LA Clippers: 3 Things to Watch For Against the Jazz

LA Clippers Focus #2: Can They Stop the Utah Guards?

The LA Clippers have been very good this season defending guards, and they’ve faced some good ones. Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Luka Doncic, Gary Harris and Jamal Murray are among the quality guards the Clips have gone against.

And yet, of the guards who have played at least 20 minutes against the Clips, three of them have a positive plus-minus, and they all play for Dallas. I don’t want to totally downplay that game, but it was clearly an outlier.

What that means is, outside of the one game that nobody on the Clippers showed up for, no guard has played more than 20 minutes and registered a positive plus-minus. Even CJ McCollum, who had a great scoring game, was outscored by 12 points while he was on the court.

They’ll have a tough task if they want to keep up that streak. Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell are two fantastic guards, and the combination will give the Clippers defense all they can take. The trio of Bev, PG and Kawhi will need to be at their best to contain the Utah attack.

A big part of that will be Patrick Beverley staying on the floor. Bev is averaging 6.3 fouls per 36 minutes, which is likely a factor in him only averaging 21.8  minutes per game. We’re going to need Bev’s defense, since the alternative is putting Lou Williams or Reggie Jackson on the floor with Conley and Mitchell.

If the Clippers can keep outplaying the opposing guards like they have been, they’ll likely see 5-1 at the end of the game.