Los Angeles Clippers Illustrated Their Wing Dominance In Game 1 Victory Over Nuggets

Following one of the closest and most physically taxing seven-game series you’ll ever see, Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets knew the next challenge was even harder.

Starting Game 1 of the West semifinals within 48 hours of their emotional roller-coaster versus Utah was one thing. It didn’t matter who the opponent was — that’s a nightmare on tired legs. But in this scenario, with the team lining up across from them being the Los Angeles Clippers, a group with the most switch-heavy scheme as it pertains to defending dynamic guards, it only added to the mental exhaustion.

When everyone is available, this has been a matchup the Clippers have felt comfortable with all season. They have trusted their vaunted perimeter defenders to stifle Denver’s pet actions, namely the multitude of dribble-handoffs and pick-and-rolls involving Murray. With the length of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, along with the aggressiveness of Marcus Morris in one-on-one situations, there are limited areas for ball-handlers to exploit. To have abundant success, it almost requires the primary attacker to have the size to match L.A.’s defenders. In the first round, that was the case with Luka Dončić choosing his path on every drive without any regard of the defensive threats in front of him.

In this particular series, the only true advantage the Nuggets have is with their multifaceted center, Nikola Jokic, dictating the offense from the top of the key. His vision, coupled with how much attention he demands as a post scorer, is more dangerous to the Clippers’ style on defense than Murray’s off-the-dribble skill. Denver seemed to realize that in the early portion of Game 1, as they relied on Jokic to generate open looks for shooters while also using his flair to get interior shots for himself.

In his first 12 minutes of play, Jokic had seven shot attempts with a 27% usage rate. The Nuggets had the game tied after the first quarter, mostly due to shifting the Clippers’ defense and forcing a lot of rotations with their passing. Jokic being assertive played a large part in getting L.A. out of position on a lot of possessions.

It just didn’t last.

After the first quarter, Jokic only attempted seven more shots in his final 18 minutes of action, scoring only seven points in the second and third quarters combined. When the effectiveness of Jokic dissolved, so did everything else. The Nuggets weren’t able to get Murray enough quality shots off the ball, and the Clippers were completely fine living with Denver’s role players taking open threes after some rough defense on Murray and Jokic.

For the game, Denver shot just 2-of-14 (14.3%) on three-pointers with at least six feet of space. Nearly 39% of the Nuggets’ total three-point opportunities were considered “wide-open,” a testament to how much the Clippers were willing to sacrifice in the halfcourt.

More than likely, that’s how this series will continue to look. If anyone outside of Jokic and Murray start to burn them, adjustments will come. In the previous series, it was the combination of Trey Burke and Seth Curry that eviscerated L.A. to relieve some stress from Dončić. Who is that going to be in this series? If healthy and active, you could point to Will Barton. Ideally, Michael Porter Jr. would be the best shot-creator in this matchup. But, Denver hasn’t been able to survive defensively with him on the floor. In Game 1, the Clippers toyed with Porter by daring him to switch onto Lou Williams or making him pick his poison once Montrezl Harrell rolled to the rim.

Realistically, it has to be Gary Harris or Jerami Grant. Outside of Murray and Jokic, it’s clear that Grant is the most important player for Denver to have a chance in this matchup. He’s the only one capable of giving Leonard fits in isolation (but even that failed for Denver on Thursday as Leonard shot 4-of-5 when matched against Grant). Given how the Clippers blatantly did not care about allowing threes to Denver’s non-stars, Grant is going to get as many triples as he wants in this series. He shot 3-of-6 in Game 1, which usually leads to success for the Nuggets. It didn’t matter because the rest of the team shot 6-of-30 (20%).

On the Clippers’ side of the things, there are three meaningful takeaways from their 23-point victory after four days of rest. Those are undoubtedly the return of Patrick Beverley, the continued stretching of the defense by Marcus Morris, and the Nuggets’ inability to handle Kawhi Leonard from any spot on the floor.

With Beverley back in the lineup for the first time in 17 days (nursing a calf strain), the Clippers enjoyed the benefit of having their defensive leader. He only played 12 minutes, as Rivers is being cautious before ramping up his workload in these intense playoff games. In those 12 minutes, Beverley provided a spark with his highly-spirited defense — getting around screens in a hurry, making it harder for Denver to get the switches they wanted, and jumping passing lanes with timely reads.

