Clippers G8 - an unsurprising defeat, the opportunity for change is coming

For the current Clippers, analyzing any tactics is useless. The team in the new season is completely in a period of lineup chaos.

Kawhi Kawhi is absent today due to injury, and Harden has taken leave for personal reasons. In a system where the team relies entirely on the personal abilities of the two stars, losing is inevitable.

Although Bill returned today, his physical condition and personal status are obviously not enough to support the team's requirements for him.

Bill's wide-open three-pointer is one of the few bright spots.

Starting with the combination of Zubac, Batum, Jones, Bill, and Dunn. The performance in the first half was pretty good, but they were let down by the Suns in the third quarter.

The status of these two players, Bill and Batum, seriously affected the starting plus-minus value today.

It can be said that this first set was a complete failure.

The Clippers' few bright spots in this game were all on the bench.

Christie proved that young people deserve more playing opportunities. His defense and energy can help the team. He scored 17 points in the game, which was the team's biggest gain today.

Bogdan is slowly recovering.

His organization and breakthrough, as well as handling the ball after picking and rolling with the center, before Bill recovered from his injury, he was obviously the best on the team except Harden.

He scored 12 points today, and most importantly, sent out 5 assists.

Bogdan is a ball-holding second organizer. He is suitable for picking and rolling with traditional centers with the ball in hand to initiate attacks, rather than simply being a shooter. Only in this way can he maximize his strengths. The coaching staff still does not give enough trust and support in using Bogdan. This is also the main reason for Bogdan's struggles.

Visible to the naked eye, he should be ahead of Paul in the rotation order.

Collins made 4 more turnovers today, but still scored 13 points efficiently. The team's coaching staff obviously has a big problem with his use.

He is an air-cutting impact inside man who needs a wide space to handle the ball. He can use his mobility and athletic ability to hit the basket, including his offensive rebounds. He is more suitable to match the main lineup. In this way, his mistakes will be greatly reduced and his efficiency will be further improved.

Currently, he is the scoring point on the bench. He has to play with the ball by himself in many rounds. This is obviously a way of exploiting shortcomings and avoiding strengths, not to mention exposing his own weaknesses. There is no space for anyone to pass the ball, and the efficiency is also reduced.

This is why his mistakes have always been high.

Asking players to do things they are not good at will naturally lead to half the result with half the effort.

Paul is really only suitable to be a mascot off the court. He has no personal offensive threat now. Once Lopez's three-pointer is inaccurate, he should be replaced in time. Replace with a more impactful young center.

The combination of Paul and Lopez will never appear in a game again.

At least the coaching staff did this in the second half rotation.

In the starting end, Zubac looks to have good statistics and an efficient double-double. However, after watching the whole game, you will find that he misses all kinds of simple goals and makes inexplicable mistakes. Compared with last season, his dominance under the basket has declined. But no matter what, Harden and Kawhi are not playing, he is definitely the team's most important scoring point. His performance rebounded somewhat today, which is worthy of the support the team gave him.

Zubac’s best hook hit last season.

The hook shooting percentage is also declining this season.

If the Clippers want to reverse their decline, it is crucial for Zubac to regain his form last season.

Zubac made consecutive tip-ups under the basket. He needs to show such dominance

The third quarter of this game is a watershed.

The Clippers took the lead in the first half. Although substitutes Bogdan and Christie Collins performed well, they did not immediately change the starting lineup and replaced Beal and Batum who were in poor condition. After the opponent's momentum turned over, did they suspend the substitutions in time? No adjustments were made until the team was overtaken by more than 10 points. The entire coaching staff was slow to react, anticipate players' performance on the court, and adjust tactics. Even though they didn't figure out the main rotation and didn't play, they were completely defeated tactically. It's no surprise that they lost by a huge margin in this game.

As early as the fifth game when the Clippers narrowly defeated the Pelicans, I said that the current Clippers are a team on the edge of the play-offs. The team's subsequent three-game losing streak once again confirmed my opinion.

If the coaching staff cannot make major adjustments, the Clippers are likely to sink all the way this season.

A veteran-dominated team had a poor start and was basically sentenced to death for a season. After the wave of injuries, the veteran team lacked subsequent explosive power.

That’s why Harden said before the start of the regular season that we should strive to start with good results.

Now everything is backfired.

The Clippers have a bleak future this season. 8 games, 5 home and 3 away. Except for the Thunder, which is stronger, the other 7 teams were not as good as the Clippers last season. They only have one home back-to-back, which can be said to be one of the simplest starts in the league.

The Clippers' results were a disastrous defeat in all 3 away games and a 2-point home victory over the Pelicans, who were last in the Western Conference. Back-to-back losses to the Heat and Thunder. A home win over the Trail Blazers is the best game so far.

Bill's missed three-pointer is the epitome of today's unsatisfactory game. He went 2-for-14 from the field and only scored 5 points, which was totally off target.

Except for losing, you can't see any positive adjustments from the team. Regarding the use of players, it is not as thorough as the analysis by some experts on the forum, but it still cannot change the stubborn hiring plan of the coaching staff. This team is not seeing any improvement right now.

Maybe change is the only way out.