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Respect. Rodney Dangerfield couldn’t get none and neither, it seems, can the L.A. Clippers.
Monday night, behind extraordinary three-point shooting (55.9% on 34 attempts) and a renewed emphasis on defense, the Clippers’, who were without injured superstar Paul George (foot), dismantled the Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Milwaukee Bucks 129-105. The win was L.A’s sixth in a row and eighth in their last 10 games, and elevated their record to 32-16, fifth-best in the NBA.
Against the Bucks, who were held to their sixth lowest point total of the season, Marcus Morris, Luke Kennard and Reggie Jackson combined to shoot 13-for-19 from three, and even Patrick Patterson, a career 37.1% shooter from behind the arc, managed to go 3-for-3 from long distance. Needless to say, the Clips were on fire.
But, rather than being impressed by those figures, one NBA pundit believes it’s actually a cause for concern.
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‘Better Than Steph Curry?’
On Tuesday’s episode of FS1’s First Things First, NBA analyst Nick Wright pointed to the Clippers’ victory and the fact that they are shooting 41.9% from behind the arc this season — higher even than the Golden State teams that won rings in 2015 and 2018 — as an indication that the other shoe will eventually drop for L.A.
“There’s two ways to look at,” began Wright. “One way is, this is the best offense in basketball,, the defense has come around of late, and because of that, this is a far more dangerous team than they were last year. The other way to look at is, do we really think that Reggie Jackson is going to shoot 44% from three in the playoffs? Do you really think Marcus Morris is going shoot better than Steph Curry ever has in a playoff run in the playoffs? I don’t.”
In addition to a smoking hot offense, the Clippers have amped up their defense since the All-Star break — enough in fact, that over the course of just eight games, they’ve managed to go from 15th in the league in defensive rating to 11th. Wright pointed to this improvement as a possible counterbalance to the Clippers’ inevitable cooling off, but he didn’t sound optimistic.
“And so last night was another example of them, as they’ve done through the first 44 games in the season, shooting lights out and looking great because if it,” Wright said. “That to me is so clearly and obviously not sustainable that it’s concerning for me if they don’t continue the uptick on defense that we’ve seen over the last few weeks”
And though Wright does make a valid point that there’s a good chance the Clippers will “return to the mean” from behind the arc (they shot 37.1% last season), it’s also true that they don’t need to shoot lights out to win. They won their last five games by an average of 21.2 points, with the closest margin being 10. So there’s certainly room to spare.
And as far as their excellent defense, that’s not some kind of aberration for the Clippers. In fact, having fielded the sixth-best defense in the league last year, it’s all but expected, as Wright’s co-host Chris Broussard pointed out.
“I think the defense is important and has legitimately improved,” said Broussard, who formerly covered the Nets and Knicks for The New York Times. “Over this six-game stretch, they’ve been like seventh in the league defensively. As you noted they’ve been mediocre, but they shouldn’t have been mediocre. This is a team that should be one of the top defensive teams in the league.”
Another co-host, former All-Pro football player Brandon Marshall, was less sure that the Clippers couldn’t keep up the shooting:
“Note it, write it down…[The Clippers] are going to finish number one in the West come mid-April.”
Kawhi to Fly the Coup?
At the end of the segment, Broussard was asked whether or not he thought Kahwi Leonard would bolt for another team at the end of the season if L.A. failed to make a long run in the playoffs.
“You never say never, but I would be shocked, even if the Clippers go out in the second round or the Conference Finals,” said Broussard, reasoning that the SoCal native might fear tarnishing his legacy by leaving.
“He would leave the clippers as a failure, make no mistake about it,” asserted Broussard. “When he came here people were expecting him to lead them to a championship. If he goes to Miami with his tail tucked between his legs, it really looks bad for him, for his legacy, It looks he couldn’t lead a team to a championship, because he wasn’t the leader in Toronto, wasn’t the leader in San Antonio, and wouldn’t be the leader in Miami because it would be Jimmy Butler. Also, he’s from LA, so I don’t think there’s much of a heartbeat there. I think he’s in L.A. to stay.”
The much-decorated Leonard, who is in his 10th season and has two rings and been named All-NBA four times, has a $36 million player option next season.
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Clippers in for Rude Awakening: Analyst