The Clippers also felt Beverley’s impact as a release valve on the offensive end, being in the right spots when Denver’s defense was keyed in on Leonard and the high-usage scorers. This included knocking down two of his three attempts from the right corner, as well as making plays at the rim when defenders left him roaming.

“I think people forget about his offense,” Rivers said. “He’s a terrific shooter, especially from the corner. And he knows that and he gets to those spots.”

That doesn’t mean Beverley is relegated into just being a spot-up shooter when he shares the floor with Leonard and George. In this series, specifically, he’s going to have his moments when Denver has to load up on Leonard. Which, again, they almost have to because there is nobody that can contain him in isolation.

One thing the Clippers like to utilize a lot is guard ball-screens when Leonard is handling at the top. The idea is to either force a smaller guard to switch onto Leonard, or cause a quick moment of confusion within the opponent’s pick-and-roll coverage. In the play below, watch how Beverley comes up from the corner to screen for Leonard, bringing his man (Monte Morris) into the action.

What Beverley does is smart — he slips the screen, realizing the Nuggets are going to attempt a “show and recover.” All it takes is one second of Morris losing track of Beverley, who has slipped back to the baseline:

It’s up to Leonard to get rid of the ball before Morris recovers, which he does, and that allows Beverley to attack the paint. Notice how Paul Millsap is forced to rotate to the cutting JaMychal Green, mostly because Jokic doesn’t want to leave the dunker spot. It creates an advantage for the Clippers, who did everything right from a read-and-react standpoint here.

Beverley’s calling card is always going to be his defensive disruption, though, and that’s not hard to see. When he’s on the floor, the team is more in-sync with their timing on weak-side rotations, and the tendency to blow a switch (which they did a lot of versus Dallas) is lowered. Even if Beverley often gambles or picks up cheap fouls, it’s his presence that makes everyone around him more alert.

“He gives us energy,” Rivers said. “We’re not a particularly loud team on the floor defensively. Pat is, in a lot of ways, with that starting lineup, a defensive captain with his voice. He calls out coverages. He holds everybody responsible. And to have that voice to start games is just invaluable.”

Moving forward in this series, Beverley’s minutes should start to rise. Not every game will be a blowout heading into the fourth quarter. It bodes well for the Clippers’ defense if he can stay away from the lower-body injuries, as they have allowed just 85.9 points per 100 possessions during the 33 minutes he’s played across two games.

Marcus Morris, who has received his share of backlash after a physical series with the Mavs, continued to show why the Clippers’ trade for him in February could be what ultimately determines the 2020 champion.

The main criticism against Morris entering the Clippers’ lineup was that he would take away possessions from Leonard, George, and even Lou Williams and mess up the offensive flow. After 26 total games with Los Angeles, that couldn’t be further from what’s actually taking place.

Morris has boosted their ceiling offensively by giving defenses another option to worry about on the perimeter — one they can’t afford to ignore. It completely cripples a team’s defense when George or Leonard operate in traditional pick-and-roll with one of the Clippers’ bigs. When Morris is on the floor, it’s usually Zubac who has the responsibility of pulling defenders from the corners, and putting pressure on the rim.

On this possession, the Nuggets are opting to have Jokic step up on the ball-screen and prevent George from taking a three. When Zubac gets out of the screen, George hits him early because he knows Denver won’t be able to recover.

Zubac’s next read? Because he’s such a great finisher around the rim, it pulls Millsap over from the corner to help. This is “tagging” the roller. When Zubac sees that, he makes the timely pass to the left corner, where the Clippers’ best spacer is licking his chops:

They are able to log this information — and how the defense will react — in the back of their heads. It allows for them to make similar reads later in the game. Below is a good example with the same alignment, a George-Zubac ball-screen.

Watch how George is able to see Jokic dropping back to contain the roller, instead of jumping out to the perimeter. All this means is one fewer pass. It goes straight to the corner once Millsap cheats inside to help:

Morris is stretching defenses too thin by waiting on the ball. He’s not hunting the ball and trying to do too much. Through seven games in the playoffs, he’s 7-of-11 on corner threes and 11-of-20 on above-the-break threes. Overall, that’s 18-of-31 from long range. In the playoffs, 52 players have attempted at least 30 triples. His 58.1% efficiency is the highest among them.

