Clips Nation - Preseason Game #2: We March NorthWhat it do babyyyhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/47967/clipsnation_fave.png2015-10-08T16:16:15-07:00http://www.clipsnation.com/rss/stream/92102922015-10-08T16:16:15-07:002015-10-08T16:16:15-07:00Film Room: The Lance Stephenson Exemplum - Part 2
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<figcaption>Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>In Part 2 of the Film Room series that looks at the play of Lance Stephenson, we gaze upon his play against the Toronto Raptors and see what, if anything, we can take away from the game.</p> <p id="paragraph0" class="pgh-paragraph has-dropcap">In the <a href="http://www.clipsnation.com/2015/10/7/9466349/film-room-the-lance-stephenson-exemplum-part-1" target="_blank">first part of this project</a>, we took a look at the opening preseason game for the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.clipsnation.com/">Los Angeles Clippers</a> against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.denverstiffs.com/">Denver Nuggets</a> and, specifically, how <span>Lance Stephenson</span> played in that game beyond what the box score showed. There were some ups and downs, but Stephenson showed traces of being a worthwhile contributor to the team this season. In this edition, we will look at the second game of the preseason for the Clippers and see how Stephenson managed to play during that game. Roll, roll, roll the footage, gently on your screen!</p>
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<p>Before we get started into the footage, though, it does seem prudent to say what Stephenson did in this game from a statistical standpoint. He finished scoreless while going 0-for-4 from the field. However, he did have four rebounds, one assist, one steal, one turnover, and two fouls. Stephenson played 25 minutes and the team was -17 with him on the floor. In the first game, he had a plus-minus of -8. That statistic can be flawed, but the team has been outscored by 25 points in the 47 minutes he’s been on the floor in the preseason. With that said, here we go.</p>
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<p>Stephenson came into the game and the first possession the team runs with him on the floor ends in a mistake players can’t make in preseason games. <span>Paul Pierce</span> inbounds to <span>Austin Rivers</span> who brings the ball over the midcourt line and passes it off to <span>Josh Smith</span>. On the outset of this play, both Lance Stephenson and <span>Jamal Crawford</span> are in the corners. However, when the ball is passed to Smith and he dribbles to the left wing, they each make a sideline cut to the ball and exchange places with Rivers and Pierce. Smith hands off to Crawford and Crawford passes to Stephenson. From there, Stephenson ball fakes a pass to Rivers in the corner and gives the ball back to Crawford. Smith runs up to set a screen for Crawford and Crawford attempts to make a wing-to-wing pass to Stephenson on the nearside. Unfortunately, that pass gets deflected by <span>Terrence Ross</span> and stolen. Stephenson then grabs Ross and commits a clear path foul.</p>
<p>This seems like a weird play to begin with, but it highlights two problems with the bench right now overall. First, the player movement is not crisp whatsoever. Watch as the play unfolds. There’s zero movement off the ball unless it’s coming off of a screen or movement at the beginning of the play. It’s very basic stuff. Secondly, and more importantly, turnovers are killing the bench. This is a terrible pass by Crawford. It’s hard to tell if Crawford expected Stephenson to be more towards the corner than on the wing, but it’s a pretty poor pass without actually knowing where the defense is located. The issue with Stephenson here, though, is that he commits a clear path foul. You can’t commit that foul there. Let the dunk happen. No reason to risk giving up more points by committing a clear path foul.</p>
<p>The bench will get it together over time. At the very least, you expect them to do so. We’ll see as the year goes along. The issues on this play aren’t exactly small, either. The lack of movement, lack of fluidity, turnovers, and general misunderstanding were common themes throughout the first two games. This play isn’t really an indictment of how poor Lance Stephenson has played at times. This was just a minor lapse in judgement by Stephenson on the back end of a bad play by everyone involved. You hope the bench turns it around. But, if they want to, they need to not have plays like this happen.</p>
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<p>On the ensuing possession, <span>Kyle Lowry</span> crosses midcourt being guarded by Austin Rivers. Up runs <span>Bismack Biyombo</span> to set a screen. Rivers tries to get over the top of the screen, but Biyombo crushes him enough to deter him from doing so. Lowry then turns the corner, gets downhill, and takes the ball right into the body of Josh Smith before finishing up with a tough left-handed layup that goes in. As the play unfolds, though, Lance Stephenson does nothing to help out. When Lowry comes off the screen, Stephenson stays glued to <span>DeMarre Carroll</span> even though Carroll is inching up towards the key. Carroll doesn’t even start moving back out to the corner until Lowry hits the left elbow. Stephenson really should have helped contest on this play since it would have likely stopped Lowry from being able to use his left hand to finish a layup.</p>
<p>This is a minor thing to gripe about, but when you’re not supplying much offensively, you need to show up more defensively. As good of a one-on-one defender as Stephenson happens to be, he still has tons of lapses when off the ball. This is one of them. If Carroll has to beat you, then so be it. You can’t let Lowry get downhill as much as he did and get a shot off. Stephenson should have rotated down, helped Smith contain the drive, and forced Lowry into a really tough decision. Combined with the clear path foul, this was four points for the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.raptorshq.com/">Toronto Raptors</a> in the blink of an eye. Smith didn’t even play this poorly. But, he did need help from the strongside defender. You have to force Lowry into a tough spot. They didn’t.</p>
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<p>A little while later, Austin Rivers dribbles the ball up and passes to Paul Pierce who then hands it off to Jamal Crawford. This is actually a nice little play for a while and shows that the bench can move the ball and players. After Crawford gets the ball, he hands it back off to Rivers coming off of a baseline curl. Rivers then dribbles into the free-throw area and throws a pass back to Crawford on the left wing. Crawford looks open for a three, but he bypasses that look for a dribble-drive move before passing back to Rivers on the right wing. Rivers then fires to Stephenson in the corner, but his shot gets blocked by <span>Bruno Caboclo</span> and Toronto rebounds to end the possession.</p>
<p>Okay, let’s break this down. First, the movement is really good. The issue, though, is that when Rivers passes to Crawford on the wing and Crawford bypasses the three, Rivers is too close to Pierce on the right wing and Pierce is too close to Stephenson. It creates a major spacing issue at that point in time. It becomes easier for the defense to defend the space if more bodies occupy the space. Secondly, Crawford should not have bypassed the three-point opportunity there. While some would have probably seen it as selfish, it was still a really good look and a defender wasn’t going to close out in time. Crawford had already made up his mind far ahead of time and then dribbled out of a good shoot.</p>
<p>Thirdly, do not blame Stephenson here. This is more or less to showcase how the bench moved. Stephenson having his shot blocked isn’t exactly his fault. While there were 8 seconds left on the shot clock, it’s hard to say if a better shot would have been available. Had Stephenson passed to his left and hit Paul Pierce, that puts a ton of pressure on Pierce to create in a limited amount of time. Nothing Lance did was wrong. He was just done in by poor spacing that was the result of Rivers sort of flaring to the right wing rather than the top of the arc. Also, really nice screen set by Smith to free Rivers up at the free-throw line and create a possible shot opportunity for Crawford on the wing.</p>
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<p>With roughly 90 seconds to go in the first quarter, <span>Cory Joseph</span> dribbles into the frontcourt against Austin Rivers. All you have to do on this play is just watch Lance Stephenson and Terrence Ross. They both start in the far corner as the possession gets underway. Bruno Caboclo curls around to set Ross a screen on Stephenson so that Ross can get freed to run to the nearside wing. Stephenson sees this and expertly navigates his way through the gap and traffic so that Ross cannot get the ball. Joseph wanted to pass to Ross, but he couldn’t do it whatsoever. This forces Ross to then curl back around to the far corner to get open again. In the meantime, <span>Luis Scola</span> is called for an offensive foul against Paul Pierce thus ending Toronto’s possession. On this play, you can see what an engaged Stephenson is capable of defensively. He stifles the play by just being smart and paying attention. Good work by Lance.</p>
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<p>With a minute to go, Stephenson dribbles across midcourt and gets a nice screen from Josh Smith that gets both of them running downhill towards the key. Stephenson draws both defenders to him with his dribble and still finds a nice little passing lane to Smith that allows Josh to gather the ball in one motion. Smith goes up for the finish, but he gets rejected by Bismack Biyombo and the ball goes flying out of bounds. Result of the play notwithstanding, this was really nice by both Stephenson and Smith. At the outset of it, Smith sets a great screen and Stephenson gets downhill really well. Smith then sprints once the screen is cleared and Stephenson bounce passes perfectly into a pocket where only Smith can get the ball. While the shot attempt is blocked, you still have to like what you see here from a process standpoint. Stephenson as a ball-handler in the pick-and-roll is a good thing so far through two games.</p>
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<p>After the block, the Clippers get a side-out-of-bounds and Crawford inbounds to Stephenson to initiate the action. Stephenson probe dribbles and attempts to cross over the defender (Bruno Caboclo) before leading him directly into a Josh Smith screen. After Stephenson comes around the corner of the screen, he draws the big man defender (Bismack Biyombo) directly to him with a nice little dribble near the left elbow. This forces him to clear the paint and gives a free lane for Smith when he ultimately rolls. Smith then rolls after Caboclo finally gets over the top of the screen and Stephenson executes a highly difficult pass that hits Smith right on the money. Smith then tries to tomahawk dunk the ball over Luis Scola, but the ball goes off the back iron and ricochets near midcourt where Toronto rebounds it.</p>
<p>Yet again, Lance Stephenson in the pick-and-roll is nothing but good things. Especially when the rolling big man is Josh Smith. They have at least some semblance of chemistry together in pick-and-rolls it looks like. That’s definitely a positive for the team as they progress through both the preseason and the regular season. While Stephenson has struggled at times, the ability he has as a passer in the pick-and-roll is pretty darn good when looking at the footage. These are tough passes that he’s making to beat long-armed defenders. While the possessions aren’t ending with buckets, they are ending in top notch looks for the offense. And that’s all you can really ask for right now.</p>
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<p>With a half minute left in the opening quarter, Stephenson dribbles up and receives yet another screen from Smith. Stephenson keeps the defense at bay with his dribble as Smith actually doesn’t roll to the hoop here. Instead, Smith flares out to the top of the arc and Stephenson hits him with a good pass right in the shooting pocket. Smith rises up and shoots a three that clanks off the back right side of the iron. Sure, this seems like a bad shot for Smith, but, at the same time, it’s one you’ll live with considering it came within the flow of the offense and could have been a big boost for the team. It also gives you an idea that Stephenson and Smith can run the pick-and-pop instead of just the pick-and-roll. While Smith will need to hit that shot, you can clearly see the defense – namely Biyombo – react as though Smith was going to roll here rather than pop. It gave Smith a massively wide open three-point attempt. Well done by both Stephenson and Smith.</p>
