With Blake Griffin out, LA Clippers need to step up more than ever

The improvement of the bench

Although CP3 and DeAndre will have to shoulder a much heavier load on offense, the team has a more reliable bench unit to spread the responsibility, something they haven’t had in a long time.

The additions of Marreese Speights and Raymond Felton have done wonders for the Clippers’ starting five. Being able to bring in the reserve unit and play around with different hybrid lineups has given the team more freedom to experiment than ever before. Feltons’ ability to play on or off the ball in a dual point guard lineup alongside Paul or Austin Rivers has given larger teams nightmares to try to defend, as well as adding a real dynamic playmaking presence to a bench that struggled to create shots last season.

Speights will more than likely play a larger role within the offense. His ability to stretch the floor and create space for Paul and Jordan to operate the pick-and-roll and open up slashing lanes for Luc Mbah a Moute and Rivers to get to the rim could be huge factor in the Clippers keeping their position as a top four seed.

Although it seems that, for now, the Clippers will choose to go small, with Luc sliding over to the four and Rivers coming in to play at small forward, there will be times over the next few weeks where the team calls upon Speights to do what he does best: get buckets.

As Dan Woike points out, although Rivers starting games for the Clippers has been pretty successful so far, it is a very small sample size in the grand scheme of things.

What isn’t a small sample size, however, is the 27 games Rivers has played in this season, and his valuable contributions to the team during that time. Rivers is averaging 9.1 points per game, on 45 percent shooting, and 41 percent from 3, all career-highs, including a 7-of-10 three-point barrage in a win over the Orlando Magic last Wednesday. His presence on the defensive end has been somewhat understated. His lightning-quick footwork and deceptive strength have become a real asset to the Clippers, especially when it comes to defending players that have two or three inches on him.

Everyone on the Clippers will need to bring their A-game to replace the 21 points, 9 rebounds and five assists that Blake was averaging on the season. J.J Redick and Jamal Crawford will have to really dig in on both ends of the floor, with Wesley Johnson and Luc filling in at the power forward position, taking them away from their natural wing duties.

The news about Blake Griffin cannot be looked at as a positive from any angle, but it does open up opportunities for fringe players like Brandon Bass and Alan Anderson to carve out roles with the team, who up until now, have only been featured sparingly throughout the year.

With the spotlight now once again firmly fixed on Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan to lead the LA Clippers into the New Year, the margin for error is tiny, but the opportunity to succeed is huge.

This includes pushing for new personal accolades, too.