Erik Spoelstra has long been an admirer of Doc Rivers' systems, even back to his starting days as coach of the Miami Heat, where he was intimidated by the Boston Celtics and their Big Three. Now many years later into the job, Spoelstra sees the same scary potential with the coalition of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, now playing under the same roof for the LA Clippers:

“The personnel is different, and how they do it schematically will be different,” Spoelstra told ESPN's Kevin Arnovitz. “But I told Doc that I thought this Clippers team, the way it's constituted, has a chance to be as good [as the Big Three Celtics].”

Rivers is plenty aware of the boost these two All-Star players bring to the table, recalling the nightmares he faced upon trying to run certain sets against George, who was on an MVP-candidate tear of his own. Now he's thinking about putting those same skills to work to his favor:

“Last year you couldn't run a dribble handoff with Paul George involved because he'd blow it up,” said Rivers. “We couldn't run one against him. Why wouldn't we allow him to be great at what he does well?”

The trio of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett brought a different deal of offensive firepower to the table, but it was The Big Ticket who proved to be a game-changer for the culture of those Celtics of yesteryear. His constant communication with another subwoofer in Kendrick Perkins made scoring in the paint almost impossible, something Rivers has the chance to recreate in LA with the help of an excellent coaching staff:

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“We have the ability with Kawhi and Paul to be able to cut off a ton of paint points,” said assistant coach Rex Kalamian, who helps lead the defensive game-planning. “Both move great laterally and cut off paint drives in isolation situations.”

Rivers will have to keep players from scoring in the paint by shutting down drives instead of turning them away with ruthless blocks, but the teaming up of Leonard and George looks equally scary to Spoelstra, just as the Big Three was many moons ago.