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<p>Here, we get to look at some one-on-one defense by Lance Stephenson. While this play starts out as a side-out-of-bounds, just keep an eye on Stephenson guarding Terrence Ross here. Ross gets the ball at the top with about 9 seconds on the shot clock and he tries to go to work against Stephenson. After getting the ball, Biyombo runs up to set him a screen, but it doesn’t work because Stephenson did an awesome job of pushing Ross too far away from the screen to begin with. So, when it’s time for Ross to come off the screen, Lance has already gone underneath it and is back in great defensive position to deal with whatever Ross wants to throw his way.</p>
<p>Stephenson and Ross are now going head-to-head on the nearside wing and Ross tries to lose him with a little stutter-step right-to-left dribble, but Stephenson is with him the whole way here. Ross then attempts a three, but Lance contests it well and then leaks out for a possible fast break opportunity. It’s great awareness by Stephenson. Josh Smith gets the rebound and hurls the ball upcourt, but it goes way out of bounds and doesn’t find Stephenson. Had it found him, the Clippers would have gotten two points and Stephenson would have had a great all-around sequence here. Instead, he has to settle for playing great one-on-one defense, not getting screened out of the play, contesting extremely well, and then being aware enough to try and get a basket on the other end.</p>
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<p>This is a really lengthy play, so try to bear with this one. Pierce passes to <span>Pablo Prigioni</span> at midcourt, Josh Smith sets a screen for Prigioni before rolling to the rim, and Prigioni passes wing-to-wing to Pierce. After he gets the ball, Pierce rotates once into the corner to Stephenson and sets him a cross screen so Stephenson can dribble up the sideline. He does and Stephenson passes back to Pierce in the corner for a possible shot. Biyombo closes out well on Pierce so Pierce throws the ball back to Stephenson on the right wing. Stephenson ball fakes a pass to Crawford before taking the defender (Bruno Caboclo) off the dribble. Stephenson gets into the paint really well, turns and fires a pass to Jamal Crawford at the top of the arc, and Crawford then dribble-drives into the paint before passing off to Pierce on the nearside wing. Pierce then shot fakes, gets separation, and dribbles into a tough baseline mid-range jumper that he nails.</p>
<p>Okay, so a lot happened here. But the key part might be that Stephenson did a really nice job of ball faking to Crawford at the top of the arc in order to get the defender off-balance enough to beat him off the dribble. This allowed Stephenson to get into the paint and pass out for a quality look at the top of the arc. Watch the ball fake again by Stephenson. Not only does Caboclo get off-balance, but Luis Scola actually turns his back and runs because he thought Stephenson passed the ball. This allowed Stephenson to waltz into the key and then pass out of it. Had Crawford been better prepared for a possible shot attempt, perhaps the Clippers get a great look from three. Crawford was too far beyond the arc and fumbled the pass from Stephenson or else that might have been the shot. Really nice work by Stephenson to fake out the defense and dribble into the teeth of them in order to get his team what could have been a quality look.</p>
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<p>On Toronto’s ensuing possession, Cory Joseph dribbles up against Pablo Prigioni, but Prigioni does a nice job of stopping any possible baseline layup attempt by Joseph. This forces Joseph to dribble back out and he receives a half-screen from Luis Scola that doesn’t do much to deter Prigioni hounding him. From here, we see Lance Stephenson’s poor off-ball awareness show up. Stephenson gets caught watching the ball way too much and loses a feel of where his man happens to be. Terrence Ross makes a quick cut to the rim when he sees Stephenson get too high up the court. This allows Joseph to feather a bounce pass right into Ross before Stephenson can react accordingly. Josh Smith rotates over to protect the rim and Ross tries a behind-the-back pass to Biyombo that ends up going out of bounds for a turnover.</p>
<p>So, while he did recover admirably to try and deflect a pass away, this was a pretty poor showing of off-ball recognition by Stephenson. He got caught way too high up the court when Joseph was dribbling with nowhere to go and it enabled Toronto to get what could have been a really nice look around the rim for an explosive athlete. Those are not exactly the kind of shots you want to be giving up to teams; even in the preseason. Stephenson has to do a better job of seeing things as they happen off the ball or else it’ll be a hit-and-miss approach to defense for him. That’s not exactly something the team nor he can afford at this juncture.</p>
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<p>Prigioni brings the ball up and passes to Stephenson after Lance got freed up by a little rub screen from Crawford at the left wing. Stephenson then tries to dribble into the paint against Caboclo and goes for some kind of half-spin move just below the free-throw line that ends up seeing the ball poked away and a turnover happen. No clue what Stephenson is even attempting here since he had Pierce wide open in the near corner for a three-point attempt. Josh Smith set a wonderful screen on Luis Scola to free Pierce up and Stephenson is just caught dribbling aimlessly into the defense rather than keeping his head up and examining what’s unfolding. Poor play by Stephenson.</p>
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<p>This is where good Lance shows up; transition. If there are three things Stephenson has shown so far throughout preseason, they are that he’s <i>(a)</i> a really good on-ball defender, <i>(b)</i> excels as a passer in the pick-and-roll, and <i>(c)</i> is really adept in the transition game. Coincidentally, the Clippers did need all three of those things this offseason. Pierce gets the rebound and just passes it to Stephenson so the fast break can begin. Stephenson then fires a beauty of an arcing pass to Crawford at the left wing three-point line. It leads Crawford right into a wide open three – except that’s not what Crawford chooses to do. Instead, Crawford takes one gather dribble and settles for a contested mid-range jumper over a lengthy defender that ultimately misses. It’s a terrible shot choice after Stephenson led him right into a wonderful one. Don’t let the shot selection by Crawford deter what Stephenson was able to do with this pass. He threw Crawford right into an optimal scoring area. Just beautiful.</p>
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<p>This play literally begins where the last play left off. And for good reason. The Raptors bring the ball up the court in the hands of <span>DeMar DeRozan</span> and Lance Stephenson picks him up. DeRozan wants to pass to Luis Scola rolling to the rim, but Stephenson does a good job of throwing his hands up to deny the passing lane. This forces DeRozan into a bad decision. He kicks the ball to his right, but Jamal Crawford is already jumping the passing lane and steals the ball to start the fast break. Crawford passes up to Stephenson and Lance tries to bully his way all the way to rim amidst tough defense from <span>Patrick Patterson</span> and Cory Joseph. The right-handed scoop shot is missed off the backboard and the possible putback jam is mishandled by Josh Smith.</p>
<p>It’s probably apropos to say that this sequence has both good Lance and bad Lance. To start, he does a really good of stopping a possible pass to Scola in the paint and forcing DeRozan into a bad decision. However, his method on the fast break could have used a tad more refinement. What he should have done here is stop running full speed, slow up a little bit, and drop a pass off to Smith. If he didn’t want to slow down, he had to know Smith was running with him since he could have seen him out of the corner of his eye as he turned his head after receiving the pass from Crawford. He had an option, either way. While there was a play for a rebound putback by Smith, it’s still on Stephenson to make a better decision here.</p>
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<p>Late in the third quarter, we see bad Lance show up off the ball defensively. Without mentioning everything that happens on this play, just focus in on Lance Stephenson guarding Terrence Ross in the near corner. When the ball makes its way to Bruno Caboclo on the far wing, Stephenson gets caught way out of position because he assumes Ross is going to keep moving up to the near wing. He has good reason to think this since Cory Joseph sets a little screen for Ross. However, Ross then cuts back the other way and Stephenson gets screened again by Bismack Biyombo. This allows Ross to get a considerable distance away from Stephenson as Ross cuts along the baseline and curls around a Luis Scola screen. The Scola screen isn’t for show, though. It has a purpose.</p>
<p>When Scola screens Stephenson, Caboclo throws a pass to Ross coming off the curl. At this point, Stephenson is hung up on the screen so Josh Smith has to help out on Ross’ potential drive. Ross reads the help and feeds a pass perfectly into Scola between Smith and a lost Stephenson. Scola has to wait a split second before going up with the shot because <span>Blake Griffin</span> rotates over really well to contest Scola’s initial attempt. Scola misses, but there’s no one left on the backside to rebound the ball so Scola gets an easy putback opportunity and makes it.</p>
<p>There were a few moving parts on this play, but Stephenson assuming Ross was going to get the ball on the right/near wing was the ultimate gamble that didn’t pay off. Because of this, it left the Clippers’ defense out of position a little bit and late to react. When Ross gathers the ball off of Scola’s screen on the opposite wing, it forces Smith into a decision without help being immediately behind him. Due to that, Ross is able to feed Scola the ball. Had Stephenson not bit on what he thought was going to happen or ball watching, he would have been in better position to stick with Ross from the beginning. Remember that play from earlier where Stephenson denied Ross the ball and Toronto turned it over with an offensive foul by Scola? This is almost like that play. Except, instead of sticking with Ross the whole way, Stephenson failed to do his job off the ball on this play.</p>
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<p>About a minute later, we get the double high pick-and-roll that the Clippers ran quite a bit last year in the playoffs. Instead of seeing the three participants being <span>Chris Paul</span>, Blake Griffin, and <span>DeAndre Jordan</span>, we’re left with Jamal Crawford, <span>Cole Aldrich</span>, and Josh Smith. That’s fine. It’s still a set they run. Crawford comes off of the Smith portion of the screen, but dribbles half-heartedly out just beyond the three-point line where Terrence Ross recovers. Crawford passes off to Smith who feeds the ball to Rivers. After passing here, Smith runs up and sets a screen for Rivers that allows Austin to get downhill into the key. Austin jump passes to Lance Stephenson in the corner after Stephenson’s defender (Bruno Caboclo) sunk down to help on Aldrich so that Bismack Biyombo could help on any drive by Rivers.</p>
<p>Stephenson looks like he would have had a shot had the pass from Rivers been better, but Caboclo does a good job of recovering onto Lance in the corner. This forces Stephenson to dribble and he does so by beating the defender with said dribble and getting into the paint. It looks like Stephenson is going up for a shot attempt, but he actually makes a great read and jump passes down to Aldrich who goes up and gets fouled. This is a really nice job by Stephenson of reading the defense and taking what they give him. The shot attempt, had he chosen to go with it, would have been really tough since Biyombo’s a quality shot blocker. Rather than forcing it, Lance dumps it off and helps generate a couple free throws. Had the pass from Rivers been better, perhaps Stephenson takes the three. Instead, we got this great job by Lance off the dribble. Well executed.</p>
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<p>First play shown from the fourth quarter is one where Lance Stephenson gets to showcase his defense a little bit. He’s in the nearside corner guarding Terrence Ross when the ball finds Luis Scola’s hands. Ross then runs up for the handoff and Scola sets a screen to try and free Ross up for the shot. The second Stephenson sees Scola turn to look at Ross, he gets into a great stance and becomes really engaged. Scola hands the ball to Ross and screens Stephenson as best he can. Unfortunately for Toronto, Stephenson makes it through the screen well enough to get a hand up in Ross’ shooting area and make the shot difficult. Ross misses the three and Los Angeles rebounds. Quality job here done by Stephenson to stay with Ross, fight through the screen, and contest the shot. When engaged throughout a possession, you can see the difference Stephenson can make for the team. He has to stay consistent, though.</p>
