Clipperholics
Fansided

LA Clippers: 5 lessons to learn from last year’s playoff failure

By Seth Kimbrell

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 05: Signage at Staples Center on February 05, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 05: Signage at Staples Center on February 05, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 5
Next
LA Clippers Montrezl Harrell Nikola Jokic
LA Clippers Montrezl Harrell Nikola Jokic (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images) /

LA Clippers playoff lesson #3: Matchups can be more important than scheme

This part of the article is basically cc’ed at Doc Rivers; the LA Clippers had a bad habit of saying “we’re going to play our game no matter what the other team does, and we’re going to trust that their game doesn’t beat our game.”

And then the Denver series happened, and their game beat our game. Their rotations got adjusted to make sure that Nikola Jokic spent plenty of time being guarded by Montrezl Harrell, and no counter-adjustments were made.

As it turns out, letting an undersized offense-only center guard the guy who would (most likely) be the league MVP the following year wasn’t the smartest move the Clips could have made. In fact, it might have been one of the worst, and it played a big role in sending us home.

Ty Lue has been very open about his “Tinkering Ty” persona. In the regular season, he’s been trying a wide variety of different lineups, just to see how they work together. This has probably led to a couple of losses in games that the Clips could have won, but it’s also data for Ty.

If we come up against a Nikola Jokic in the playoffs this year, Coach Lue can’t just assume that we can keep doing what we’ve done all year and it’ll just work out. It’s great that he’s implementing a scheme and system, but sometimes you have to play to the matchups more than the scheme.

I want to see Ivica Zubac on the court when a dominant big man is on the court against us. I don’t want to see the Clippers get cute and try to play Patrick Patterson guarding Jokic with the hope that his shooting will make up for the defense.

Similarly, if Chris Paul and Devin Booker are on the floor? Don’t give me a Reggie Jackson / Luke Kennard backcourt with the goal of just outscoring them.

The Clippers need to play their game, but they also need to realize when “their game” is leading to some exploitable mismatches and adjust accordingly. I trust Coach Lue to do this much more than I did Doc.

Home/Clippers News