LA Clippers: How to continue shutting down Damian Lillard

Damian Lillard has been abysmal against the LA Clippers in his last six games against them.

The Clips match up really well against the star point guard, and they continue to build on what works.  Lillard is also not off to a very good start overall this year.

Playing the Blazers, a team we’re 8-0 against in our last eight games we played them in, is a major opportunity to get right. The Clippers absolutely can continue to stop Dame DOLLA.

The LA Clippers can continue to stop Damian Lillard by clogging the paint and forcing him to try to score from outside.

The last time the LA Clippers played the Trail Blazers (Monday), they forced an insane thirty turnovers. Jusuf Nurkic led the Blazers with six turnovers, and Dame had four.

Nine of those 10 turnovers from them two were forced either in the paint, or with the two of them trying to facilitate the ball into the paint. Seven of those ten turnovers were forced due to clogging the paint with two or more players.

In many cases, a big man wasn’t even involved. Very few of the turnovers were caused by Ivica Zubac or Isaiah Hartenstein just playing strong and bodying someone.

So if the Clippers show up and clog the paint and the passing lanes to get in the paint, Dame will have to try to make shots from the outside. So far this season, he’s been terrible at that. There’s a reason he’s been averaging a career-low 17.8 points per game.

He’s shot a terrible 33.3% from the field, which is of course another career-low. His three-point percentage is horrible beyond belief, sitting at 17.1%.

Even in his last game on Wednesday which was touted as a good game from Lillard, he shot just 4 of 11 from three. That’s not bad, but that 36.4% would be the second-worst of his career.

It’s safe to say that Lillard doesn’t have the same shot he’s had throughout his career, and the Clips already showed that they can take advantage. They will once again on Friday night.