Tag: Clippers

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies-Clippers Series Preview: Ten Takes, Part One

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Its that time again ...

Rematch. The Grizzlies and the Clippers open their first-round series Saturday night in Los Angeles, with the Grizzlies looking to avenge last spring’s seven-game loss against a team that seems to have their number. Here’s the first half of a two-part series breakdown. Look for the rest tomorrow morning:

1. The State of the Clippers: For much of this season, the Clippers were right there with the Heat, Thunder, and Spurs among the NBA’s elite. They went undefeated in December as part of a 17-game win streak and stood at 32-9 in mid-January, a pace that would have garnered them the top seed in the West. At that 32-9 peak, the Clippers boasted the league’s fourth best offense and third best defense. The Spurs were the only other team in the top five on both sides of the ball, and they were right behind the Clippers in both measures. At that time, the Clippers could rightfully claim to be the NBA’s best team and seemed on the short list of legitimate title contenders.

But then the Clippers went on a four-game losing streak and played .500 ball — 17-17 — for more than two months. During the 17-17 streak, the team’s offense fell off some (8th in that span), but the real story was on the other side of the ball, where the team plummeted to 20th.

This wobbly defense had the Clippers looking more like a potential first-round casualty than a championship hopeful, but, unfortunately for the Grizzlies, April has been a period of rebirth in Los Angeles. The Clippers have ended the season on a seven-game win streak. There are caveats aplenty: Beyond the microscopic sample size, five of the team’s seven opponents in this closing stretch have been lottery participants. But for whatever it’s worth, the Clippers have ended the season with their offense absolutely humming and their defense back to the high level displayed earlier in the season.

On the season, this Clippers team has been a little bit better on both sides of the ball than a year ago. They’re a little more turnover prone, but have also done a better job capitalizing on their athleticism with a sharp uptick in both fastbreak points and points in the paint.

They’ve turned over most of the bench that gave the Grizzlies so many problems last spring, but still own an edge — on paper at least — over the Grizzlies there, with two Sixth Man-caliber candidates in Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes. Perhaps most importantly, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin have had another year to hone their two-man-game chemistry and, after being banged up last April, will enter this postseason in what seems to be good health.

For a deeper look into how the Clippers look on the eve of the playoffs, check out this report from ESPN’s Clipperologist Kevin Arnovitz.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Postgame Notebook: Clippers 99, Grizzlies 73 — U-G-L-Y, Griz Ain’t Got No Alibi

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

The Clippers manhandled Marc Gasol and the Grizzlies.

After Friday’s stirring win over the San Antonio Spurs, I bypassed my typical postgame notebook. The game was just too good for it. Tonight, after this stinker of a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, I’m forgoing it because the game was just too bad.

Well, not really. I’m actually ditching it again because I have multiple print deadlines looming tomorrow and have to keep this quick. But, boy, was this bad.

What happened? Take it away, Marc Gasol:

“Tonight we couldn’t make shots. We couldn’t score. We couldn’t finish around the basket. We couldn’t make plays for each other. And our defense wasn’t very good,” Gasol said after the game.

Okay then.

The 26-point scoring margin is the Grizzlies’ worst defeat of the season and the 30.3% shooting was the worst home performance in franchise history. It marked two terrible games in a row, with Friday’s big home win over the Spurs followed by a miserable loss in Dallas the next night.

Both games had mitigating circumstances, but not enough to forgive efforts this poor: The Dallas game seemed like a classic schedule loss, the second night of a back-to-back on the road after a draining overtime win. This time, the team was playing without leading scorer Rudy Gay, out of town for a family funeral. Gay’s loss, on top of the loss of his own back-up, Quincy Pondexter, had the Grizzlies playing little-used and unconventional lineups all night, and against the league’s deepest team.

A surprise early insertion of second-year guard Josh Selby proved particularly disastrous. Selby entered with under a minute left in the first quarter and the Grizzlies were only down by two. Four minutes later, when Selby went to the bench, a 13-2 Clippers run had pushed the deficit to 13. A mini-run brought the Griz to within 6, but the Clippers hit back and the Grizzlies were down 15 or more from the end of the second quarter on.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Game 36 Preview: Grizzlies vs. Clippers — With Bonus Rudy Gay Trade Speculation

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Mike Conley will have his hands full with Chris Paul and the Clippers.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • Mike Conley will have his hands full with Chris Paul and the Clippers.

After playing the Game of the Year against the third-seeded Spurs Friday night, the Grizzlies return home for another huge one tonight against second-seeded Clippers.

