Spurs vs. Clippers Game 1: Why Fundamentalist Spurs Will Dominate Lob City

While the majority of the NBA playoff talk has been centered around Miami's depleting roster and the ever so exciting Harden-Artest matchup, the undefeated San Antonio Spurs sneak into their first game since Monday, May 7th.

In just four first round playoff games the purely perfect fundamentals of Coach Pop and his San Antonio Spurs outscored the Utah Jazz by 64 points, yet the Spurs continue to be ignored and written off as old. 

While "rust or rest" is always the question following a long break, like the Spurs have had since round 1, last night's Thunder-Lakers onslaught accurately foreshadowed tonight's Spurs-Clippers matchup. 

Seeing as how the last time the Spurs lost a game was April 11th, a tired, injury-prone team like the Clippers are not the team to stop San Antonio's dominance.  

While they have two of the most exciting players in the league in Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, the Clippers are fresh off their first game 7 playoff win in franchise history following the gritty, blue-collar series with the Memphis Grizzlies.

The biggest task for the Clippers to focus on is to chisel their transition game while trying to dominate the point guard matchup.   

All-Star Point Guards

Chris Paul and Tony Parker have not met in the playoffs since the 2008 Western Conference Semifinals, however this postseason the two are near-mirrior images of each other.

In his seven game series, Clippers floor General Chris Paul averaged over 20 points, seven assists and two steals per game.

Parker, on the other hand, has had an extremely consistent four wins averaging 21 points and 6.5 assists per game.   

Transition Defense

In the four Clippers wins over the Grizzlies last round they allowed just 9.2 transition points per game, however they allowed 20.3 transition points per game in their three losses.  

If the Clippers cannot control their transition game and quickly get back on defense, the fundamentally sound Spurs will dominate just as they did against Utah. 

Series Schedule

Date	Game	Time (EST)	Home Team	TV Network
May 15	1	9:30 pm	Spurs	TNT
May 17	2	9:30 pm	Spurs	ESPN
May 19	3	3:30 pm	Clippers	ABC
May 20	4	10:30 pm	Clippers	TNT
May 22	5	TBD	Clippers	TNT
May 25	6	TBD	Spurs	ESPN
May 27	7	TBD	Spurs	TNT