Clippers look to regain mojo after back-to-back losses to NBA’s best | Thunder’s
Abrines benefits from Westbrook boost | Suns second unit showing encouraging
signs | Noel makes himself comfortable in debut with Mavericks
No. 1: Clippers look to regain mojo after back-to-back losses to NBA’s best —
Back-to-back losses to the NBA’s best two teams (the Golden State Warriors and
San Antonio Spurs) has a way of sobering a team up. The Los Angeles Clippers are
exactly that team and they’re in desperate need of a recalculation after getting
thumped by the mighty Warriors (for the 10th straight time) and Spurs. Tonight’s
visit from the Charlotte Hornets (9:30 ET, NBA TV) offers a chance to regain
their mojo, as Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times points out:
Somewhere between a four-game winning streak before the weeklong All-Star break,
a two-game post-break losing streak and the return of Chris Paul, the Clippers
dipped.
A once-efficient offense is not so efficient. A once-stout defense is not so
stout.
The Clippers still have 24 regular-season games left to solidify both of those
elements that have slipped in and out of order.
“I think we’re all trying to find our way back. Not our way like we’re lost in
the wilderness. I’m just saying there are times you go through offensive ruts
and you lose your rhythm,” Coach Doc Rivers said late Friday night after the
Clippers’ 105-97 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Paul’s return. “Right before
the break, we had an amazing rhythm going.”
Rivers spoke glowingly about the “great rhythm” the Clippers had in piling up 61
first-half points against the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night.
Then the offense got stagnant in the second half because of too much standing
around and because the basketball was stuck on one side of the court too often.
The defense was in shambles, giving up a whopping 50 points to the Warriors in
the third quarter. There were times when some Clippers didn’t even get back on
defense, making it easier for the potent Warriors to score.
Against the Spurs, Rivers said they scored in the first half, “but we didn’t
really have a rhythm.”
“We were just scoring baskets,” he said. “So we have to get back to being more
organized, working our sets. Those are the things we can do. What we’re not
doing, it’s not hard to get back. I will say that.”
The Clippers also have to assimilate Paul back into the fold after he missed 14
games recovering from left thumb surgery.
“This is our first game in a long while with everybody,” Paul said after the
game against the Spurs. “I probably threw some guys off, but we’re going to
figure it out.”
The Clippers went 6-8 in the games Paul sat out.
But there also was a stretch of 18 games Blake Griffin missed with a right knee
injury.
“We’ve dealt with so many different injuries in the past that everything is
somewhat irrelevant until you get the whole crew out there,” Paul said. “No
matter how we played with Blake out, no matter how we played with me out, we
need both of us as well as everybody else in order to see what we really look
like.”
***
No. 2: Thunder’s Abrines benefits from Westbrook boost — There is no official
statistic for it, yet, but ask anyone who watches the Oklahoma City Thunder on a
consistent basis and they’ll tell you that Russell Westbrook’s teammates benefit
greatly from playing alongside the man who is single-handedly making the
triple-double great again. Thunder reserve Alex Abrines is certainly taking
advantage of the Westbrook boost, and will no doubt try and do so today when the
Thunder host the New Orleans Pelicans today (7 ET, NBA TV). Erik Horne of the
Oklahoman explains:
Think Alex Abrines enjoys playing next to Russell Westbrook?
Aside from one of the quotes of the year after the Thunder’s win against the
Lakers on Friday, Abrines’ numbers have been far better when he’s in the game
with Westbrook.
In 47 games this season, Abrines is shooting 40.2 percent from the field
overall. According to NBAwowy.com, entering Friday’s game Abrines was shooting
44.7 percent when in the game with Westbrook (44.8 percent from 3), compared to
38.1 percent when not in the game with Westbrook.
When Westbrook and Abrines have played together, the All-Star guard has assisted
on 22 of the rookie’s 30 made 3-pointers.
With Abrines likely to start his second consecutive game in place of Victor
Oladipo (back spasms), it could be to the Thunder’s benefit after his 5-of-11
3-point shooting display against the Lakers.
It seems simple, but a big key to the Thunder unlocking more 3-point shooting
could be pairing arguably its best 3-point shooter (Abrines) with its best
passer and player who draws the most attention (Westbrook) more frequently.
***
No. 3: Suns second unit showing encouraging signs — Confidence is a delicate
quality in the NBA, particularly for young and inexperienced players on a
struggling team like the Phoenix Suns. And now the that they’ve had their mix
tweaked a bit with the departure of veteran P.J. Tucker at the trade deadline,
continuing to build that confidence for members of the second unit is even more
critical. But as they prepare for today’s tilt against the Milwaukee Bucks (3:30
ET, NBA TV), Doug Haller of the Arizona Republic points out that the second unit
is showing encouraging signs:
If the Suns’ second unit at times looked unfamiliar in Friday’s loss to Chicago,
don’t worry, it’s not just you. Rookie point guard Tyler Ulis said the second
unit itself still is figuring things out.
Stuck at the bottom of the Western Conference, the Suns (18-40) are using the
season’s final stretch for player evaluation. That means playing their younger
players to see what they can offer, both in the short and long term.