As always — or, at least when I’m able — here are three thoughts:

1. Pack Your Hatred: When the Los Angeles Clippers last walked off the FedExForum floor, it was Game 7 of last spring’s first-round playoff series, and they’d just handed the Grizzlies the most bitter defeat in franchise history. The teams faced off again on opening night in Los Angeles, with the Clippers winning 101-92.

The showboating dunkbot Blake Griffin. The foot-stomping sideline defender Vinny Del Negro. The sketchy slumlord owner. The beach-chasing celebrity bench. The villainous genius of Chris “Point God” Paul. This, now, more than any other opponent, is the team Grizzlies fans love to loathe. As public address announcer Rick Trotter tweeted over the weekend in good-natured anticipation: “Pack your hatred.”

2. No Rudy Gay: The Clippers are one of two teams — along with the San Antonio Spurs — currently in the top five in both team offense and defense, but they’ve come down to earth just a little, going 3-3 since their season-best 17-game win streak.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Clippers 101, Grizzlies 92 — Something We’ve Seen Before

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Conley.jpg

The Grizzlies fell to the Los Angeles Clippers last night in a regular-season debut that felt frustratingly familiar.

For starters, it was the Grizzlies 12th consecutive opening-night loss, the longest current streak in any of the four major team sports, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Secondly, the game felt very much like a continuation of this spring’s playoff series between the two teams: It was an intense, physical, closely fought game decided by a big disparity in bench production and fourth-quarter execution.

The Grizzlies four-man bench unit was outscored 49-17, with the Clippers getting a game-high 29 points from new addition Jamal Crawford and bruising, efficient play from Eric Bledsoe (13-4-4 in 17 minutes). Meanwhile, the Grizzlies perimeter reserves Jerryd Bayless, Wayne Ellington, and Quincy Pondexter combined to shoot 3-17. As a team, the Grizzlies shot only 2-14 from three-point range.

Bench production and team-wide three-point shooting are big questions facing the Grizzlies this season, and the team will have to get more in both areas than they got in Game 1 to have a successful season. But, those issues aside, there wasn’t much here to get too worked up about yet.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Game 1 Preview: Grizzlies at Clippers

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

The season begins where the last ended: With Z-Bo and Blake Griffin battling on the block.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • The season begins where the last ended: With Z-Bo and Blake Griffin battling on the block.

Revenge game? Nah. The Grizzlies can’t do anything tonight in their regular-season debut against the Clippers (9:30 p.m. tip) that would make up for those devastating Game 1 and Game 7 home playoff losses to the Clippers last spring. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be particularly amped for this one. And I do wonder if the Clippers, even in their home opener will have the same intensity given that probably half of their potential rotation — Jamal Crawford, Grant Hill, Lamar Odom, Ryan Hollins, Ronny Turiaf, Ryan Hollins, Willie Green — are new additions who didn’t participate in that series.

I probably won’t be doing many standalone game previews this season, but an opener with this kind of wattage deserves one. So here are three subplots I’ll be keeping an eye on tonight:

1. Zach Randolph vs. Blake Griffin: In last season’s Griz-Clips playoff series, an increasingly banged-up Griffin averaged 18 points on 53% shooting, while a significantly diminished Randolph averaged 14 points on 42% shooting. Given how close most of the games were, it isn’t much of a stretch to say that Randolph equalling Griffin’s offensive production would have tipped the series. So this opening night provides a very good first test for how far back to All-Star level Randolph is. For the Grizzlies to be a contender this season, they need a Randolph that’s roughly on the same level at his position as Griffin.

2. Mike Conley vs. Chris Paul: And speaking of good opening tests … Mike Conley looks fabulous in the pre-season — stronger, quicker, more confident. I was impressed enough that I tabbed him to be a top contender for the Most Improved Player award this season. So how about seeing the New Mike Conley stacked up against the best point guard in the world?

3. Jerryd Bayless vs. Backcourt Pressure: When last we saw the Grizzlies in a game that mattered, anyone not named Mike Conley was struggling to transport the ball safely up court against the defensive pressure of Paul and Popeye-armed back-up point guard Eric Bledsoe. This crippling problem, an even bigger pothole on the Grizzlies post-season path than three-point shooting, is something the acquisition of Bayless is meant to correct. Bledsoe has been even more of a beast in preseason and Paul is Paul. Bayless is likely to be checked by one of those players most of the time he’s on the floor. Let’s see how he handles it.