The LA Clippers' bench support, a flaw that vanished after the trade deadline, returned to take a toll in game one at Ball Arena. There were other evident factors why the Clippers were short of two points, but head coach Tyronn Lue was basically playing with his starting five until the overtime buzzer sounded off.
Furthermore, the longtime NBA veteran Nicolas Batum was one of the only guys on the whole team, not just the bench, to hit the biggest shots when the momentum was all the way in the Denver Nuggets' favor to come back.
Batum went three for six from beyond the arc, and all three were in the second half when the Nuggets had made a run to comeback from 15 points down. The first was when LA was up by four, the second was when the score was 81 a piece, and the last was heavily contested, up one, with 4:41 left.
Derrick Jones Jr. was also excellent at covering the Nuggets' stars despite only scoring 4 points. He did have tries at the iron that fell in the regular season, but Lue understands to trust the flying sorcerer.
However, who Lue does need to remove are Ben Simmons and Bogdan Bogdanović.
The LA Clippers' playoff rotation should be cut from nine to seven
A nine-man postseason rotation for a deep squad like the LA Clippers comes off as typical, but the light switch flickered in game one, and players in the second unit abruptly formed into a liability.
Thus, the Clippers were playing at a higher elevation in Denver, which fatigued James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, and Ivica Zubac, who combined for 123 minutes.
The fault of production goes straight to Ben Simmons and Bogdan Bogdanović. Fans anticipated Simmons to be a nightmare, but Bogdanović is an entirely different caliber player that should not be a playoff detriment.
Moreover, Simmons played 13 minutes and fouled three times, while the supposed Serbian star had three turnovers and four fouls in less than 15 minutes.
The obvious and undesirable adjustment from Tyronn Lue should be to cruise with seven players while marking Simmons and Bogdanović as DNPs. They may pop out again off the bench, but down 0-1, the Clippers must fly to Intuit Dome with the series tied.
With seven guys, Nicolas Batum would be the small-ball big man. This is briefly sustainable as long as Ivica Zubac does not max out the foul limit.