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<p>This is one of those possessions that you pray you rarely see during the regular season. It starts off innocently enough. Josh Smith dribbles into the frontcourt and passes off to Lance Stephenson as Stephenson comes off of a Pablo Prigioni screen. Stephenson tries to beat <span>Norman Powell</span> off the dribble, but he can’t so he passes to Austin Rivers on the right wing. Rivers then gives the ball back to Stephenson and Lance proceeds to go one-on-one against Powell. It doesn’t go well. Stephenson does gain separation here with a nice little right-to-left crossover after a pass fake, but Powell is right there to contest the mid-range jumper and Stephenson misses meekly off the back iron. These are possessions that can’t happen. They’re wasted and not needed since there were 11 seconds left on the clock when Stephenson went up with the shot. He should learn as the year goes along. At least you hope so.</p>
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<p>Clippers have a side-out-of-bounds here with Stephenson as the inbounder. He throws it in to <span>Branden Dawson</span> and then cuts off of a Dawson screen to receive the ball again in the near corner. Stephenson gets partially double-teamed in the corner, but he’s still able to slip a nice little bounce pass back to Dawson. It seems like Dawson is hesitant at first, partly due to <span>Norman Powell</span>’s help defense, but Dawson gathers the ball and goes up with a decent looking little right-handed shot that grazes the front of the rim and falls short. We have another case here where Stephenson ran the pick-and-roll, fed a beautiful pass through multiple defenders, and hit a guy who could roll to the rim for a finish. And, yet again, it’s not his fault the player receiving the pass didn’t finish. It’s a quality look and a real nice job by Stephenson.</p>
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<p>About three minutes later, we see a possession that is chopped down to show the part that matters. Had the full possession been shown, it would have been monstrously long and a lot of it was inconsequential. Anyways, <span>C.J. Wilcox</span> has the ball on the left wing and waits for Lance Stephenson to post up on the left block. Wilcox feeds Stephenson and Stephenson tries his best to outmuscle and overpower Bruno Caboclo. When that doesn’t work, Lance spins to his right, throws up a little fake, and gets Caboclo to leave his feet. There’s definitely contact made and this is probably a foul, but it goes uncalled. Lance’s shot is blocked and he regathers with only about two seconds on the shot clock. Stephenson then throws a wild pass out of bounds and looks at the near official with his arms outstretched. He’s clearly looking at the referee and asking about why there wasn’t a foul call. Lance then puts his hands on his head and walks away.</p>
<p>It’s a nice idea to get Stephenson a look by posting him up on the low block, but it doesn’t work out as the defender guarding him is longer and nearly as strong. To Stephenson’s credit, he does get the defender off of his feet and surely did get fouled. He should have gone to the line for two free throws. The wild pass that follows is one of frustration and angst. The emotions got to Stephenson as he looked at the official for a call and you can understand where he’s coming from. In theory, this is a solid play that works. Stephenson posted up well, got the defender out of sorts, and did draw what looked like a foul. The final result didn’t pay off, but the process certainly wasn’t flawed.</p>
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<p>We get another look at Lance Stephenson as the pick-and-roll ball-handler here. Stephenson beats Caboclo off the dribble as <span>Chuck Hayes</span> walks up and implies that he’s going to set a screen. <span>Michale Kyser</span> looks as if this catches him off-guard and he tries to sprint back to cut off Stephenson’s path to the rim. He succeeds there, but Stephenson still weasels a pass through the two defenders and right into Hayes’ hands. Hayes throws up a right-handed push shot that clanks off the back iron and that was that. Still, Stephenson’s ability to be a masterful passer cannot be understated. There are some things there that give you hope even if he’s struggling with his shot. He did better in this game at getting downhill, so perhaps he’s slowly rounding into form with the team as far as this stuff goes.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/AYqxuqW.gif"></center>
<p>Finally, we have Lance Stephenson’s defense leading to what should have been offense. Toronto gets the ball to Caboclo on the right wing and Stephenson flat out rips him as Caboclo tries to dribble between his legs. The ball bounces right into the hands of <span>Branden Dawson</span> and Stephenson sprints up the court for a possible layup opportunity. Only issue with that is Dawson’s pass is thrown way off target here and sails out of bounds. This was the last time the Clippers touched the ball, but it did show how good Stephenson is in one-on-one situations when someone gets careless with their dribble. The pass to him as he ran upcourt was poor, but that doesn’t take away from what he did in this sequence. It’s a good job by Stephenson.</p>
<p>While there were some bad things that happened in this game, Stephenson still showed that he can defend one-on-one, be a skilled passer in the pick-and-roll game, and get to the rim at times. While his shot selection is still questionable at times, there are things to take away from his preseason run that show he can be a key contributor to the team throughout the duration of the season. It’s up to him to continue improving and bettering himself. The chemistry, or lack thereof, is certainly playing a factor in some of the stuff you’re seeing. As the preseason trudges along, that stuff <i>should</i> improve. Lance Stephenson had good moments and bad moments through the first two preseason games. He’ll have them throughout the season, as well. The hope is that the bad moments start to become fewer and more far between with the work being put in during preseason.</p>
https://www.clipsnation.com/2015/10/8/9474317/film-room-the-lance-stephenson-exemplum-part-2Justin Russo2015-10-05T16:00:02-07:002015-10-05T16:00:02-07:00Preseason Game #2: Film Room
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PUbF1aW1w0lyDFdj6t1ErKVCl_o=/248x240:2919x2021/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47336864/usa-today-8844669.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It wasn't pretty, but we need to look at the tape to see if there were any glimmers of hope going forward. Believe it or not, there was some semblance of that.</p> <p class="pgh-paragraph has-dropcap" id="paragraph0">It’s a glorious Monday to look at film, isn’t it? This is better than going to the movies. Here you don’t have to sit around other people and get annoyed when one of them glances at their cellphone, which you invariably see out of the corner of your eye because you have great peripheral vision, thus driving you absolutely insane. Be considerate, people! Some people are trying to watch <b><i>Fantastic Four</i></b> in peace, ya know? Anyways, you don’t even have to get bothered by someone resting their feet on the back of your chair or spilling their drink underneath your feet. This is a safe place. This is a wonderful place. This is the <a href="http://www.clipsnation.com/2015/8/9/9125553/2015-16-clippers-film-room" target="_blank">Film Room</a>! So grab your cup of coffee, water, or what-have-you. Sit back <i>– but, for the love of everything, don’t kick the desk/chair/person in front of you! –</i> and relax.</p>
<center><img src="https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3688640/hrlace2.0.png"></center>
<p>Let’s get this party started with a nice play from one of the three best players, as well as a roleplayer, on the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.clipsnation.com/">Los Angeles Clippers</a>. This just illustrates and highlights the impact a player can have on the court by just being aware of what’s going on and being smarter than everyone else for that one split second in time. Basketball is a game of smarts just as much as it is a game of physical ability. On this particular play two minutes into the game, we see smarts <i>and</i> physical ability make their appearance.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/FZSz0Fz.gif"></center>
<p>The possession by the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.raptorshq.com/">Toronto Raptors</a> starts after <span>DeAndre Jordan</span> missed two free throws. <span>DeMar DeRozan</span> brings the ball up the court and they try to space out the floor, but they do it in a really awkward way. For instance, <span>DeMarre Carroll</span> goes to the strongside corner and <span>Kyle Lowry</span> just spots up at the top of the arc. <span>Patrick Patterson</span> is at the weakside elbow and sort of just stands there without moving. The play is to dump the ball into <span>Jonas Valanciunas</span> at the strongside elbow area and run Carroll off of a DeRozan pindown screen. From here, the ball is supposed to go to Carroll on a UCLA cut and he’ll try to finish. However, <span>Wesley Johnson</span> plays this extremely well.</p>
<p>First, when Johnson spots DeRozan start to walk towards him in the corner to set the screen, Johnson gets close to the body of Carroll in order to fight against the screen better. DeRozan sets the screen and Johnson slips through it with one quick move which allows him to not get beat by Carroll to the rim. This forces Valanciunas to hold onto the ball one beat longer than Toronto wanted. When Jonas turns his head, DeAndre Jordan notices this and strips the ball clean with his right hand. Then, in an incredible display of athleticism, splits between Valanciunas and Lowry to track down the ball near halfcourt. He then takes one single dribble and gathers the ball from just beyond the three-point line to dunk. He’s pretty freakish.</p>
<p>Either way, this play is the epitome of sound defensive principles and poor spacing. No idea why Toronto was spread out this way. At the least, Patterson should have been spaced more to the wing area instead of the right elbow area. When Carroll does his UCLA cut, Griffin even starts to cheat down to help on the drive. But give credit to Johnson and Jordan here. They played this exceptionally well. Defense is the one thing Johnson has to bring on a consistent basis and this play is a good start for him. It’s also a hell of a start for Jordan. Also, don’t overlook Jordan motioning (and vocalizing) to the team to push up the floor defensively in order to upset Toronto’s rhythm a little more. While this play happens only two minutes into the game, it’s a nice view into what the team could do defensively this year when they’re all in sync.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/tITVovD.gif"></center>
<p>This next play comes several minutes later and showcases the one thing the Clippers do better than anyone else in the NBA; the pick-and-roll. <span>Blake Griffin</span> gets the ball and brings it up the court in a semi-transition opportunity, but ultimately settles the ball down when he realizes that the Raptors have recovered pretty nicely. However, due to a transitional cross-match, we see DeMar DeRozan wind up on <span>Chris Paul</span> here. As good of an athlete as DeRozan is, he’s not exactly the kind of defender who will give Paul any sort of trouble whatsoever. Griffin passes to Paul and immediately jumps into a screen. Paul goes with a nifty behind-the-back crossover to lose DeRozan around the Griffin pick and then curls around a secondary pick from DeAndre Jordan.</p>
<p>Griffin slips the screen and ends up just above the free-throw line. Paul throws a beauty of a bounce pass into Griffin’s shooting pocket and Griffin knocks down the jumper before Jonas Valanciunas can react to contest it better. The interesting thing here is that <span>Kyle Lowry</span> could have cheated up to try and make a play on the bounce pass, but he was too afraid of leaving <span>J.J. Redick</span> wide open in the corner. Notice how well Redick spaces to the corner as the play unfolds and notice how Lowry keeps turning his head to see where Redick is throughout the whole thing. That’s the power of Redick. It’s a beauty of a play and one the Clippers will use a lot this year with Griffin’s improved shooting. One last note: kudos to Wesley Johnson for making a baseline cut as Paul made the pass to Griffin. He gets a step on Carroll and could have been an option for Griffin to pass to if Valanciunas closed out better.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/qRES9Im.gif"></center>