Morris has even shown the willingness to set up others. That stems from his ability as a shooter and scorer, especially when he’s involved in screening action. Since shooters are often the toughest screeners to guard, the Clippers have experimented with some Morris-Leonard two-man game. Here, Morris slips out of the screen early, knowing he’ll have an open lane with Millsap trailing:

All Morris has to do is attract Jokic as the help defender, and he knows Zubac will be one short pass away.

“I think for him, he’s got to be aggressive, as well,” George said about Morris after the win. “And he’s got to be himself. I think what we have done best is just allowed him to be himself and play his game. He’s a play-maker and scorer and that benefits all of us as well.”

As for Leonard’s brilliance in Game 1, there really isn’t much else to say about his playoff essence. If he’s basically a robot during the entire regular season, I’m not sure what he morphs into when the postseason arrives. Whichever scientist is responsible for creating him needs to be delivered a championship ring every time his team is the last one standing.

Scoring 29 points on 12-of-16 shooting, Leonard sliced up the Nuggets with his usual shot diet. He was 9-of-10 overall in the paint and 3-of-6 on all other jumpers, including threes. It brought his current playoff average to 32.3 points per game on 65.7% true shooting and it’s honestly surprising both numbers aren’t higher.

In the playoffs, Leonard has only missed six shots from his favorite area, which is between 10 and 14 feet from the basket. Inside of 14 feet, he’s a combined 60-0f-83 during these first seven games. That’s 72.3% and it doesn’t seem like it’s going down any time soon.

“Just efficient,” Rivers said of Leonard’s style. “You know, he puts the work in. There’s very few guys that will outwork him. So he puts it in, so when the game starts, he can withdraw. So he does put a lot of work in but he’s very efficient. I’ve been very impressed with how he can get it through your offense. He’s been great for us.”

With Denver’s personnel, there are just very few options that give him a reason to hesitate. It didn’t matter who was matched on him — Jerami Grant, Torrey Craig, Paul Millsap, or Nikola Jokic — it wasn’t going to affect Leonard’s vision of the rim when pulling up or driving.

In semi-transition, with the Nuggets trying to figure out their assignments, Leonard made them pay by picking on the 35-year-old Millsap. This is about as unfair as it gets, with the change of direction enabling Leonard to get into his most efficient range:

Denver was also in trouble any time they elected to switch against Leonard. Here, Craig begins the possession on him, before Williams calls for a screen to make sure they get Monte Morris switched onto Kawhi in the post.

When he receives the ball, he immediately realizes help is coming from two directions (the baseline and nail). The ball is pitched back to Williams at the top, and it all breaks down from there:

Morris gets confused and leaves Leonard, which forces Jokic to close out to the corner. Given Jokic’s lack of speed, all it takes is for Leonard to pump-fake and attack the rim. It was probably the Clippers’ most patient possession of the night in regards to picking apart Denver’s sub-par defense.

What can the Nuggets do against Kawhi to make him less effective? The only answer is likely to double him every time he’s in the mid or high-post position. It’s not a sound strategy for a team that struggles to rotate on time — and Denver largely makes too many defensive mistakes in the halfcourt — but it’s the only ounce of hope they have.

Getting the ball out of his hands and forcing everyone else to make smart reads is what I would roll with. They tried it a couple times in the second half, and this possession stuck out. When Leonard catches at the nail, Millsap moves off of Morris on the wing and eventually sends a hard double on the ball:

That puts pressure on Harris to zone up the right side, where he has two deadly shooters waiting for Leonard to make a pass. When the ball moves to Morris, it’s up to Harris to close out and Jokic to rotate from the middle to the corner.

The Nuggets, collectively, have to defend their tails off like this every single possession. It’s precisely why this series was their worst-possible matchup. Not only do the Clippers have the one-on-one scorers to throttle Denver, but they can make it exhausting on a defense when they spread the floor with capable shooters and slashers. It’s hard to envision Denver being able to get stops like this on a consistent enough basis to have a chance.

This is the best Leonard has looked offensively in his entire career. He knows how difficult the next potential series would be, so it makes sense for him to be sharpening his tools from all areas on the floor right now.

Most of the Clippers haven’t progressed through the playoffs to the degree Leonard has. To them, having a guy that’s seen every type of defensive coverage and a teammate that never gets rattled is a blessing.

“He’s probably the calmest player I’ve been around,” JaMychal Green said. “Seems like he doesn’t sweat. He just be out there doing his own little thing.”

Unless the Nuggets are content with another second-round exit, they have to figure out way to make him sweat offensively. As they found out in Game 1, it’s easier said than done.