10 Burning Questions for the Los Angeles Clippers Going into Round 2

After scrapping their way to yet another gritty and gutsy win at the Grindhouse, the Los Angeles Clippers find themselves in very unfamiliar territory: the second round of the playoffs.

Since moving to Los Angeles in 1984, this is only the second time that the Clips have made it past Round 1. Their previous visit to the conference semis—back in 2006—saw L.A. take a very good Suns team led by back-to-back MVP winner Steve Nash to seven games before bowing out.

This time around, the Clippers will take on a juggernaut Spurs team coming off a casual sweep of the Jazz.

Here are 10 burning questions for the Clips as they go into San Antonio for Game 1.

Will Chris Paul and Blake Griffin Be at 100 Percent?

L.A.'s two All-Stars both were banged up in Game 5 of the Memphis series.

Although neither has missed a game since, both have been clearly limited since the injuries and the Clippers almost blew a 3-1 series lead because of it.

If Paul and Griffin aren't running on all cylinders, the Clips have no shot at getting past San Antonio.

Will the Bench Keep Rolling?

Coming into the playoffs, the Clippers' second unit was seen as one of the team's biggest weakness.

In Round 1, the bench turned into the Clippers' biggest strength.

It was thought that a weak bench would not hurt the Clippers as much in the playoffs as the starters would play more minutes and the impact of the bench would decrease.

The Clips' second unit didn't follow conventional thinking. The fifth-least productive bench during the regular season increased its scoring and rebounding numbers in the playoffs and consistently brought the team back from large deficits.

The five guys who came off the bench were a combined plus-143 over the seven games. The reserves will need to keep up their strong play in order to keep pace with the most productive bench in the NBA in San Antonio.

Can the Clippers Clean the Glass?

In the first round, the Clippers grabbed the fewest rebounds per game of any team in the playoffs and had the third-worst rebound differential.

Luckily for them, the Spurs had the second-worst rebound differential of Round 1 and are a much smaller team than the Grizzlies squad that the Clippers just dispatched.

Is DeAndre Jordan Going to Show Up?

Jordan averaged a pitiful three points and four rebounds in 22 minutes of action per game.

The Clippers' highest paid player after Chris Paul needs to come with something more than that. I'd still expect to see heavy doses of Kenyon Martin and Reggie Evans in Round 2, as they will probably do a better job of defending Tim Duncan.

Who Will Emerge as the Third Scorer?

Chris Paul and Blake Griffin were the only two Clippers who averaged double figures scoring in Round 1.

Every other team in the postseason had at least three double-digit scorers and 13 of the other 15 had at least four players in double figures.

The Clippers had six different players finish third in scoring over the seven-game span. A consistent third scorer would really help the team take the overwhelming scoring load off of Paul and Griffin.

Can the Clippers Take Better Care of the Basketball?

During the regular season, the Clippers were excellent at holding on to the ball, accumulating the second-fewest turnovers per game. 

That changed in the postseason, when the Clips turned it over more frequently than all but three teams in the playoffs.

With the Spurs third in the playoffs in turnovers per game and second in assist-to-turnover ratio, the Clippers will have to take better care of the ball in order to have as many quality possessions as San Antonio.

Who Will Guard Manu Ginobili?

In the two games that Ginobili played against the Clippers at full strength, he absolutely killed them.

Ginobili averaged 23 points in those two games on just 10 shots, on ridiculous 60/64/100 (FG/3-PT/FT) shooting splits. Those mind-boggling numbers suggest that he was pretty much unstoppable against L.A.

The combination of Caron Butler, Nick Young and Randy Foye did a great job defending Memphis' wing scoring duo of Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo, holding the pair to woeful combined 37/26/80 shooting splits over the course of the series. 

Those three will likely share duties checking Ginobili in Round 2, and if they're even half as successful slowing him down as they were against the Grizzlies' scorers, the Clippers will have a chance to steal the series.

How Badly Will Gregg Popovich Out-Coach Vinny Del Negro?

On paper, this is probably the biggest advantage that the Spurs hold over the Clippers. This will be a matchup between the best coach remaining in the playoffs and the worst coach remaining in the playoffs.

Del Negro better use that clipboard to take some notes.

Can Chris Paul Outplay Tony Parker?

The biggest individual matchup of the series will be between the two point guards.

Paul and Parker finished third and fifth respectively in MVP voting this year, and both have been fantastic thus far in the postseason.

If the Clippers want to move past the Spurs into the conference finals, Paul will have to categorically outplay Parker to make up for the advantages that San Antonio has just about everywhere else.

Will the Clippers Defense Be Able to Slow the Spurs' Offensive Attack?

The Spurs lead all playoff teams in points per game, field-goal percentage and three-point field-goal percentage. 

The Clippers showed that they could play shut-down defense when they absolutely had to and allowed the second-fewest made three-pointers per game while boasting the third-lowest opponent three-point percentage.

Now that the Spurs are an offense-first team, the Clippers' No. 1 priority must be to slow down the precise execution of San Antonio's efficient attack.