LA Clippers: 3 Stats that Explain the Team’s 4-2 Record
LA Clippers Stat #2: 4.2, and 6.8
Our next important stat for the LA Clippers has to do with their shot distribution. This season, 41.5% of all the shots the Clippers have taken have come from deep. 16.4% came from midrange, 24.3% from the restricted area and 17.6% from the paint but outside the restricted area.
Last year, that distribution was 37.3% from deep, 15.1% from midrange, 31.3% from the restricted area and 16.3% from the paint but outside the restricted area.
My takeaway here, and where the important stats come from, is that the Clippers are shooting a higher portion of their shots from deep by 4.2 percentage points, and they’re shooting a lower portion of their shots at the rim by 6.8 percentage points.
We wrote earlier about how the Clippers offense is on record pace with threes. Usually, when you talk about a player or team ramping up their number of threes taken, they try to turn some long 2s into threes, but that’s not what we’re seeing from the Clips – they’re actually taking more midrange shots in addition to more threes.
There are two reasons for this that I can see, and both are encouraging. First, the Clippers rank 13th in the league in field goal percentage in the restricted area, but they rank 5th in the league in 3 point field goal percentage. So I see a team that knows what it’s good at and what it has the personnel for, and what it’s not so good at, and tailoring a system around that.
In addition, look at whom the Clippers have played so far. In Anthony Davis and Rudy Gobert, they’ve played against 2 of the absolute scariest rim protectors in the league. Rather than forcing themselves to keep attacking the rim against such a force, Coach Lue has the Clippers adjusting to the defense they’re facing and taking the best shots they can get, even if they’re from the midrange.
That kind of willingness to adjust to both what you’re doing well and what the opponent defends will serve the Clippers as they continue throughout the season.