Will the Clippers Be Able To Keep Up Their Historic NBA Offensive Scoring Pace?
The Los Angeles Clippers are scoring at the highest rate in their team's history. Now, this comes with a bit of a qualifier. It's sort of like being the tallest dwarf in the room, or having the highest vertical at fat camp, but it's something.
This isn't coming as a surprise at all. With Chris Paul leading the way and Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan dunking basketballs like they were donuts, this is a high-flying, fast-running, acrobatic circus worthy team.
Giving Chris Paul weapons like that is akin to giving Chuck Norris a bag full of weapons and asking what he can do with them.
First you've got your projectile weapons in Griffin and Jordan. Both can do devastating damage in the blink of an eye. One moment the ball is nicely and safely on the other side of the court in Chris Paul's hand. Then, if you blink too long, you suddenly see Griffin descending on the basketball rim, rattling home a dunk that threatens the very stability of the San Andreas Fault.
If you want to stop the Clippers, you don't stop Griffin. You just stop everyone else. It's easier to stick with the humanly possible.
After you get past the "guns" you have to worry about the cutting weapons. Paul has two blades in Caron Butler and Chauncey Billups that can carve you up form the perimeter. Billups and Butler combine for nearly 30 points per game between the two of them.
While Butler will slice and dice you from three point range, to the tune of 2.6 per game, Butler will dice and slice you form long twos, hitting an amazing 53 percent of his 3.8 long twos per game.
If the guns are empty and the blades are dull, Paul still has the last weapon, his own fists.
Paul creates 84 percent of his own points and scores from virtually everywhere on the court. Paul's field goal percentage from just about every range is remarkable, 71.4 percent at the rim, 45.5 percent from 3-9 feet, 71.4 percent from 10-15 feet, 42.0 percent from 16-23 feet and 33.3 percent from the three.
All together he has a true shooting percentage of .587.
When you give the NBA equivalent of a special forces operative that many weapons, it's just not fair.
The Clippers bench is 28th in the league in scoring but with the way their starters score they don't need a lot. This could easily be the best Clippers offense in the club's history, and should they ever get some scoring help on their bench, the best in the league.
