LA Clippers-Warriors: What to watch for in preseason opener
By Tom West
A healthy Blake Griffin and how (if) he shoots from three
We have basketball. We have LA Clippers basketball. And we have healthy Blake Griffin.
It may only be preseason action, but it doesn’t matter. We get to watch the Clippers take on the Warriors and watch L.A.’s first game of competitive basketball (albeit with meaningless results) in months.
One of the best elements of this game is that along with everyone focusing on how the Warriors’ new “Death Star Lineup” gets underway in a season where they’re already penned in for a championship, we get to see Griffin at full health. We’ve had tasters from training camp footage and we saw him put Clippers rookie Brice Johnson on a poster with a monstrous dunk at the team’s open scrimmage on Saturday, but now we can watch Griffin against some real competition.
More to the point, he’s fully health.
Watching Griffin run the floor, lead the offense, soar to the rim and bruise his way through opponents in the post is the most exciting improvement in store for the Clippers.
Then there’s a new, developing feature of his game to watch out for in this Warriors matchup: the three-point shot.
Which, as Dan Woike of the Orange County Register reported, is something Griffin wants to be confident with next season:
"“I want to be someone who shoots from there confidently, for sure… I don’t necessarily think falling in love with the 3-point shot is a good idea, but shooting it confidently from there is great.”"
Griffin went 2-of-4 from three-point range in the Clippers’ open scrimmage, and would step out beyond the arc for catch-and-shoot and pick-and-pop opportunities. It means opponents can’t sag off him quite as much in an attempt to lure him inside, which opens up the chance for Griffin to better space the floor, drive past more closely contested defenders at the arc, or pass the ball into additional space inside.
He’s been taking more threes than ever this summer and has been working on the shot during his recovery from surgery, so expect to see improvement.
How Griffin looks to utilize the three in Golden State, and how often (it won’t be that much), is something to look out for.