On Friday, the Suns’ second unit consisted of Ulis, forward Derrick Jones, Jr.,
and big man Alan Williams, along with veterans Leandro Barbosa and Jared Dudley.
Despite the group’s collective inexperience, it had strong moments.
Consider:
Ulis had an impressive fourth-quarter stretch. With 9:41 left, he hit a jumper
to give Phoenix an 85-84 lead. Next time down he fed Williams for a dunk. Two
possessions later, the point guard dropped a floater in the lane. “Tyler did a
great job of controlling the second unit,” coach Earl Watson said.
The first big man off the bench, Williams hit his first eight shots, finishing
with a career-high 16 points. “It’s a good thing for us, to try and go out there
and play together as a younger group and try to build for the future,” said
Williams, a restricted free agent at season’s end. “And I think it’s a
tremendous opportunity for myself, as well as my teammates to show what we can
do.”
Jones showed off his athletic ability with a first-half dunk that got veteran
center Tyson Chandler and others off the bench cheering. In his longest outing
of his rookie season, Jones had six points, two rebounds and two assists. His
role moving forward: “He has to be a great defender,” Watson said. “That’s his
only role in the NBA. His defense is going to earn him more time to produce
offensively.”
Overall, the second unit produced 39 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.
“Hunger,” said Watson, describing what he saw from the group. “They’re playing
with confidence. I love everything they’re doing. (Barbosa) stabilized that
group with Jared Dudley. It was a great mix. Tyler did a great job hitting big
shots, getting us back in the game in the fourth quarter.”
***
No. 4: Noel makes himself comfortable in debut with Mavericks — His spot in the
locker room was strategically placed next to Dirk Nowitzki’s, one of several
moves the Dallas Mavericks have made to ease the transition for trade deadline
arrival Nerlens Noel. The oft-maligned young big man is already paying the
gesture back. He made himself comfortable immediately in his debut with the
Mavericks, writes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News, a win over the
new-look New Orleans Pelicans:
As Nerlens Noel made his first move to get off the bench, the applause began to
build and finally hit a crescendo as he was announced to the home crowd.
You could almost feel the thirst for hope being quenched.
And it went both ways. Noel did his share of smiling on the court after three
seasons of mostly rugged times in Philadelphia.
“I think it’s a very fresh start that probably was needed,” Noel said. “It was a
tough few years in Philly. Going through that wasn’t easy, but I’m ready to look
back and say, ‘Wow, I really feel proud for the way you handled yourself.’ I’m
really looking forward to what we have here. The opportunity is coming in the
near future.”
The present wasn’t bad, either. The Mavericks scored a 96-83 victory over the
new-look New Orleans Pelicans, who got big nights from Anthony Davis and
DeMarcus Cousins, but little else. Noel did plenty of good things and so did a
lot of his teammates, including Dirk Nowitzki with 18 points and nine rebounds.
After six seasons of watching older veterans come and go on short-term
contracts, the fandom saw in Noel an actual, high-flying, quick-afoot big man
who could be timed running down the court with a stopwatch, not an hourglass.
Noel did not start. Coming in “off the bus” as coach Rick Carlisle said, he
didn’t have enough knowledge of the Mavericks’ system to jump center. But that
will come soon enough, Carlisle assured.
He finished with nine points and 10 rebounds in 30 minutes and had a signature
moment that most people might not have noticed early in the fourth quarter.
Noel set a screen for Devin Harris at the top of the key, then rolled to the
basket. The defense went with him, determined not to give up any easy lob dunks.
That left Dirk Nowitzki all by his lonesome on the perimeter and he swished an
18-footer for a 71-65 lead. Just the threat of attacking the rim helped the
offense. The Mavericks would stretch the lead to double-digits two minutes later
and never were seriously threatened down the stretch.
“It’s like the hockey assist,” Noel said. “The guy has to come in (on him). It
opens up a lot for a shooter like Dirk. That’s going to be so crucial in
late-game situations. You (the defense) have to commit to something. I think it
can only get better from here. I just want to keep learning, keep progressing.”
Harris said it brought back memories to him of a former Maverick who was pretty
accomplished in the lob-dunk game, Brandan Wright.
“It’s an easy play,” Harris said. “I don’t look too much to score off that play
because the lob is either going to be there or there’s somebody open on the weak
side. We used to run a lot of it back when B-Wright was here, a legitimate lob
threat. I think you’ll see more of that moving forward.”
When the night was done, the Mavericks had a crowd-pleasing win and a clear
vision of what the youth brigade is going to look like going forward.
***
SOME RANDOM HEADLINES: The red-hot Miami Heat have won 16 of their last 18 games
but somehow keep getting knocked out of their national TV spots … The struggle
is real for the Cleveland Cavaliers sans LeBron James, and against the Chicago
Bulls (0-3 this season) … Frank Kaminsky had to take control of the action for
the Hornets to end their losing streak … The Hawks have bigger problems than
just Dennis Schroder’s routine tardiness these days … It’s a good thing the
Knicks didn’t trade Carmelo Anthony, who saved them from another late-game
disaster against the Sixers … The Warriors have already clinched their playoff
berth and could soon add another critical piece in backup point guard Jose
Calderon …
