 |
| Amir Coffey | 8 | 7.0 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 1.5 |
| Pj Tucker | 12 | 14.4 | 28.6 | 27.3 | 100.0 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 2.4 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 1.2 |
