LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Clippers fell to the Los Angeles Lakers, 103-101, in their NBA restart opener. Despite both teams getting out to double-digit leads at different points in the game, neither could run away with the game, making for an exciting finish.
Paul George led the way for the Clippers with 30 points, five rebounds, three assists, and three steals on 11-of-17 shooting from the field and 6-of-11 from beyond the arc. Kawhi Leonard added 28 points, three rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks on the night. Despite the loss, there were a lot of things to take away from this game if you're the Clippers, positive and negative.
Here are my five takeaways from this thrilling matchup.
5. Sloppiness ruled
There's no way around this one: the Clippers were sloppy, committing 20 turnovers on the night. It was tied for their second-highest turnover total in a game behind the 21 turnovers they had earlier in games against the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans, respectively.
“When you don't have guys, you have to execute,” head coach Doc Rivers said after the game. “We didn't execute many plays tonight offensively. We had 20 turnovers. We gave up offensive rebounds. We lost guys in coverage defensively. So in that way, it was disappointing. The positives are that we had every opportunity to still win the game. That would have been a sweet win for us with what our guys have gone through.”
Part of those turnovers were a bit expected, however, as the Clippers were playing with guys who hadn't seen the floor yet in months like Patrick Beverley and Landry Shamet.
Rivers has been hard on his team and expressed his unhappiness with high turnover games. If it's one thing these Clippers have been good at doing, it's bouncing back from losses, so expect to see a better team on Saturday against the Pelicans.
4. Foul Difficulties
The Clippers came out like a team that was still trying to get their legs under them. They were slow on defensive rotations, leading to a bunch of unnecessary fouls. Kawhi Leonard and Marcus Morris both played fewer than five first-quarter minutes after picking up two early fouls. To Leonard's credit, both of his first-quarter fouls appeared very nit-picky and shouldn't have been called, but the Clippers did a poor job defending in the period.
By the end of the quarter, the Clippers had racked up 13 personal fouls (six players had at least two) and gave the Lakers 14 free-throw attempts. In total, the Clippers committed 30 fouls, allowed 37 free-throw attempts, and dug themselves into a deeper hole by messing with a rotation that was already short.
Granted, Anthony Davis is no easy guy to defend. He punished the Clippers inside early on, and it opened up his game late on when he started knocking down 3-point shots.
3. Marcus Morris' Struggles
Marcus Morris has played two games against the Lakers this season as a member of the Clippers. So far, not so good.
Morris is a combined 0-of-13 from the field, 0-of-10 from beyond the arc, and has nine fouls in 48 minutes of play over those two games. He did have the second-highest plus/minus on the team in Thursday night's loss, but it's evident he's struggling to find his rhythm offensively in this matchup.
Throughout his time with the New York Knicks, Morris was the go-to guy with the ball in his hands ready to take any shot. His game and his love for the off-the-dribble, high-post jumper is also evident. I'd be curious to see how Morris fits in the rest of the seeding games as the Clippers try to work out all the kinks.
On the positive, Morris did do a great job on LeBron James all night, helping Kawhi Leonard and Paul George hold him to just 16 points on 6-of-19 shooting.
2. Clippers Make Life Difficult For LeBron
Thursday night's final results marked the fourth time in as many games that LeBron James has delivered subpar shooting performances:
Game 1: 7-of-19 FG, 1-of-5 3PT, Loss
Game 2: 9-of-24 FG, 2-of-12 3PT, Loss
Game 3: 7-of-17 FG, 2-of-6 3PT, Win
Game 4: 6-of-19 FG, 2-of-7 3PT, Win
Overall, LeBron James is shooting just 36.7 percent against the Clippers this season. Clearly, they've had success making life difficult on James with the bodies they can throw at him. Leonard has taken the challenge of defending James at times, as have Paul George, Marcus Morris, and JaMychal Green.
If you're the Clippers, this is exactly what you can hope to do to LeBron James in the playoffs. It's impossible to shut down LeBron, but making his life difficult like this is all you can ask for.
1. Second Unit Rotations
The Clippers started Reggie Jackson in place of Patrick Beverley, who came off the bench in his first action in over four months. With Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell still out, the Clippers' second unit struggled to generate any sort of offense.
LA really may have found something with Patrick Patterson in his matchup against the Lakers. He just happens to be effective in small bursts for LA and appears able to hold his own against Davis. JaMychal Green has also been surprisingly versatile, just as the Clippers thought he could be when they re-signed him last summer.
All season long, the Clippers touted lineups featuring Green at the center position. We saw some of it briefly during the scrimmage games, and even more so during this loss. It's a floor-spacing weapon the Clippers might just want to save until the postseason begins.
With no timetable for Harrell or Williams to return, another thing I wonder is whether Rivers would be better off starting Patterson and bringing Morris off the bench to provide an offensive punch to the second unit. Morris has struggled to find his rhythm in Orlando thus far, so giving him some freedom to run the offense while Williams is out might just be the way to go.
The biggest takeaway from the game is that Doc Rivers has a lot of different lineups to mess around with, and I expect a lot of experimenting over the seeding games given the fact that training camp is pretty much over.
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