<p>A minute later, Chris Paul is bringing the ball up the court and the Clippers jump into a classic set for them. DeMarre Carroll actually does a smart thing here and pushes Jonas Valanciunas out of the way so that Carroll can take Paul and Valanciunas can get matched up against a streaking-down-the-court DeAndre Jordan. At the start of this set, Wesley Johnson and J.J. Redick are in opposite corners; Johnson on the strongside and Redick on the weakside. Paul initiates the offense by simply throwing an entry pass into Jordan after Jordan cuts through to post-up. The second the ball touches Jordan’s hands, Johnson slices through along the baseline and clears out the corner so that the Raptors can’t double-team Jordan and force a turnover. This removes a defender.</p>
<p>From there, Blake Griffin is fed the ball by Jordan just below the top of the arc and we get to see the team’s patent 4-5 pick-and-roll. Johnson is now in the weakside corner, where Redick started out the possession, and Redick is now hovering over the left wing in case there’s a shot opportunity. Griffin starts to probe dribble against Patrick Patterson before Jordan sets a simple slip screen. All Jordan does is walk up, act like he’s going to set a screen, and then simply cuts through before making contact. This catches the defense off-guard and Griffin throws a perfect lob pass right to Jordan before either big man (or DeMar DeRozan) can react to it. This is the power of having a ball-handling power forward that can pass and improved his jumper. The defense has to cheat up onto him and Jordan simply plays off of that.</p>
<p>We all know the Clippers love to run the pick-and-roll. It’s the crux of their entire offense. The thing that makes it so deadly, besides who sets the screen, is that the ball-handler is usually someone who is deadly from either range or going downhill. And, even then, both are still excellent passers and decision makers. That’s what makes everything flow perfectly. Jordan posts up, passes to Griffin, runs to set a screen, slips it, and Griffin fires a perfect pass. Don’t discredit the movement by Johnson and the others, though. It spaced the floor well enough to throw Toronto off their game. Just a perfect play.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/SCIUFHk.gif"></center>
<p>We jump way ahead to midway through the second quarter for this play. Chris Paul dribbles into the frontcourt and DeAndre Jordan runs up to set a simple screen on <span>Cory Joseph</span>. This forces Jonas Valanciunas to vacate the paint and stop Paul’s dribble-drive. Paul turns the corner and starts to dribble towards the baseline. Joseph and Valanciunas push Paul along the baseline, but they don’t cut off any passing lane. On the weakside of this play, Wesley Johnson starts in the corner and slowly inches up to the wing. On the strongside of this play, J.J. Redick starts in the corner and cuts through the baseline to clear out a defender and create room for Paul to dribble.</p>
<p>Because of all the activity and movement off the ball, the Raptors get pretty stretched out here. The pick-and-roll and Paul’s dribbling also lures DeMarre Carroll from the weakside corner all the way into the paint and along the baseline. When Paul notices Carroll trying to cut him off and force him out of bounds, Paul rifles a bounce pass to a cutting Johnson. From there, Wesley gather dribbles and finishes through contact from Valanciunas for the hoop and the harm. This is a smart play by Johnson. He moved well without the ball, thanks in large part to Redick pointing it out to him, and he finished the tough attempt. This all starts with a pick-and-roll and finishes with a cutting wing player when the defense lulls to sleep. Progress.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/WlKM076.gif"></center>
<p>After Wesley Johnson’s missed free throw, the Raptors dribble into the frontcourt with Cory Joseph as the main ball-handler. He quickly passes off to Patrick Patterson who simply quick passes to DeMarre Carroll. It only gets far more interesting from there, though. Joseph tries to beat Chris Paul backdoor, but ultimately realizes he wasn’t going to be able to (thanks to Blake Griffin) and cuts back to receive the ball from Patterson after Carroll passed back to him. Jonas Valanciunas then runs up to receive the ball at the left elbow. Joseph passes to Valanciunas and then tries to, once again, curl around Patterson and find a backdoor lane. It’s not there. The ball then finds its way to Carroll on the wing.</p>
<p>This is sort of an unfair thing for Carroll. He’s given the ball with 7 seconds on the shot clock and is asked to create for himself. This is something he rarely had to do with the <a href="https://www.peachtreehoops.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Atlanta Hawks</a> and is one of the downsides to leaving that system – there won’t be as much spacing and movement. Johnson gets into the body of Carroll and ices any possible pick being set by Valanciunas. Johnson knows he has DeAndre Jordan helping him in the middle of the floor and forces Carroll towards the help. What happens after that is Carroll dribbles cautiously towards the rim and attempts a fadeaway baseline jumper that Johnson blocks and Jordan rebounds. It’s great team defense all-around, but even better individual defense by Johnson and Jordan. Once again, defense is something that Johnson can excel at in this system if he commits himself.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/UgEpGYE.gif"></center>
<p>A couple minutes later, the Clippers bring the ball into the frontcourt and we get to see the symbiotic <i>"best friends forever"</i> play by J.J. Redick and DeAndre Jordan. Redick, who you can’t see at the beginning of this because the camera pans out two seconds too late, is standing in the nearside corner. He simply runs the baseline and gets a great pindown screen from Jordan that stonewalls DeMarre Carroll right in his tracks. After Carroll runs into Jordan, Redick takes one quick dribble and shuffles to his right to rise and fire from three-point land. As Redick goes to shoot, Carroll tries to get over the screen, but runs into Jordan’s backside and falls to the ground. Redick splashes the shot and the Clippers draw a little closer. Redick and Jordan work extremely well together. This play is something the team runs quite a bit to get Redick involved and doesn’t work without Jordan’s expert screening.</p>
<p>The one way to possibly stop this from happening, as far as a defense is concerned, is to have the big man – Jonas Valanciunas in this instance – step up and hedge to contest anything Redick tries to do. The issue with that, though, is it creates a lane for Jordan to rim run. With Redick’s ability to attack closeouts off the dribble, and Jordan’s athleticism, it still creates an issue for defenses. If the big man contests, but is able to stay fundamentally sound, there is a chance to disrupt this set; albeit not an overly great one.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/XZvzHIP.gif"></center>
<p>Shortly after that, we see the improvements that DeAndre Jordan has made defensively and how much he can impact one single possession by himself. Toronto has Kyle Lowry bring the ball upcourt and he passes off to Patrick Patterson. As the ball makes its way to Patterson, DeMar DeRozan quickly tries to beat J.J. Redick with a cut around the edge. He never gains any semblance of separation and the pass from Patterson is also off the mark. DeRozan is thrown into the corner, gathers the ball, and hits a slicing Jonas Valanciunas just below the free throw line. As Valanciunas goes to receive the ball, Chris Paul pinches down to help so that Jordan can recover. This causes Valanciunas to hesitate long enough to allow Jordan to alter the play.</p>
<p>And this, right here, is where Jordan showcases his new awareness and patience. Valanciunas shows Jordan a pump fake, turns to post, pivots, pump fakes again, and then tries to finish with his left hand. Throughout this entire process, Jordan stays rooted to the ground. At one point, it looks like Jordan was about to take the bait, but he ultimately did not and just stayed in perfect position. As Valanciunas throws the left-handed shot up, Jordan swats it off the backboard and Jonas regathers it. He then kicks it out to Patterson, who is met by both Paul and Blake Griffin. Patterson attempts to dribble between them, but he’s called for a travel and the Clippers force Toronto into a turnover. The DeAndre Jordan of two years ago definitely jumps at one of these fakes. Even the Jordan of last year would have most likely bit on one of them. Not this Jordan, though. If this is the Jordan the Clippers are getting, then look out.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/9R5OUgt.gif"></center>
<p>After the Clippers threw the ball out of bounds with 2.4 seconds left in the first half, Toronto is all set to inbound in the frontcourt. DeMarre Carroll is in the inbounder, <span>Pablo Prigioni</span> is the man trying to deny, and the other host of characters are Blake Griffin, Patrick Patterson, DeAndre Jordan, Jonas Valanciunas, Chris Paul, Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, and <a href="www.sbnation.com/nba/players/112009/lance-stephenson" class="sbn-auto-link">Lance Stephenson</a>. The ball gets given to Carroll and the Raptors’ motion begins. Lowry runs off of a Valanciunas pick, but gets zero spacing against Paul. That’s the first read. Patterson and DeRozan run a pick play for each other to gain separation, but they get zero. Then, Valanciunas sets a second screen for DeRozan that slams into Stephenson and gives DeRozan space. This is the second read and the one Carroll makes the pass on.</p>
<p>When the ball gets thrown into court, Jordan races to the corner that the ball is going and is there to effectively contest DeRozan’s turnaround baseline jumper to beat the buzzer. DeRozan tries to put a lot more arc on it than he would have under normal circumstances, but it doesn’t matter because Jordan still gets a fingertip on it and blocks the shot. That’s why the shot comes up a tad short and a mini-tip battle happens between Valanciunas and Griffin. While the block is the highlight of this play, the other notable moments are Paul not giving Lowry any room to breathe and Jordan shutting this play down. They’re the team’s two top defenders and showed why here.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ezllECE.gif"></center>
<p>Early in the third quarter, the Clippers attempt to make a dent in Toronto’s impending double-digit lead. So, what do they do? Well, they run something to generate a high-quality look for a great shooter. Chris Paul dribbles over the halfcourt line, passes to J.J. Redick who dribbles into the corner after a Blake Griffin screen, and then Redick passes to Griffin at the wing area of the three-point line. Griffin passes back to Paul and Redick runs from the far corner to the near corner so that they can run something else. Wesley Johnson clears out the nearside corner by cutting through the free-throw line area. When this happens, Redick is hot on his heels and comes off of a DeAndre Jordan screen. Paul passes to Redick, but Redick doesn’t have the necessary space to shoot.</p>
<p>Redick then passes back to Paul, who has gained a little distance from Kyle Lowry because Lowry cheated to help onto Redick, and Paul jumps into a quick pick-and-roll with Griffin. Paul pocket passes to Griffin at the free-throw line and Redick flares to the nearside corner to give Griffin a passing lane should he need it. DeMar DeRozan helps out on Griffin and this forces Blake to hit Redick in the corner for a massively wide open three. Redick misses the shot, but that’s of zero consequence here. The big takeaway in preseason games is process and this play was great process. The main play was stopped, the team switched it up to run a secondary play that got stopped, then ran into a pick-and-roll that ended in a wide open corner three for a guy who shot 45.8 percent on uncontested threes last season. These possessions are ones you can live with and love.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/XEsVkwR.gif"></center>
<p>A possession later, Blake Griffin brings the ball up the court and passes to J.J. Redick as Redick comes off of a Chris Paul screen. This is a designed play that you’re about to watch. Redick comes off the screen from Paul, another one from Griffin, doesn’t have a suitable shot he likes, and passes back to Paul at the wing. If you look carefully, Redick was not really interested in shooting from the outset. As he’s running with the ball, he has his head kinked to the left as if to look for a passing lane. He has one and that’s where he goes. Shortly before that, though, Griffin set the screen for Redick and then darted into the paint to get deep seal position. This is the play design. Paul throws the pass into Griffin the second he receives it from Redick and Griffin makes a quick turn towards his left shoulder to finish the basket and draw the foul.</p>
