It's Only November, but LA Clippers Look Like NBA's Best Team out of the Gate
LOS ANGELES — "I'm going to tell you straight up: It means absolutely nothing," Chris Paul said.
Doc Rivers would've preferred that nobody brought it up.
"I hate stats," he said. "I used to like them until that moment."
The moment came after the Los Angeles Clippers' 127-95 flattening of the Brooklyn Nets on Monday—their seventh straight win overall at the time and third consecutive at home by at least 30 points.
The stat? The Clippers' point differential through 11 games was the fourth-best of all time, per Sports Illustrated's Ben Golliver.
Perhaps they were right to brush off that number. They looked like their juggernaut selves only in fits and starts during a 111-107 home loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night.
"Sometimes, when you win a series of games by a lot, you forget how hard it is to win in this league," J.J. Redick said after the defeat. "The other thing is, sometimes you can get a little comfortable, and you can forget what makes you good."
What's made the Clippers good—if not arguably the best in the NBA this season—is their defense. According to NBA.com, they've held opponents to a league-low 94.6 points per 100 possessions and rank second in effective field-goal percentage allowed (46.5 percent).
Last season, L.A. finished fifth and fourth in those respective categories after a slow start. It took the team some time to adapt to more aggressive, switch-prone pick-and-roll coverages assistants Lawrence Frank and Brendan O'Connor implemented prior to the 2015-16 season.
More than a year later, those growing pains are paying off. Per NBA.com, the Clippers rank second in pick-and-roll defense against ball-handlers.
But the biggest change this year has less to do with X's and O's and more with a shift in the team's collective approach.
"We get excited to play defense," Paul said. "We're excited to get stops. It hasn't been like that. We've always been really good offensively, but our defense now is what gets us going."
The Clippers had to clamp down early on. During the first few games, their shots weren't falling, nor was the ball moving as much as Rivers had hoped it would. Since suffering their first loss of the season—an 85-83 grinder against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 2—they've snapped back to being the elite scoring machine they've been ever since Paul arrived in 2011.
| Warriors | 113.7 |
| Raptors | 110.8 |
| Timberwolves | 109.9 |
| Clippers | 109.3 |
| Cavaliers | 108.6 |
"I never worried about it. I've said that about our offense," Rivers said. "We've got too many good offensive players to have that many bad nights the way we were early on. But our pace, our space and then our attacking has been the difference."
It's not just the starters who've gotten it done, either. Among lineups that have logged at least 80 minutes, L.A.'s starting five of Paul, Redick, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute has posted far and away the best net rating. Just down the list, though, is the Clippers' second unit of Jamal Crawford, Austin Rivers, Raymond Felton, Wesley Johnson and Marreese Speights.
| Clippers | Griffin-Jordan-Mbah a Moute-Paul-Redick | plus-29.2 |
| Rockets | Anderson-Ariza-Capela-Gordon-Harden | plus-19.4 |
| Lakers | Black-Jordan-Ingram-Nance Jr.-Williams | plus-18.9 |
| Trail Blazers | Aminu-Harkless-Lillard-McCollum-Plumlee | plus-15.3 |
| Clippers | Crawford-Felton-Johnson-Rivers-Speights | plus-14.6 |
"Our first team has been pretty good, but it's fun for me to actually watch our second unit and those guys come in," Paul said. "When I come out the game, it's not like, 'Dang, I'm coming out.' I'm tagging in. If you watch wrestling, you tag a guy in. I think that's what we feel like."
There's been some drop-off since Johnson went down with a bruised heel (more on that later), but overall, the work between the starters and reserves has been seamless. The roster has played with and for each other.
"They're really a no-nonsense group," Rivers said. "They get along. They understand their roles. They buy into it. They can argue and laugh two minutes later. It's just a good spirit."
That spirit has carried the Clippers to a league-best 10-2 record on the strength of the highest net rating in basketball. Only one other time during Rivers' tenure have they logged double-digit victories before Thanksgiving.
"I didn't know what we were going to be, but I feel like we were going to have a good start," Rivers recalled. "Just through camp, you just felt like this team, they were together. They were ready. You don't get that a lot. When you get it, you push it even more."
How hard do the Clippers want to push it? There's nothing wrong with a strong start, but this team has its sights set on playing deep into May and June, not dominating during the holidays. Throughout the years, they've had more than their fair share of heartache and disappointment when games matter most.
"When you go through experiences like that as a team, it can do one of two things," Griffin explained. "It can kind of make you grow apart and resent each other and start pointing the finger, or it can bring you closer together, and I think that's what that's done."
