FanPost

To Rebound or Not to Rebound?

So far the Clippers are getting away with wins even with a very poor rebounding record. They are number 29 in defensive rebounding (31.7 rebounds/game) and last in offensive rebounding (7.2 rebounds/game). I have always thought that rebounding is vital for a contending championship team in NBA.

However, the rebounding records (ESPN stats) of the last 5 NBA champions opened my eyes me and now can see the logic of Doc’s attitude/philosophy in rebounding specially that of offensive rebounds.

So, here are the rebounding stats for the last 5 REGULAR SEASONS of the previous champions:

Offensive

Reb/game

Defensive

Reb./Game

Year

Team

Rank

Own

Opponents

Own

Opponents

2013-2014

San Antonio

12

9.3

10.5

34.0

31.7

2012-2013

Miami

30

8.2

11.2

30.4

28.9

2011-2012

Miami

21

10.4

11.0

31.2

28.7

2010-2011

Dallas

14

9.5

10.7

31.9

30.0

2009-2010

Lakers

2

11.9

11.2

33.1

31.6

As compared to their POST SEASONS stats:

Offensive

Reb/game

Defensive

Reb./Game

Year

Team

Rank

Own

Opponents

Own

Opponents

2013-2014

San Antonio

7

9.4

9.6

32.6

30.6

2012-2013

Miami

14

9.7

11.5

28.4

28.8

2011-2012

Miami

11

10.2

10.7

30.3

28.7

2010-2011

Dallas

12

9.7

11.3

28.7

28.8

2009-2010

Los Angeles

3

12.8

11.5

30.1

28.5

Among the 5 previous champions, only the Los Angeles Lakers were dominant in rebounding primarily because of their 2 bigs in Bynum and Gasol in 2009-2010 season. The rest were middle packers and so so rebounding teams. However in 2012-2013 season, Miami got away with their very poor rebounding stats both in the regular season and the playoff (# 30 & #14!) which could be an outlier. Miami however ranked #7 in offense and # 3 in defense during the 2012-2013 playoff.

To assist an analyst further in trying to see the whole picture, it helps to find out how these teams ranked in offense and defense during the playoff:

Offense

Defense

2013-2014

San Antonio

4

106.4

7

97.0

2012-2013

Miami

7

97.1

3

90.7

2011-2012

Miami

3

97.3

6

90.3

2010-2011

Dallas

3

98.2

5

92.5

2009-2010

Lakers

4

101.1

9

97.3

The Clippers right now (after 19 games) are # 5 in offense (106.4 points/game) and # 9 in defense (98.5 points/game), but # 29 in rebounding (37.1 defensive and 7.2 offensive) which is almost comparable to that of Miami, the champs of 2012-2013 season.

Our rebounding though is very slowly improving but is still far off from that of our last year’s ranking (# 14) and average rebounding (43.0 rebounds/game).

Can the Clippers be the Miami of 2012-2013 season for this year?


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