<p>This is something the Clippers are probably working on a lot. It’s one of the ways to get Griffin involved more down in the post without him taking a beating. They have him set a screen, get a seal, and just go right away before the defender can get settled in. It’s smart. Griffin’s post game is pretty underrated and it says a lot about the team that they’re working on trying to feed him there more. They’re doing it in a smarter way rather than having him just pound the ball into the deck for five seconds trying to get position. No one questions whether or not the starters will have a great offense, though. We all know they will. This is just one example of how to maximize the talent level of all the players even more.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/lrRilsr.gif"></center>
<p>Not everything was rosy, though. Here, we see DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Johnson, and J.J. Redick subbed out in favor of <span>Josh Smith</span>, <span>Jamal Crawford</span>, and <span>Lance Stephenson</span>. That creates some differences in spacing and screening. As Chris Paul looks to initiate the offense, Stephenson sets a baseline screen for Crawford that gives him space against <span>Terrence Ross</span>. Paul hits Crawford in the far corner and Crawford looks as if he’s going to shoot the ball. Instead, Crawford rises up and then just throws a pass right into the middle of the paint where only Toronto players are standing. There seems to be a major miscommunication between Griffin and Crawford here, but it’s hard to say what it is.</p>
<p>On the initial action, it seems like Griffin could have set a better screen for Crawford against Ross. However, it also looks like it’s a designed slip screen to get Griffin the ball right on the strongside block so that he can go up quickly. Yet, that obviously doesn’t even happen here. Crawford just fires a pass way too high for anyone and it makes no sense. Maybe the ball slipped out of his hands. Maybe it was just a simple gaffe and Griffin was supposed to go for a lob. Either way, this is a bad turnover in a game that was slowly getting out of hand. It’s made worse because Paul and Griffin are on the court here and the turnover still happened. This is something the team will have to clean up going forward.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/VDrtNxB.gif"></center>
<p>End of quarter possessions are always fun to look at because the vast majority of them are just one-on-one play between a crafty ball-handler and a defender unwillingly to give an inch. On this one, we see Lance Stephenson being defended by Terrence Ross. As the shot clock hits around the 8 second mark, Josh Smith darts up to set a screen. Instead of setting the screen, though, Smith keeps curling towards the top of the arc. This is actually a very wise thing. It fakes <span>Luis Scola</span> out and Scola is caught out of position. This allows Stephenson to hit Smith with a perfect pass. Smith has to hesitate because of Ross’ recovery and <span>Bruno Caboclo</span>’s help, though.</p>
<p>Despite that, Smith still gets a super quality look here. When Caboclo has to recover to the strongside corner because he left <span>Austin Rivers</span> open, it takes one key defender away. When Ross misplays this and thinks he has to help back towards Stephenson, it takes the final defender away. This leaves Smith free to fire from three and he knocks it down. These are the kind of shots that Smith should be taking. These are low pressure shots. If he doesn’t hit them then there’s no big deal. It’s late in the shot clock, he did his job, and he was left open from an efficient area on the court. As long as he’s taking these, there’s no problem. This was also a real nice job done by Stephenson. He saw the extra help come, passed to the open man, and made the right play. Job well done by all.</p>
<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/iyW9BX0.gif"></center>
<p>The final play in this session is a nice one. Austin Rivers is being defended by Bruno Caboclo as Rivers brings the ball up the court. Rivers passes to <span>Cole Aldrich</span> on the far wing and Rivers then makes a cut off of a Jamal Crawford screen. Aldrich spots the cut quickly and hits Rivers perfectly in stride. Rivers gather dribbles and two-hand dunks the ball before Luis Scola or Terrence Ross can come over to help. Spacing here is also really, really interesting. Cory Joseph is late to react because he hugs Crawford on the screen, Scola can’t risk leaving Josh Smith open in the far corner because that’s the side of the floor the ball was currently on, and Ross is too close to Lance Stephenson.</p>
<p>Ideally, for Toronto, you’d like to see Ross help earlier because Stephenson isn’t really a major factor from beyond the arc. He hasn’t even proven he can hit a shot at a respectable rate right now. Ross’ lack of awareness here comes back to bite Toronto. Had he pinched down towards the paint when the ball was fed into Aldrich, this cut and play could have been prevented entirely. Instead, the Clippers get two points out of this and are able to showcase Aldrich’s passing ability. This is a well-designed play that was executed well by the bench players. These are few and far between so maybe this is a moment of clarity for them amidst the haze of uncertainty.</p>
https://www.clipsnation.com/2015/10/5/9454433/preseason-game-2-film-room-raptors-clippers-blake-griffin-chris-paul-kyle-lowryJustin Russo2015-10-04T19:35:09-07:002015-10-04T19:35:09-07:00Final: Raptors 93, Clippers 73
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-V5dqIwzx7aPdQCNdofKR0d4nKs=/0x0:2758x1839/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47333880/usa-today-8844480.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>After a win in their preseason debut, the Los Angeles Clippers traveled to Vancouver for the first time since 2001 to play against the Toronto Raptors. It did not go well. </p> <p class="pgh-paragraph has-dropcap" id="paragraph0">Yuck. That game was not exactly pleasant to watch. Even when the team had a five point lead two-thirds of the way through the opening quarter, it was not an easy game to sit by and observe. There were lots of stoppages in play, lots of random turnovers, and the fouls were mounting up. It was just a brutal display of basketball for the most part. As far as the <a href="https://www.clipsnation.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Los Angeles Clippers</a> go, it only got a whole lot more repugnant from there and the team ultimately lost by 20 points to a team who out-everything’d them. While it is preseason, you still don’t want to see what happened tonight transpire at any point.</p>
<div class="m-scoreboard__table-attach">
<table class="p-boxscore m-scoreboard__box-score__table">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th></th> <th>1</th> <th>2</th> <th>3</th> <th>4</th> <th>Total</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="p-boxscore__team_name" bgcolor="#ED174C"><a href="http://www.clipsnation.com/"><font color="white">Los Angeles Clippers</font></a></td>
<td bgcolor="#ED174C"><font color="white">16</font></td>
<td bgcolor="#ED174C"><font color="white">18</font></td>
<td bgcolor="#ED174C"><font color="white">28</font></td>
<td bgcolor="#ED174C"><font color="white">11</font></td>
<td bgcolor="#ED174C"><font color="white">73</font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="p-boxscore__team_name" bgcolor="#CE1141"><a href="http://www.raptorshq.com/"><font color="white">Toronto Raptors</font></a></td>
<td bgcolor="#CE1141"><font color="white">24</font></td>
<td bgcolor="#CE1141"><font color="white">16</font></td>
<td bgcolor="#CE1141"><font color="white">37</font></td>
<td bgcolor="#CE1141"><font color="white">16</font></td>
<td bgcolor="#CE1141"><font color="white">93</font></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div class="m-scoreboard__box-score_title">Sunday October 4, 2015 – Rogers Arena – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada</div>
</div>
<p>There were 14 total turnovers in the first quarter, 26 in the first half, and 46 for the game. It was sloppy. The team who finished with 21 turnovers on the night actually won the game by 20 points. I’m not sure that’s happened in recent memory. It was just a brutal display by the Clippers and the only semblance of competent basketball by them was played by their starting unit. While that’s not shocking, it’s still depressing. Especially after how much time, effort, and money went into trying to build the bench up. But more on the bench later.</p>
<p>The starters played solidly at times and the best player of the bunch was probably <span>DeAndre Jordan</span>. It’s safe to say that he’s been the team’s top player through the first two preseason games and tonight he showed his improved patience defensively. On more than one occasion, <span>Jonas Valanciunas</span> tried to dupe him into a foul, but Jordan stayed grounded and altered shots really well. He finished the game with 8 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 21:22 while going a perfect 4-for-4 from the field. Jordan’s night will probably be best remembered for a flurry of dunks, but his defense was really good.</p>
<p><span>J.J. Redick</span> had a strong game, going 5-for-9 and finishing with 15 points while playing tough post defense against <span>DeMar DeRozan</span>. It’s no secret that Redick and Jordan are pretty much BFF’s on the court in the screen game so it was awesome to see them keep up their high level of chemistry. Redick came off of a few Jordan screens and sunk shots that seemed to energize the team. Unfortunately, that energy wasn’t sustained. <span>Wesley Johnson</span> only made one shot – a dunk – but generally looked solid. His defense will be overlooked by the stat sheets everywhere, but he did a really good job on <span>DeMarre Carroll</span> whenever they were matched up.</p>
<p>The big two – <span>Blake Griffin</span> and <span>Chris Paul</span> – looked really rusty early on. They combined to go 2-for-12 and score just 5 points in the first half, but they turned that around in the second half and scored 16 points on 5-for-9 shooting. All of that came in the third quarter. They missed shots they normally make, so there’s no real reason to panic about them. Paul missed a couple wide open jumpers, as did Griffin. They’re going to be fine. They just need to shake the rust off. Happens to the best of them.</p>
<p>No clue what’s going on, but the bench was woeful yet again. In the first half, the unit went a combined 3-for-13 and scored just 6 points while turning the ball over a staggering 8 times. It doesn’t matter how good your starters are if your bench is constantly playing poorly. There’s still no real system in place at this moment for the bench, but you’d still like to see them show you something – anything – that indicates they can at least play minutes together and give the starters a break. That’s yet to happen, but we still are just two games into this.</p>
<p>Collectively, the bench shot 10-for-35 (28.6 percent) tonight and committed 18 turnovers. There’s no way any franchise can survive with that hideous level of play. <span>Jamal Crawford</span> was 2-for-7, but had 7 turnovers. <span>Josh Smith</span> was 2-for-8 from the field, with both makes coming from three, and had 3 rebounds and 2 turnovers. <span>Paul Pierce</span> only played 8:34 and went 1-for-1. <span>Austin Rivers</span> shot 2-for-5, but he had 4 fouls and 3 turnovers. <span>Lance Stephenson</span> went 0-for-4 tonight and is a worrisome 2-for-14 from the field in the preseason. He did not score tonight and had a turnover. <span>Cole Aldrich</span> actually showed nice passing and rebounding ability when in the game, though. So, there’s a plus. <span>Pablo Prigioni</span> didn’t play too terribly, neither did <span>Chuck Hayes</span> and <span>C.J. Wilcox</span> who got into the game late in the fourth quarter. Also entering late was <span>Branden Dawson</span>, who went 2-for-6 – both makes were dunks – and took some horrendous spinning baseline jumpers for no reason.</p>
<p>The bench is an issue. Yes, they only got about four days of practice with each other prior to the preseason tipping off and, yes, it’s also been just two preseason games. However, at the same time, there is a lot to be afraid of right now. First, they dribble the ball way too much and provide zero spacing when doing so. A few times, three of them were caught on one side of the floor which allowed the defense to just swarm them. Secondly, Stephenson has got to stop being visibly offended if a player misses him or doesn’t take a shot directly after one of his passes. It’s already becoming an issue. Thirdly, and probably most importantly, the bad shots have got to stop. The shot selection is still godawful and they’re settling for a lot of contested long twos. That’s not the way to go.</p>
