We’ve been telling you all season long about how the Clippers aren’t even close to being a finished product and that’s still mostly true.
But the havoc they wreaked against the Mavericks in Tuesday’s 114-99 win gave the rest of the league a glimpse at how scary they can be when they lock in.
Going into the game the Mavericks were scoring 117.4 points per 100 possessions. The Clippers held them to just 93.4 points per 100 — a full 24 points under their regular mark.
They took the most efficient offense in NBA history and tore it to shreds like it was child’s play. Luka Doncic might be the NBA’s best offensive player to this point and they made him look like a rookie again. And the scariest part of all is that they actually made it look easy.
Here’s how they did it
The key to neutralizing the Mavericks’ offensive attack is taking out their fulcrum in Doncic. He leads the league in touches with 98.6 per game. Whatever the Mavericks do runs through him.
The Clippers took that away by pressing him hard in the full court when he brought the ball up the floor. Even once he crossed half court, they kept the pressure on.
Just look at how far back Beverley is playing him. He’s not worried about what’s on the back end — just staying in front of the ball.
That’s not a normal coverage. It takes a lot to pressure the ball like this throughout a game. We don’t normally see teams employ this game after game because it wears guards down defensively, but the Clippers have the defensive depth to pull this out whenever they want.
What they really wanted to do was force the ball out of Doncic’s hands. When the Mavs tried to initiate screen and rolls, their bigs didn’t switch or drop back in coverage. Instead, the Clippers showed two and had the big men step up to force Doncic to get rid of it. Someone else had to make a play.
Even when Doncic didn’t have the ball, the Clippers still kept the pressure up and just threw everything out of wack.
The Mavs have good offensive players surrounding Doncic, but they’re not used to making plays themselves. The Clippers exploited that and forced them into 20 turnovers — Doncic had seven of them himself.
The Clippers’ ability to press is unfair
Watching them defend is like watching a game of NBA 2k. Someone is just perpetually mashing the steal button and not paying for their gambles. They’re always on the ball yet always somehow in the right passing lane.
This is a luxury most teams can’t afford. Playing an ultra aggressive style is hard. Not only because a defense can get burned for gambling, but it also takes a ton of energy to do it right.
The Clippers have the bodies to get it done. Beverley, George and Harkless all guarded Doncic when he had the ball for at least two minutes, per NBA.com’s stats tool.
“It’s good, you know, me pressuring the ball, Rodney [McGruder] pressuring the ball, of course, Kawhi guarding somebody so they turn their back,” Patrick Beverley said after the game. “PG is able to play that corner back type of defense and we get a lot of steals that lead to early offense.”
Beverley is absolutely right and it’s maddening. They shouldn’t be able to move like this.
The Clippers aren’t going to play this way for 82 games. It takes entirely too much energy and it’s impossible for bodies to fly around like this without risking injury.
But the fact that they have this type of defense in their bag is the scariest thing ever for NBA offenses. The rest of the league best beware.