LA Clippers look to bounce back tonight against the 76ers
After dropping a game in Oklahoma City, the LA Clippers look to bounce back against a young and talented Philadelphia 76ers team.
The LA Clippers completely fell apart in the 3rd quarter of their loss in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night. After regrouping, the team is hoping to bounce back in the City of Brotherly Love as they face the Philadelphia 76ers.
What should we look for? Let’s take a look.
Guard Play
The Clippers’ defensive guards finally looked vulnerable against Russell Westbrook. Westbrook scored 32 points during the Thunder victory, but that wasn’t even the worst part.
The team’s guards accounted for 14 of the team’s 24 turnovers on Tuesday. That will have to change tonight. Philadelphia doesn’t generate a lot of steals as a team, but if the Clippers are going to make the playoffs, turnovers must be cut down from their current 25th in the league pace. This starts at the guard position.
Avery Bradley and Patrick Beverley will have to focus tonight with the much taller Ben Simmons running the point position .Simmons still hasn’t developed a jumper, but that doesn’t mean he is an ineffective player.
At the other guard spot, Markelle Fultz will get the start.
However, he’s not the issue. The issue comes when J.J. Redick comes off the bench. Redick is the second highest scoring player on the roster at 18.5 points per game. Clippers fans are fully aware of what a hot J.J. Redick can do to an opposing team, so the guard placed on him must be ready to chase him around screens and off the three-point line.
Embiid
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Joel Embiid will present a very difficult match-up for LA tonight. In the last game the two faced off, Embiid scored 27 points on Marcin Gortat. The game prior to that? 25 points.
Like most of the league, Gortat won’t stop Embiid. He will likely get his tonight.
Montrezl Harrell may have some success, but with Embiid’s size, it will be a battle. Boban Marjanovic will also likely get tossed in against Embiid, but only in spurts as the 76ers big man is deceptively quick. The Clippers may have to focus their defensive efforts elsewhere and make Joel Embiid beat them on his own.
The Bench
After an extremely successful start to the year, LA’s bench looked weak on Tuesday. Lou Williams managed to score 17 points, but had five turnovers. Trezz only scored 10 points and couldn’t handle Steven Adams. Boban’s minutes looked rough and he added three turnovers. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, at times, actually looked like a rookie.
Now, none of this is to say the start of the season was a fluke. Arguably the best bench in the league, the Clippers’ second unit should have a nice bounce back effort tonight.
It won’t be easy though. Philadelphia has a very capable bench, including the aforementioned Redick, T.J. McConnell and Mike Muscala.
Their bench unit won’t blow you away, but hustles and plays with passion. LA will need to match that, if not exceed it, to pull out a win.
Where to Watch
The game is in Philadelphia, so it’s an early tip at 7:00pm EST/ 4:00pm PST
As always, you can catch the game on Fox Sports West (Don’t forget about CourtVision!), NBA League Pass and Fubo.
Next. Lou Williams scores 10,000 bench points. dark
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