Do Gassed Clippers Have Enough Left to Compete with Rested Rockets?
The Los Angeles Clippers gave everything they had in their first-round victory over the San Antonio Spurs.
Now, they'll have to give a little more.
Such is life in the creatively torturous Western Conference, where the prize for winning a marathon is the right to run another one.
With virtually no rest.
Against an opponent who's been relaxing, waiting for you.
The Clippers just knocked off the defending champions in what might have been the best first-round series anyone's ever seen, and their reward is yet another title contender—this one led by the most unstoppable one-on-one scorer in the game in James Harden.
If that weren't enough, the Houston Rockets also posted the league's sixth-best defense during the regular season, per NBA.com.
Even though center Dwight Howard sat out all four games, they notched a 2-2 split in the season series against Los Angeles. To be fair, Clippers forward Blake Griffin missed two of those contests as well.
"It's crazy that that was the first round of the playoffs," point guard Chris Paul told reporters after Game 7.
Crazier, still, L.A. must now find a way to forget what seemed very much like a pinnacle and start its climb up yet another impossibly steep hill.
D.J. Foster of Fox Sports noted the feeling that L.A. had reached a new high in the first round:
This is the great looming shadow now hanging over the Clippers' season because what they did—and what Paul, specifically, did—against the Spurs was an utter triumph.
They beat the defending champs despite a nonexistent bench and a history of postseason disappointments.
Paul finally added the signature moment we'll all point to whenever his critics trot out the tired, flawed-from-the-start narrative that he doesn't come up big in the playoffs.
Beyond the decisive shot, Paul labored through an absolutely crucial game against a world-class opponent with a hamstring injury, per Tim Bontemps of the New York Post:
That injury could take its toll immediately, as Clippers head coach Doc Rivers expressed doubt to reporters that Paul would be able to play in Game 1 against Houston. ''My guess right now if I had to guess, I would say no,'' Rivers said Saturday. ''But I'm not sure.''
In addition to Paul's hamstring, the Clippers will also have to deal with the accumulated bumps and bruises covering Griffin's body. Forward Glen Davis, who inexplicably finds himself in the rotation of a playoff team in 2015, is battling a sprained left ankle.
Depth has long been the Clippers' primary weakness, and it will only become more pronounced as starters continue—by necessity—to log heavy minutes.
Griffin, Paul and shooting guard J.J. Redick all averaged at least 39 minutes per game in the first round.
With the Rockets' imposing defense hellbent on stopping L.A.'s key players, those minutes are eventually going to take a toll. In fact, you could already see the effects of fatigue in Griffin's first-round play, as he shot just 29.6 percent during the series' fourth quarters, per NBA.com.
Houston presents a strategic change of pace for the Clippers, who, after tangling with the Spurs' equal-opportunity system, must now hone in on Harden.
Forward Matt Barnes figures to see plenty of minutes on The Beard, but foul trouble—as Barnes is wont to find himself in—could result in Redick expending tons of energy against the league's second-leading scorer. If Redick is taxing himself to that end, the Clippers might find themselves with a dead-eye shooter who doesn't have any legs left.
Harden's ability to punish the Clippers' limited supply of wings makes the Rockets dangerous in ways that are totally different from the ones San Antonio presented.
And, of course, the Clippers will face all of these challenges—injury, fatigue, a lack of depth—without the benefit of home-court advantage.
That's a tall order.
There are counterarguments available.
The Clippers present matchup problems of their own, and the absence of point guard Patrick Beverley means the Rockets will have to either swallow hard and put the ancient Jason Terry on Paul or do some quirky cross-matching that could open up opportunities for the Clips elsewhere.
Rust, a frequent byproduct of rest, could also be an issue for the Rockets.
Because Houston caught a Dallas Mavericks team in the first round that was coming apart at the seams, we don't really know how Harden and Co. will react when truly tested in a playoff series.
The Clippers enter this matchup at a disadvantage in many respects, but it's not as though Houston is in perfect shape either.
The truth is, it felt like Paul and the Clippers accomplished something incredible in the first round because they did. They beat an elite team, gutting out tough moments in a series that could have easily gone another seven games without anyone ever figuring out which squad was truly superior.
Given that success, it would be easy for L.A. to be satisfied—even relieved. It would be easy for it to succumb to injury and fatigue.
And there wouldn't even really be any shame in that.
In the end, it will all come down to Paul. If he's healthy, the Clippers can beat anyone.
Considering all it took to get here, it's hard to imagine CP3—wearied and banged-up as he is—will give in now.
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