2. A change in effort during a winnable game.
After getting their teeth kicked in by Memphis and almost blowing a fourth-quarter lead to New York over the weekend the Clippers gut check came with a valuable lesson- there are no easy wins in the NBA. The depleted Warriors are a far less inferior team both on paper and in the standings. Only one year removed from being a scrappy underdog team, the Clippers have likely learned that no W will be handed to them.
In fact, over the weekend the team addressed it in some of their post-game pressers. Montrezl Harrell, possibly the most vocal about putting more effort into the games against sub-.500 teams.
"But I expect my team, we're grown men in here, to see that this is not the team that we want to be. Play one way and play great against the teams that we feel are great and then we walk in and just show up to the teams that we think we're supposed to beat. Simple as that."
— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) January 5, 2020
The contest on Friday against Golden State won’t have some of the built-in challenges that the last two games had- namely the back to back tip-off time. But the Warriors are not a team to take lightly. Without their all-star championship backcourt, they still can surprise. On Christmas day Golden State pulled off a massive upset win over the Houston Rockets.
Behind the guidance and mentorship of form Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green, the Warriors are top five in the league in steals. Despite having one of the worst team defenses in the league, the Warriors still can exploit and capitalize off the Clippers turnovers. Being lackadaisical with the ball cannot be afforded by the Clippers in this matchup.
LA seems to have an affinity for throwing fullcourt passes to a running teammate which has ended in a turnover most of the time. Unless that pass is going to Ivica Zubac the pass is going to a player 6’9″ or smaller, which is easy to pick off by longer defenders.
Some rest and time together running offensive schemes should help tighten up the decision making and cut down on missteps and errant passes.