Clippers blow out Celtics: Kawhi Leonard & James Harden have “championship ceiling” | Hoops Tonight

Clippers blow out Celtics: Kawhi Leonard & James Harden have “championship ceiling” | Hoops Tonight

Clippers Celtics so I’ve kind of talked in my Contender tiers and stuff about these like different archetypes of teams right and specifically among the contenders to me there’s two archetypes there’s the big traditional playoff teams right these teams have huge front courts they kind of like play Like a

Rock fight style of basketball right like this is your Milwaukee Bucks this is kind of Philly kind of falls into this uh this mold as well this this is the Denver Nuggets this is the Minnesota Timberwolves this is the Los Angeles Lakers right these big bruising front

Lines that are built more around the traditional uh basketball build right and then we have like these perimeter oriented teams these are the teams that like they don’t really have excellent Rim protection but they just have a boatload of guys that are that are you know uh multi-level scores that can mix

People up off the dribble that can attack Closeouts that can play drivve and kick basketball and they’re typically a little more thin and they’re typically smaller but they’re typically a hell of a lot more skilled and generally speaking like either team can beat the other if they exploit their advantage if they control

Like again M Styles make fights but it’s whichever style wins the fight right like it doesn’t really like quickness versus size well if the big guy weaponizes his size more than the quick guy can weaponize his quickness the big guy’s going to win or vice versa right

But like this was an interesting example of the two top teams that I have in that perimeter oriented archetype I did my uh I kind of redid my Contender rankings last weekend with the nerd SES guys and I had the nuggets at one the Celtics at

Two the bucks at three and I had the Clippers at four and so this is the two teams in that top four that are of that archetype competing against each other and then again like the Clippers too like they uh they’ve won a lot of games

But a lot of the there have been some games where like kawai’s been out for Major matchups against against kind of like higher profile teams this was a good example of an opportunity for them to to add just another layer of legitimacy to their success and it could not have come at a

Worse time because they just played a back toback in Toronto the night before I texted my buddy La Murray who covers the clippers for the athletic and I’m like are they all playing tonight and they’re like he told me that Paul George was coming off of kind of like an ankle

Issue and that he was questionable for the Toronto game and that he ended up still playing and I was like man like I I that’s so lame that that this game is going to be kind of like a little bit clouded by the back-to-back thing we also have Chris Ops porzingis out with

The uh with the ankle injury right and that for the record that’s the one big difference between the Celtics and those other kind of perimeter oriented teams is they have chrisop porzingis he’s the one thing that kind of like changes everything about what about what that team does it’s the it’s the true

Difference Maker and it’s one of the big reasons why I have them in my top tier of contenders alongside Denver it’s not the same Boston team from years past it’s that Boston team with a legit stretch big he’s their second best onoff guy on the

Team and that became a big theme in this particular game the Clippers particularly in that third quarter run were relentlessly attacking Al Horford in pick and roll he’s just a little too slow just a little too small and it’s not a a shot at Al Horford it’s just the

Phase of his career that he’s in right like and it just goes to show you how different the Celtics look when porzingis is not out there just how important he is and for the record like that’s that’s the case with all these teams right like if Denver loses one of

Their starters I I I think that fundamentally changes their title chances in a big way regardless of which starter it is same thing goes for Milwaukee same thing goes for Boston same thing goes for the Clippers the Lakers all these teams nobody in this this field is good enough to be able to

Afford losing an important player but I thought you saw saw tonight just exactly how important chrisop Pingus is like Al Horford actually this season that has a negative onoff rating for the Celtics and it just goes to show you the difference between those two and what

They can do first of all porzingis is a type of pick and pop player that actually draws attention from the defense there are a lot of like pick and pop bigs that teams will concede jumpers to Al Horford is one of those guys when Al Horford picks and Pops you just kind

Of live with the results porzingis between his ability to uh actually attack mismatches in the post successfully and his skill just as a pick and pop big just kind of fundamentally changes their defense and it it because of the difference in size between him and a typical perimeter

Player it’s going to lead to more traditional coverages meaning they won’t switch which will force an over-the-top uh uh uh you know Pursuit from a player that was one of the big themes in this game was the Clippers switching stagnated a lot of the screening actions that Boston was running which