<p></p>
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<p>Believe it or not, there was another team that played in this game. Give credit to the <a href="https://www.raptorshq.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Toronto Raptors</a> for stifling the Clippers’ offense by using their length and strength. The addition of DeMarre Carroll seems to already be paying off. It also doesn’t hurt that it seems like <span>Kyle Lowry</span>’s offseason weight loss has translated into him becoming a monster. He finished with 26 points on 7-for-10 shooting and 11-for-12 from the line. Lowry was able to bully his way wherever he wanted to on the court and Toronto did a good job getting him free and into his sweet spots.</p>
<p>Jonas Valanciunas seemed like a focal point early on in the game for them and he finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds on 4-for-10 shooting to go along with 2 blocks. He tried to fake Jordan out a few times, but it didn’t work as well as he had planned. Yet, despite that, he still displayed a good overall offensive game. Raptors look like they’ll be dangerous offensively again and Jonas is one of the reasons why. He had a solid outing. Carroll finished with 6 points on 2-for-4 shooting, <span>Patrick Patterson</span> had 4 points and 5 rebounds on 2-for-5 shooting, and DeMar DeRozan had 11 points on 3-for-9 shooting and 5-for-6 from the line. He also chipped in with 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals.</p>
<p>From their bench, the guy who seemed to steal the show the most was <span>Terrence Ross</span>. While he only went 1-for-3 in the game and had 6 points, he was a defensive menace. He had 4 steals and a block. Perhaps this is the jump Raptors’ fans have been waiting to see from Ross. Also noteworthy was <span>Luis Scola</span>. The veteran big man had 13 points and 8 rebounds on 6-for-10 shooting. He’s just a constant. The guy plays basketball and is always in the right place at the right time. <span>Bismack Biyombo</span> had 2 points, 5 rebounds, and a block. <span>Bruno Caboclo</span>, their first round pick from last year, had 2 points and a block but went 0-for-3. <span>Cory Joseph</span>, who was a big offseason addition for them, had 4 points on 2-for-6 shooting, plus 2 steals. <span>Norman Powell</span> had 6 points on 2-for-5 shooting, first round pick <span>Delon Wright</span> went 0-for-3 with 2 turnovers, <span>Ronald Roberts</span> had 3 points, and <span>Michale Kyser</span> went 0-for-1.</p>
<p>The Raptors seem like they have a solid future that they’re building there and it’s not hard to see that they could create some problems in the Eastern Conference. They certainly have the length on the wings to give teams fits defensively, but they need to be consistent on that end. The offense never seems like an issue for them, but it could be if they ever get bogged down and don’t move the ball. At times that happened tonight. But, like during the regular season meetings, once Toronto moved the ball then everything opened up. This team could do things this year and their defense, should they choose to focus on it, could be why they go far.</p>
<center><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="6"><b>PARTING SHOTS</b></font></center>
<p>Los Angeles will now head home for a little bit before departing for a long excursion to China to play two games against the <a href="https://www.atthehive.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Charlotte Hornets</a>. If you didn’t hear, Hornets small forward <span>Michael Kidd-Gilchrist</span> got injured yesterday night and dislocated his right shoulder. He’ll be out for a few weeks. It’s a shame. On the Clippers front, they have a lot to work on. Specifically, their bench has to not play like they hate each other and want to each be the hero. That sort of thing cannot happen. It gets harped on a lot, but it’s for a very valid reason. The team only has six preseason games and needs to improve in each one of them. Instead, as of this second, the bench seemed like they regressed. It’s a tad baffling.</p>
<p>The starters will be fine. Well, at least the main four will be. Wesley Johnson played defense tonight and that is what could keep him playing alongside the team’s best players. If that happens, the bench needs to use Paul Pierce’s leadership and ability to their advantage rather than letting players do their own thing. That stuff might have worked on other teams, but for this team to be successful that kind of stuff has to stop. That means no more dribbling around for many seconds before taking a contested mid-range jumper, Lance. Speaking of Lance, he might be his own worst enemy. The player that was in Indiana seems like it’s long gone. Instead, it’s a guy trying to find any spark to his game. That spark, at this second, seems snuffed out.</p>
<p>Preseason results don’t matter; only the process does. Tonight, the team came up short in both the result and the process. They have a few days off before the China trip so they should get some more practice time in and work on the things they’re failing at executing right now. They’ll likely install more offensive sets and try to rein in the bench, but we’ll see how that goes. This was just a really ugly game to watch. And it was made uglier by a lack of continuity and awareness. Time could fix both. It’s up to the team and the players.</p>
https://www.clipsnation.com/2015/10/4/9452455/preseason-game-1-recap-october-4-2015-raptors-clippersJustin Russo2015-10-04T15:45:02-07:002015-10-04T15:45:02-07:00Preseason Game #2: GameThread
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PXmgxYTLrBn4KBRvLNj1-JosZ3o=/0x41:3000x2041/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47329792/GettyImages-461210626.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Harry How/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>NBA basketball is being played in Vancouver again. Go Clippers!</p> <table class="sbnu-legacy-content-table" cellspacing="5" border="1" cellpadding="5" align="center"><tbody> <tr><th bgcolor="#ED174C" colspan="3" align="center"><font color="white">2015/2016 NBA Preseason</font></th></tr> <tr> <td width="240"><center><img src="https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4109156/newlaclogo.0.png"></center></td> <th width="20" align="center"><strong>@</strong></th> <td width="240"><center><img src="https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4121934/raplogo.0.png"></center></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240"><center><strong>1-0</strong></center></td> <th width="20" align="center"></th> <td width="240"><center><strong>0-0</strong></center></td> </tr> <tr><td bgcolor="#006BB6" colspan="3" align="center"><font color="white"><strong>October 4, 2015 | 4:00 PM (PDT)</strong></font></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><strong>Rogers Arena (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)</strong></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><strong>Prime Ticket, TSN2, KFWB 980 AM, KWKW 1330 AM</strong></td></tr> <tr><th bgcolor="#006BB6" colspan="3" align="center"><font color="white">Win-Loss Breakdown (2014-2015 Regular Season)</font></th></tr> <tr> <td width="240" align="right"><strong>19-11</strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">East</th> <td width="240"><strong>33-19</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240" align="right"><strong>37-15</strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">West</th> <td width="240"><strong>16-14</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240" align="right"><strong>12-4</strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">Division</th> <td width="240"><strong>11-5</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240" align="right"><strong>30-11</strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">Home</th> <td width="240"><strong>27-14</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240" align="right"><strong>26-15</strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">Road</th> <td width="240"><strong>22-19</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240" align="right"><strong>19-22</strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">.500 +</th> <td width="240"><strong>15-21</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240" align="right"><strong>37-4</strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">- .500</th> <td width="240"><strong>34-12</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240" align="right"><strong>1-1</strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">OT</th> <td width="240"><strong>4-3</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240" align="right"><strong>9-1</strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">L10</th> <td width="240"><strong>7-3</strong></td> </tr> <tr><th bgcolor="#006BB6" colspan="3" align="center"><font color="white"><strong>Projected Starters</strong></font></th></tr> <tr> <td width="240" bgcolor="#FFD700" align="right"><strong><span>Chris Paul</span></strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">PG</th> <td bgcolor="#FFD700" width="240"><strong><span>Kyle Lowry</span></strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240" align="right"><strong><span>J.J. Redick</span></strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">SG</th> <td bgcolor="#FFD700" width="240"><strong><span>DeMar DeRozan</span></strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240" align="right"><strong><span>Wesley Johnson</span></strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">SF</th> <td width="240"><strong><span>DeMarre Carroll</span></strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240" bgcolor="#FFD700" align="right"><strong><span>Blake Griffin</span></strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">PF</th> <td width="240"><strong><span>Patrick Patterson</span></strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="240" align="right"><strong><span>DeAndre Jordan</span></strong></td> <th width="20" align="center">C</th> <td width="240"><strong><span>Jonas Valanciunas</span></strong></td> </tr> <tr><th align="center" colspan="3" bgcolor="#006BB6"><font color="white"><strong>Advanced Stats (2014-2015 Regular Season)</strong></font></th></tr> <tr> <td align="right" width="240"><strong style="text-align: start;">96.96 (10th of 30)</strong></td> <th align="center" width="20">Pace</th> <td width="240"><strong>95.40 (20th of 30)</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" width="240"><strong style="text-align: start;">109.8 (1st of 30)</strong></td> <th align="center" width="20">ORtg</th> <td width="240"><strong>108.1 (3rd of 30)</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" width="240"><strong style="text-align: start;">103.0 (15th of 30)</strong></td> <th align="center" width="20">DRtg</th> <td width="240"><strong>104.8 (23rd of 30)</strong></td> </tr> <tr><th bgcolor="#006BB6" colspan="3" align="center"><strong><font color="white">Injuries/Other</font></strong></th></tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: right;" align="right" width="240"><strong><span>Cole Aldrich</span> (Will Play) Ankle</strong></td> <th align="center" width="20"></th> <td style="text-align: left;" width="240"><strong><span>Anthony Bennett</span> (Questionable) Shoulder</strong></td> </tr> </tbody></table>
<table class="sbnu-legacy-content-table" cellspacing="5" border="1" cellpadding="5" align="center"><tbody> <tr><th bgcolor="#ED174C" colspan="5" align="center"><center><strong><font color="white">Raptors won 2014-15 season series against Clippers; 2-0</font></strong></center></th></tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#006BB6"><center><strong><font color="white">Date</font></strong></center></td> <td bgcolor="#006BB6"><center><strong><font color="white">Venue</font></strong></center></td> <td bgcolor="#006BB6"><center><strong><font color="white">Final</font></strong></center></td> <td bgcolor="#006BB6"><center><strong><font color="white">Clips Nation Recap</font></strong></center></td> <td bgcolor="#006BB6"><center><strong><font color="white">NBA Box Score</font></strong></center></td> </tr> <tr> <td><center><strong>12/27/2014</strong></center></td> <td><center><strong>Los Angeles</strong></center></td> <td><center><strong>Raptors 110, Clippers 98</strong></center></td> <td><center><strong><a target="_blank" href="http://www.clipsnation.com/2014/12/27/7451865/clippers-mauled-by-raptors-110-98"><font color="red">Recap</font></a></strong></center></td> <td><center><strong><a target="_blank" href="http://stats.nba.com/game/#!/0021400443/"><font color="red">Box Score</font></a></strong></center></td> </tr> <tr> <td><center><strong>02/06/2015</strong></center></td> <td><center><strong>Toronto</strong></center></td> <td><center><strong>Raptors 123, Clippers 107</strong></center></td> <td><center><strong><a target="_blank" href="http://www.clipsnation.com/2015/2/6/7994317/clippers-raptors-recap-february-6-2015"><font color="red">Recap</font></a></strong></center></td> <td><center><strong><a target="_blank" href="http://stats.nba.com/game/#!/0021400752/"><font color="red">Box Score</font></a></strong></center></td> </tr> </tbody></table>
