1 advantage the LA Clippers have over every Pacific rival
By Evan Desai
The LA Clippers finished second in the Western Conference Pacific division last season.
The second-seeded Phoenix Suns were the only team who finished ahead of them, and they were the only one who finished better than them in the playoffs of course.
Regular season records don’t tell the full story of how good each team in the NBA is, so I don’t know if the Clippers will indeed win the division, despite me thinking that they’ll win the conference. That being said, the Clips have something good going for them that each rival in the division doesn’t have.
1 advantage the LA Clippers have over the Sacramento Kings: Three-point shooting
The LA Clippers were the best shooting team in the NBA last year. The Kings, however, were pretty bad behind the arc.
The Kings had a 36.4% three-point percentage, where as the Clippers had a 41.1% three-point percentage. That mark for the Kings was the 22nd-best in the NBA, and the Clippers had the best mark.
The Clippers had two of the ten top three-point percentages in the NBA last year (Marcus Morris Sr. and Luke Kennard), and one more in the top 12 (Reggie Jackson). The Kings had none.
Sacramento only had one player shoot above 40% from deep this past year, in Tyrese Haliburton (40.9%). That percentage would rank ninth on the Clippers. The Clips had nine shooters above 40% from deep.
The question for the Kings is who can shoot, where as the question for the Clippers is who can’t shoot.
It’s going to be tough for the Kings to compete with the Clips this year.