Clippers Keys to Victory Over the Spurs

By Connor Aylward
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Updated: April 19, 2015

(Photo via Twitter User @LAClippers)

Regular Season Results

SAS:89 – LAC: 85
SAS:125 – LAC: 118
LAC: 105 – SAS: 85
LAC: 119 – SAS: 115

*Home teams are italicized

Matt Barnes has had a season much better than any Clipper fan could have expected. After an abysmal start in the preseason, the Clipper faithful were calling for trades and an immediate answer to the Small Forward position but Barnes stepped up averaging 10.1 points while shooting 36% from three; both of which are above his career averages in the respected categories. However a problem that has plagued the Clippers all season long is the play of opposing Small Forwards and the Clippers inability to slow them down.

Although its well documented that playoff and regular season basketball are far different from one another in many ways, including style of play, lets look at how Leonard did in his four match ups versus the Clippers during the regular season:

Game 1: 26 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals

Game 2: DNP (Injury)

Game 3: 24 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals

Game 4: 4 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists

The hope here would be that the Clippers found a weakness in Leonard’s game and exploit it in game 4 where he underperformed greatly compared to his other games. Whether Leonard was just having a bad night or whether the Clippers found a way to shut down the reigning NBA Finals MVP. It will be an interesting story to follow heading into game 1 as Leonard will be able to prove which one of these it actually was that slowed his momentum in game 4, of the regular season, versus Los Angeles.

Surviving Hack-A-DJ

Gregg Popovich is the master of aggravating opposing teams. Pop just has a way of figuring out a teams one weakness and exploiting it almost to annoying lengths if it will help his team win. I think few things annoy Clipper faithful as much as Hack-A-DJ does.

DeAndre Jordan shoots just 40% from the free throw line, which qualifies him as the second worst free throw shooter in the league behind only Detroit Piston big man Andre Drummond. This weakness in Jordan’s game has opened up the idea to some teams that in order to slow down the Clipper offense, they can just intentionally foul Jordan, send him to the free throw line and essentially shut down the offense before it even gets going.

Lets take a look at how many free throws Jordan shot in every regular season game against the Spurs this season and go ahead and tell me which game you think Popovich used this Hack-A-DJ technique:

Game 1: 0-0

Game 2: 1-3

Game 3: 2-2

Game 4: 10-28

Game 4 obviously stands out. After game 4 Pop was asked why he deployed the technique, “It’s a rule. I hate it. I hate doing it. But it’s a rule,” said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. “Free throws are part of the game. It’s a whole lot better than chasing Chris Paul around all day.” I guess Popovich figures he’s just taking advantage of a loophole in the rules that allows his team to do this simply because he can and it’s easier than trying to stop Paul. If that’s the way he wants to try to win, not only will this be the most boring playoff series in history but Pop will probably be able to hear every Clipper fan cursing under their breath at him from their seats with every clank of a Jordan free throw.

Home Court Advantage

The Clippers fought their tails off for this privilege. Home court advantage is not a right Clipper fans it’s the product of the team winning their last 14 of 15 games. In the season series versus the Spurs the teams split winning at home and away as each got one win at home and one on the road.

Looking further into the teams regular season records at home and away the Clipper hold a slight advantage playing away from Staples Center. During the regular season the Clippers were 26-15 on the road while being an impressive 30-11 back home. The Spurs however struggled by their standards away from the AT&T Center in San Antonio going 22-19 away from home, but had an amazing 33-8 home record.

The Clippers home court “disadvantage” has been well documented to the point that I even wrote an article about the topic weeks ago after Blake Griffin said home court advantage for the team just isn’t there after a tough loss to Golden State. If the Clippers intend to advance into the playoffs past San Antonio having home court advantage has to be exactly that, an advantage. So once more I’m pleading the Clipper faithful #RiseClipperNation we need all of the support we can get at Staples in order to win this series!

My Prediction: Clippers win the series in 6. 4-2

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