The Clippers felt that familiar pull following the loss to the Grizzlies.
Chances are they'll feel it again. According to ESPN.com, they've played the league's third-softest schedule so far, with just one game against a top-five team. Between now and Christmas Day, they'll play games against the Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, sprinkled within and around a six-game road trip.
One close setback to a quality Western Conference opponent won't push the Clippers off their pedestal yet. If anything, the lessons learned could make them even more lethal in the long run.
"We made a lot of mistakes that are fixable," Rivers said. "I guess that's the good news."
Clippers Insider's Notebook
CP Sees
Paul is having a banner year from outside the paint. So far, he's hit a career-best 45.8 percent of his three-point tries and half of his long twos (i.e. between 16 feet out and the arc).
What's behind Paul's sharpshooting?
"I had Lasik eye surgery this summer," he revealed. "My brother sent me a text the other day saying that my percentage is up because of my Lasik eye surgery."
Rivers didn't realize his star point guard needed the procedure until the offseason—even after seeing Paul squint whenever he looked to the sideline for a play call.
"I thought he was just pissed. I have that effect on players," he said. "I just thought it was the normal expression when I say something."
According to Rivers, the Clippers have a habit of evaluating their players' vision every year. Without those tests, the team could've just as easily missed Paul's problem. His court vision has always been excellent, as his four assist titles suggest.
"When you're a point guard, it's pretty important that you have clear vision," Rivers said.
Paul appreciates the improvement in his sight, but he wasn't ready to credit his doctor with the jump in his shooting percentages.
"I like to think that I have something to do with it," he said, "but it might be. I do see a lot better than I did."
Watch Your Pockets
It's also possible that Paul's Lasik surgery has had something to do with his uptick in thefts. He's on track to snag his seventh steals title, courtesy of a career-best 3.1 takeaways per game.
"That's something I've done my whole career, just getting my hands in there to try to steal the ball and stuff like that," he said. "The second that I have to think about whether or not I should try to steal a ball then I'm in trouble. I've been doing that since I was a kid. That's one thing, I would just steal the ball."
Those childhood habits have paid off handsomely. The Clippers lead the league in steals (10.6 per game) and points off turnovers (20.8 per game). If he keeps it up, Paul should have a bead on his seventh straight All-Defensive selection and his sixth consecutive first-team spot. Either way, staying active in that regard will be key to keeping LAC atop the defensive heap.
"I don't know how many deflections or steals we get as a team," Paul said, "but the energy is there, and everybody is engaged."
Sans Wes
At first glance, you wouldn't think Wesley Johnson was much of a factor. Through nine games, he's posted career lows in minutes (14.1), points (3.2), field-goal percentage (31.4) and three-point percentage (28.6).
Dig deeper, though, and you'll see how much the Clippers have missed Johnson since he went down with a bruised heel. According to NBA.com, L.A.'s bench group with Brandon Bass in Johnson's place next to Rivers, Felton, Crawford and Speights has been outscored by 24.1 points per 100 possessions. With Johnson in that fivesome, the Clippers have crushed their foes by 14.6 points per 100 possessions.
"Obviously, the second unit is a little different with Brandon than Wes," Rivers said. "The spacing is different. I don't think that group is used to that yet, and I think they've been up and down because of it."
Not that Bass has been bad individually. He's shot the ball well in limited chances (12-of-22 from the field) and has generally handled himself well defensively. If anything, L.A.'s issues in Johnson's absence highlight just how key continuity often is to elite performance.
Practice? What Practice??
A hectic early-season schedule has left the Clippers bereft of practice time. L.A. hasn't had a full practice since Oct. 29 and likely won't have time for one until early December.
In the absence of hours to spend sharpening everything, the Clippers' coaching staff has resorted to using shootarounds to focus on one aspect of the game or one play at a time, occasionally to the players' dismay.
"What we're doing now is, we'll go over, like, one play, and we'll go over it 10 times," Rivers explained. "You can see the guys rolling their eyes because it's monotonous, but it's important, so that's what we have to do."
All the better, then, that L.A. shortened its preseason schedule to six games from the usual seven or eight. It had eight full days between its last exhibition game and its regular-season opener in Portland to polish its act on both ends.
"I thought those extra practices turned out to be really good for us," Rivers said.
The Clippers will have more time to buckle down in their training facility following a six-game road trip that starts in late November and carries into December.
The first date they've circled? Dec. 6—the day before the Warriors come to town.
All quotes obtained firsthand. All stats accurate as of Wednesday.
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