Specifically baits Boston Austin into their worst Tendencies which is when they get to that point they have a tendency to take a lot of really tough either quick catch and shoot threes that aren’t that open or tough pull-up jump shots they they lack the the kind of discipline to be like they’re switching

We got to find the smallest guy we got to get Rim pressure to try to get the defense into rotation so that we can play drive and kick basketball right porzingis because of the difference in size you’re not going to switch that most of the time it’s going to be more

Like what the Clippers were doing with the uh um with actions that involved Horford they’re running a drop they’re they’re they’re chasing over the top right and so that’s that kind of goes to show you with porzingis he just gives you the ability to make the Clippers

Play a different type of Defense right but like that went a long way in this particular game porzingis being out attacking Horford in pick and roll as much as they did the switching to stagnate Boston um and then honestly like if you really start to get down to

It I think the the Celtics are the most talented team in the league I think that’s pretty clear and I think the Celtics down the roster are more talented than the Clippers are but if you look at the top guys it’s like is Kawhi Leonard better than Jason Tatum

Yeah he just is he just is is Paul George better than Jaylen Brown yeah I think so and it just goes to show you like especially in higher leverage environments the top guys matter more that’s been one of the biggest problems for the Celtics over the years is like

Just Tatum runs into Steph in kind of stalls out Tatum runs into jimmmy Butler and then kind of stalls out and like specifically in a playoff environment Whoever has the best player on the floor does actually matter quite a bit and it’s one of the biggest question marks

Surrounding the Celtics in general will they have the best player in a series against the bucks no they won’t will they have the best Ser player in a series against the Sixers yeah tatums outplayed Joe embiid pretty consistently I I think we can state that unequivocally would uh Jason Tatum be

The best player in a series against the Miami Heat like it’s a tossup so some years he outplays Jimmy Butler some years he doesn’t say he gets out of the conference and goes into the West is he the best player in the series with Denver no is he the best player in the

Series with the Clippers no is he the best player in the series with the Lakers I don’t know like I think Tatum’s a better regular season player than both LeBron and AD but in a playoff setting I think you’re you may very well take both

Of them right so like it just goes to show you like how that can how they can play a bigger role down the line in a game like this that it like Kawhi Leonard andul George are just better two-way basketball players than Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown and and that goes

A long way towards that Dynamic the Clippers have arguably been the best team in the league after the Harden trade not by record but just in terms of the the the amount of impressive wins that they’ve been putting up this Daniel Tai signing has been a home run like like obviously he

Came in as a result of an injury but like his ability to pick and pop once again the same kind of concept that we talked about earlier involving the coverages like his ability to pick and pop just opens things up in terms of the driving Lanes especially with James Harden in pick and

Roll but I thought when I was watching that game today like I thought it was a textbook example of two teams that play a similar style but the Clippers are disciplined and deliberate about getting the right shots in the Celtics or not now before we go too negative on the

Celtics because I I’m not changing my Contender ranking based on this particular game gingis being out is a huge deal they need him to win the title they just do he is the differen maker between the the the Celtics and these other teams at the top of the league

Boston was also really sloppy they were really sloppy in transition defense that kept getting beat down the floor they were turning the basketball over I thought also like it was a textbook example of a game where the scoreboard doesn’t really properly reflect the difference between the two teams because

I thought the Celtics kind of lost Spirit a little bit and a lot of times when that happens it can be a landslide when one team is playing with confidence and another team is playing utterly without without it it can the Gap can build pretty wide and then like you

Could play again and the confidence Dynamic can you know flip and then it could be completely different right um but yeah really really interesting game shout out to Clippers that was how many times have you seen teams in the NBA this year be like oh we’re on a back

Toback on the road against a really good team ask screw it let’s just go home you know let’s just let’s float through this game and get out of here and that’s not what happened they showed up and they kicked the Celtics ass I thought it was really impressive

Jason Timpf reacts to the Los Angles Clippers beating the Boston Celtics 115-96. He discusses how the James Harden trade has made the Clippers one of the best teams in the NBA, and how Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown continue to struggle against top-end talent.

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