LA Clippers: 1 Advantage Over Each Potential 1st Round Team

LA Clippers Advantage Vs. the San Antonio Spurs: The Raw Talent

The biggest advantage the LA Clippers have if they face off against the San Antonio Spurs is the simplest one on this list: raw talent. It may sound reductive, but it’s as basic as that here. The LA Clippers just have the better players.

Every other team on this list has at least one player that you have to worry will go off and carry their team to a victory. Can’t you feasibly see a headline that looks like “Curry’s 53 leads Warriors to a win” or “Anthony Davis drops 30/25 in a victory”?

With all due respect to the San Antonio Spurs’ players, it’s hard to see somebody on that roster that scares me quite as much as on the other teams. DeMar DeRozan is the leading scorer, but his Plus Minus is negative. Of course, some random player can always go off in a game, but in a seven game series, there’s not a player I’m scared of.

It’s a cliche, but the playoffs in the NBA often come down to “who has the best player?” It may not always be true, but a seven game series tends to go the way of the team with the more talented roster. The LA Clippers comfortably have the two best players in this series in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

I’m not trying to discount the Spurs, and a first round series against them would have to be taken as seriously as against any other team. But out of the possible matchups, this is the one for which I think Coach Lue would least have to look for advantages to leverage. If the LA Clippers play their style of basketball well, that should lead to a victory.