Defense:
On this side of the ball, the story was basically the same. By defensive rating (points per 100 possessions), the Clippers had the number 5 defense in the league, but there were some serious hiccups throughout the season.
On 18 (count ’em, 18!) occasions, the Clips held their opponent to 100 points or less. This wasn’t just crummy teams either. The Mavericks scored 99, the Raptors scored 92 and 88, the Thunder scored 94 and 88.
But on the other hand, remember the Timberwolves scoring 142? Remember the Grizzlies scoring 140? The Knicks dropped 132 on us once.
The defense, though, I feel a little more confident about than the offense. A lot of those hiccups (not all, but many) involved missing personnel. It’s hard to have an elite defense when you’re missing Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, not to mention Patrick Beverley.
Statistically, the Clippers defense was dominant when those three played together. That three man lineup outscored opponents by 12.8 points per 100 possessions, and opponents had a really tough time scoring on them.
Since many of the defensive struggles were injury based, I’m going to forgive some of them. There were still a few kinks, but it felt like they were getting worked out.