<p></p>
<div class="read-more" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <img align="left" src="https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/blog/sbnu_logo/230/large_raptorshq.com.full.17945.png" height="24" width="30"> <font face="Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, sans-serif"><strong>Opposition's Blog:</strong> <a href="http://www.raptorshq.com/" target="new">Raptors HQ</a></font> <img align="right" src="https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/blog/sbnu_logo/230/large_raptorshq.com.full.17945.png" height="24" width="30"> </div>
https://www.clipsnation.com/2015/10/4/9448671/preseason-game-2-gamethreadJustin Russo2015-10-04T07:00:05-07:002015-10-04T07:00:05-07:00Preseason Game #2: Preview
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0rxP9_RfXAqB7Y53RL_MjL35dq8=/0x54:3156x2158/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47326564/usa-today-8293641.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>After a preseason debut that resulted in a win, the Los Angeles Clippers head to Canada to battle the Toronto Raptors. The two teams will be playing in Vancouver, a former NBA city. Will the night be dark and full of terrors?</p> <table align="center" cellpadding="5" border="1" cellspacing="5" class="sbnu-legacy-content-table">
<tbody>
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<th align="center" colspan="3" bgcolor="#ED174C"><font color="white">2015/2016 NBA Preseason</font></th>
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<tr>
<td width="240"><center><img src="https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4109156/newlaclogo.0.png"></center></td>
<th align="center" width="20"><b>@</b></th>
<td width="240"><center><img src="https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4121934/raplogo.0.png"></center></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="240"><center><b>1-0</b></center></td>
<th align="center" width="20"><br></th>
<td width="240"><center><b>0-0</b></center></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" colspan="3" bgcolor="#006BB6"><font color="white"><b>October 4, 2015 | 4:00 PM (PDT)</b></font></td>
</tr>
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<td align="center" colspan="3"><b>Rogers Arena (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" colspan="3"><b>Prime Ticket, TSN2, KFWB 980 AM, KWKW 1330 AM</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="center" colspan="3" bgcolor="#006BB6"><font color="white">Win-Loss Breakdown (2014-2015 Regular Season)</font></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" width="240"><b>19-11</b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">East</th>
<td width="240"><b>33-19</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" width="240"><b>37-15</b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">West</th>
<td width="240"><b>16-14</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" width="240"><b>12-4</b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">Division</th>
<td width="240"><b>11-5</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" width="240"><b>30-11</b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">Home</th>
<td width="240"><b>27-14</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" width="240"><b>26-15</b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">Road</th>
<td width="240"><b>22-19</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" width="240"><b>19-22</b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">.500 +</th>
<td width="240"><b>15-21</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" width="240"><b>37-4</b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">- .500</th>
<td width="240"><b>34-12</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" width="240"><b>1-1</b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">OT</th>
<td width="240"><b>4-3</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" width="240"><b>9-1</b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">L10</th>
<td width="240"><b>7-3</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="center" colspan="3" bgcolor="#006BB6"><font color="white"><b>Projected Starters</b></font></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#FFD700" width="240"><b><span>Chris Paul</span></b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">PG</th>
<td width="240" bgcolor="#FFD700"><b><span>Kyle Lowry</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" width="240"><b><span>J.J. Redick</span></b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">SG</th>
<td width="240" bgcolor="#FFD700"><b><span>DeMar DeRozan</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#FFD700" width="240"><b><span>Paul Pierce</span></b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">SF</th>
<td width="240"><b><span>DeMarre Carroll</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#FFD700" width="240"><b><span>Blake Griffin</span></b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">PF</th>
<td width="240"><b><span>Patrick Patterson</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" width="240"><b><span>DeAndre Jordan</span></b></td>
<th align="center" width="20">C</th>
<td width="240"><b><span>Jonas Valanciunas</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th bgcolor="#006BB6" colspan="3" align="center"><font color="white"><b>Advanced Stats (2014-2015 Regular Season)</b></font></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="240" align="right"><b style="text-align: start; ">96.96 (10th of 30)</b></td>
<th width="20" align="center">Pace</th>
<td width="240"><b>95.40 (20th of 30)</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="240" align="right"><b style="text-align: start; ">109.8 (1st of 30)</b></td>
<th width="20" align="center">ORtg</th>
<td width="240"><b>108.1 (3rd of 30)</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="240" align="right"><b style="text-align: start; ">103.0 (15th of 30)</b></td>
<th width="20" align="center">DRtg</th>
<td width="240"><b>104.8 (23rd of 30)</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="center" colspan="3" bgcolor="#006BB6"><b><font color="white">Injuries/Other</font></b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="240" align="right" style="text-align: right;"><b><span>Cole Aldrich</span> (Out) Ankle</b></td>
<th width="20" align="center"><br></th>
<td width="240" style="text-align: left;"><b></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="5" border="1" cellspacing="5" class="sbnu-legacy-content-table">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th align="center" colspan="5" bgcolor="#ED174C"><center><b><font color="white">Raptors won 2014-15 season series against Clippers; 2-0</font></b></center></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#006BB6"><center><b><font color="white">Date</font></b></center></td>
<td bgcolor="#006BB6"><center><b><font color="white">Venue</font></b></center></td>
<td bgcolor="#006BB6"><center><b><font color="white">Final</font></b></center></td>
<td bgcolor="#006BB6"><center><b><font color="white">Clips Nation Recap</font></b></center></td>
<td bgcolor="#006BB6"><center><b><font color="white">NBA Box Score</font></b></center></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><center><b>12/27/2014</b></center></td>
<td><center><b>Los Angeles</b></center></td>
<td><center><b>Raptors 110, Clippers 98</b></center></td>
<td><center><b><a href="http://www.clipsnation.com/2014/12/27/7451865/clippers-mauled-by-raptors-110-98" target="_blank"><font color="red">Recap</font></a></b></center></td>
<td><center><b><a href="http://stats.nba.com/game/#!/0021400443/" target="_blank"><font color="red">Box Score</font></a></b></center></td>
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<td><center><b>02/06/2015</b></center></td>
<td><center><b>Toronto</b></center></td>
<td><center><b>Raptors 123, Clippers 107</b></center></td>
<td><center><b><a href="http://www.clipsnation.com/2015/2/6/7994317/clippers-raptors-recap-february-6-2015" target="_blank"><font color="red">Recap</font></a></b></center></td>
<td><center><b><a href="http://stats.nba.com/game/#!/0021400752/" target="_blank"><font color="red">Box Score</font></a></b></center></td>
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<th align="center" colspan="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><font size="6"><b>The Dunkraki</b></font></center></th>
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<td><font size="3">Well, the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.clipsnation.com/">Los Angeles Clippers</a> surely tried to rip defeat out of the jaws of victory again, huh? After building a 21-point lead late in the third quarter, the team nearly gave all of it back before managing to hold on for a seven point win against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.denverstiffs.com/">Denver Nuggets</a>. Now, they have to travel into Canada and play in a country that believes plastic bags are a suitable container for milk. We will not stand for this! The Clippers will ride this wave of disdain through the Vancouver countryside – is it a countryside? – and wage war on the bagged milk heathens from the north! The Dunkraki shall attack through the air with lobs aplenty.</font></td>
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<th align="center" colspan="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><font size="6"><b>Army North of the Wall</b></font></center></th>
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<td><font size="3">After a pretty successful regular season last year, the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.raptorshq.com/">Toronto Raptors</a> sort of flamed out in the playoffs thanks to the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.bulletsforever.com/">Washington Wizards</a> and new-Clipper <span>Paul Pierce</span>. It was a sad ending to a great year for the franchise and city. The entire <i>“We The North”</i> mantra and mentality is one of the best things in sports, if we’re being honest. To further expand their brand and success, the Raptors went out and signed free agent wingman <span>DeMarre Carroll</span> – which is a huge plus since it also stole him away from a fellow Eastern Conference competitor; the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.peachtreehoops.com/">Atlanta Hawks</a>. This might finally be the year Raptors take that next step and do something they haven’t done since the 2000-01 season – i.e. make it out of the first round.</font></td>
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<img width="30" height="24" src="https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/blog/sbnu_logo/230/large_raptorshq.com.full.17945.png" align="left"> <font face="Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, sans-serif"><strong>Opposition's Blog:</strong> <a target="new" href="http://www.raptorshq.com/">Raptors HQ</a></font> <img width="30" height="24" src="https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/blog/sbnu_logo/230/large_raptorshq.com.full.17945.png" align="right">
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<th align="center" colspan="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><font size="6"><b>Comparison of Key Metrics</b></font></center></th>
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<td><font size="3">Moderately tempted to declare the Clippers the best team in basketball since they’re first in pace, Offensive Efficiency, and Defensive Efficiency in the preseason, but we’ll hold off on that for now. Last season’s games between these two teams were fairly high-scoring since neither defense was really on track at that point and both offenses were among the best in the league. With the signing of Carroll, it seems like Toronto will take that next step defensively. They don’t have poor defenders across the board, but they’ll need to do better as a team. Both teams should be great offensively again and both teams should improve from where they were last year when it comes to defense. We shall see this season, though.</font></td>
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<th align="center" colspan="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><font size="6"><b>Schedule</b></font></center></th>
