Clippers Second Unit Poor Defense Make Outlook Worrisome

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Remember the Golden State Warriors of five years ago or even the free gunning Phoenix Suns during Steve Nash’s era? They were great regular season teams to watch but come playoff time disappointment would prevail. This day and age the Clippers are one of the best offensive teams to watch in the NBA. They have the fire power to run teams out of the building and do-so with 35/40 point quarters.

An area the Clippers just don’t seem to be lacking any passion is on the defensive end. Earlier in the season the team lacked the offensive cohesion to overcome their poor defensive play. They’ve obviously cleared that hurdle but back then Doc Rivers was stressing they needed to improve defensively.

Los Angeles is coming off of two games one against Detroit and one against Milwaukee that they were clearly the better team. In each game they come out on fire and quickly built double digit leads. Sloppy play offensively by the Clippers second units and their lack of defense let both the Bucks and Pistons back in the game. This of course was instrumental in killing any chances of sports bettors to cover a large spread in both games- check out the official NBA betting odds to better grasp the concept.

Against Detroit they held a first quarter lead of 36-23 to only see the Clippers actually trail late in the second quarter Second Quarter vs Pistons. Against Milwaukee last night you could of hit the repeat button. The Clippers were up by fifteen points late in the first quarter and relinquished the lead before the six minute mark of the second quarter.

This is clearly not a good sign for a team that is supposed to be dominant come playoff time. To get better the Clippers are going to need their high value pickups in Danny Granger and Glen Davis to develop as a true dependable bench unit. Clearly with those two, Collison, Crawford, and Jared Dudley they should boast as the top bench in the NBA.

For whatever reason that hasn’t happened and maybe the group just needs that on-court time to gel together.

Something will need to change quickly for the Clippers in the dominant Western Conference. There will be a formidable foe waiting for them in round one. With the style of play the Clippers display they’re going to be vulnerable to be pushed to a six or even seven game series right off the bat. To refrain from this happening they will need to up the ante on the defensive end of the floor. By letting the Detroit Pistons beat them at their own game of lob city repeatedly with Andre Drummond showcased their lack of passion on that end of the floor.

Let’s see what the Doc can get in order down in Los Angeles. It would be a travesty for a team with this type of talent to surrender in the playoffs because of an inability to play defense.