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<td><font size="3">After these two teams play in Vancouver, they go in opposite directions geographically. The Clippers will travel to China to play two games against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.atthehive.com/">Charlotte Hornets</a> before coming back to the United States to finish up with two home games at the STAPLES Center. Those two home games will be against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.goldenstateofmind.com/">Golden State Warriors</a> and the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.blazersedge.com/">Portland Trail Blazers</a>. For Toronto, this is their first preseason game of the year and they follow it up with a visit to San Jose to take on the Warriors before heading to Ontario, California to play the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.silverscreenandroll.com/">Los Angeles Lakers</a>. From there, they get to go to their actual home and get to play the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.canishoopus.com/">Minnesota Timberwolves</a> before heading out to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to play Minnesota again. They then finish up the preseason in Toronto against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.fearthesword.com/">Cleveland Cavaliers</a> and in Montreal against the Washington Wizards.</font></td>
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<th align="center" colspan="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><font size="6"><b>Less Dribbling, More Movement</b></font></center></th>
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<td><font size="3">The team, as a whole, needs to do a better job of moving the ball and themselves around the court in an effort to generate higher quality shots. Quite a few times throughout the game on Friday night, the offense grew stagnant because they wanted to go one-on-one. Part of that is because the team didn’t really install an offense in the few days of training camp that they had and wanted players to play a loose and free style. That’s fine. We saw what loose and free ultimately was, though. However, the other part was that the team had too many ball-handlers trying to <i>‘wow’</i> everyone instead of looking for anyone else on the court. That’s certainly fine, but that cannot continue. The ball has to move around the court in order to create opportunities for everyone. On top of the ball moving around the court, the players need to move without it. That’s the harder part. Stagnant players lead to stagnant offense. Stagnant offense leads to uninspired play. Team needs to clean that up going forward.</font></td>
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<th align="center" colspan="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><font size="6"><b>Clever Girl</b></font></center></th>
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<td><font size="3">The Toronto Raptors sure are smart, aren’t they? They went out and poached one of Atlanta’s best two-way players in the offseason by giving DeMarre Carroll a four-year and $58 million contract. It might seem like a slight overpay, but it takes a good player from a great team last year and gives Toronto even more options. In the grand scheme of things, that contract will look fantastic in a couple years because of the new salary cap. For the most part, their building blocks are locked up to quality deals over the next several years. Not to mention that they’re going to have a ton of cap space going into the next offseason, which means they can make a run at <i>– dun, dun, dun –</i> <span>Kevin Durant</span>. That’s too far into the future, but for right now the team has set themselves up quite well for the future with a myriad of smart moves.</font></td>
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<th align="center" colspan="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><font size="6"><b>DeAndre's Offensive Outburst</b></font></center></th>
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<td><font size="3">If the first preseason game is any indication then <span>DeAndre Jordan</span> is going to get <i>A LOT</i> of easy basket opportunities this season. In an <a href="http://www.clipsnation.com/2015/9/24/9184491/there-can-only-be-one-hylander-deandre-jordan" target="_blank"><font color="red"><b>article on here</b></font></a> from about two weeks ago, it talked about how important Jordan was to the Clippers' pick-and-roll game because of his screening prowess. In fact, Vantage Sports rated him as the number two screener in basketball last season. The team seems to be using his skill there to create scoring chances for him. The gravity of the offense draws defenders towards <span>J.J. Redick</span> and <span>Blake Griffin</span> naturally, as well as making them unable to leave <span>Chris Paul</span> wide open. So, when the Clippers run the pick-and-roll action, it usually leaves Jordan free to rim run for lobs or putback chances. It opens up a whole world of possibilities for the offense and it seems to be something they’re going to let him take advantage of this year. While the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/">Dallas Mavericks</a> wanted to post Jordan up, the Clippers will get him the ball in his more natural spots. And that’s a win-win for both Jordan and the Clippers.</font></td>
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<th align="center" colspan="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><font size="6"><b>Backcourt Battle</b></font></center></th>
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<td><font size="3">One of the key on-court battles in this game will take place in the backcourt where we’ll see Chris Paul and J.J. Redick go to war with <span>Kyle Lowry</span> and <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nba/players/71909/demar-derozan?_ga=1.101190724.41620292.1409117089">DeMar DeRozan</a>. Last year, Lowry played well against the Clippers and averaged 23.0 points to go with 4.0 assists on 57.7 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from deep. Los Angeles had plenty of issues trying to stop him. While he only played one game and didn’t shoot great, DeRozan still put up 24 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists while tallying 13 trips to the charity stripe. It might only be a preseason game, but the Clippers have to win this backcourt battle in order to win the game. Throw in <span>Terrence Ross</span>, as well as new additions <span>Cory Joseph</span> and rookie <span>Delon Wright</span>, and you can see this’ll be a solid test for the Clippers. Fortunately, the Clippers have enough bodies to throw back at them in the form of <span>Austin Rivers</span>, <span>Pablo Prigioni</span>, <span>Jamal Crawford</span>, and <span>Lance Stephenson</span>. Maybe this’ll test those guys. Maybe not. One thing is for certain, though, and that’s that this will be a high quality affair between these two units.</font></td>
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<th align="center" colspan="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><font size="6"><b>Shot Selection Has To Improve</b></font></center></th>
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<td><font size="3">Open threes late in the shot clock, drives to the rim, and any kind of foray that doesn’t make you wonder what they were doing is a genuinely good possession for <span>Josh Smith</span> and Lance Stephenson. However, the main issue the two of them had on Friday night was that they simply took bad shots quite a few times. On one occasion, Stephenson dribbled for a long time before jumping into a stepback foot-on-the-line two-pointer that he clanked. Another time, he crossed over and dazzled the crowd before pulling up from the mid-range area and making a shot. Smith, on the other hand, took a three-pointer or two way too early in the clock, drained a mid-range jumper over a larger defender, and missed the basket entirely on an elbow jumper. The Clippers need both to rein in their shot selection. It seems tough to see how that happens, but it still (theoretically) could. These two will be the main bench pieces this season so they’re going to get their shots. That much is certain. Yet, they cannot just take shots for the sake of taking them. They should live in transition, around the basket, and from beyond the arc when it’s smart. None of this long two stuff. That’s part of what got them into trouble at other stops in the NBA.</font></td>
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<th align="center" colspan="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><font size="6"><b>Who Wins The Final Spot?</b></font></center></th>
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<td><font size="3">News on Saturday <a href="https://twitter.com/DanWoikeSports/status/650388314055294976" target="_blank"><font color="red"><b>from the team was that</b></font></a> they had waived <span>Nikoloz Tskitishvili</span>. That makes the race for the final roster spot a tad easier to watch unfold during the preseason. According to Ben Bolch, the <a href="https://twitter.com/latbbolch/status/650418132952047620" target="_blank"><font color="red"><b>battle for the 15th and final spot</b></font></a> on the roster is between <span>Chuck Hayes</span> and <span>Luc Richard Mbah a Moute</span>. At this point, there’s no way to tell who is going to get the job, but it is something to watch. The team doesn’t necessarily need to fill the roster spot, yet it seems like most people are already choosing sides in this little dustup for it. A lot of people like what they saw out of Mbah a Moute on Friday night, a performance that saw him chip in with 4 points and 3 rebounds in 4:35. He also lost a tooth. Hayes didn’t get into the game, but he’s a veteran presence who is a great post defender. Ultimately, the team will decide what the more pressing need is. Do they want a legitimate big man defender or do they want a wing defender? Neither has an offensive game so it’s a wash there. And, not to mention, neither will likely play that much this season. Still, it’s a fun little battle to watch. May the best veteran win.</font></td>
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<th align="center" colspan="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><font size="6"><b>Connections</b></font></center></th>
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<font size="3"><li>Terrence Ross and <span>C.J. Wilcox</span> both played for the University of Washington.</li>
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<span>James Johnson</span> and Chris Paul both played for Wake Forest University.</li>
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<span>Norman Powell</span> and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute both played for UCLA.</li>
<li>Chuck Hayes played for the Toronto Raptors over the course of the last two seasons.</li>
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<span>Patrick Patterson</span> and <span>Cole Aldrich</span> were once teammates on the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.thedreamshake.com/">Houston Rockets</a>.</li>
<li>Patrick Patterson, Cole Aldrich, James Johnson, and Chuck Hayes were once teammates on the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.sactownroyalty.com/">Sacramento Kings</a>.</li>
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<span>Luis Scola</span>, Patrick Patterson, Kyle Lowry, DeMarre Carroll and Chuck Hayes were once teammates on the Houston Rockets.</li>
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</font><center><i>(If some connections were missed, list them in the comment section.)</i></center>
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<th align="center" colspan="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><center><font size="6"><b>Video Game Reference</b></font></center></th>
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<td><font size="3">To say that there’s been a lot of <i><b>Jurassic Park</b></i> video games would be one of the grossest understatements in human history. The first one, of the same name, debuted in June 1993 and was available for purchase on the original Nintendo game system. The latest installment – <b><i>Lego Jurassic World</i></b> – debuted June 2015 and is available on nearly every console that’s out there right now. If you haven’t played any of the Lego video games, you probably should. They’re pretty great and a nice change of pace. While the movie franchise has grossed roughly $3.7 billion worldwide, the video games haven’t come remotely close to replicating that. And, in all fairness, it’s pretty impossible for any video game franchise to do so. It speaks to the power of the movie franchise. With the sequel to <b><i>Jurassic World</i></b> set to hit theaters in 2018, you can bet there'll be another video game based around the iconic dinosaur genre.</font></td>
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https://www.clipsnation.com/2015/10/4/9445689/preseason-game-2-we-march-north-october-4-2015-previewJustin Russo