Clippers need to improve Defense to compete in the West

The Los Angeles Clippers have one of the league’s worst defenses, which does not bode well for them if you believe the famous quote, “Defense wins Championships.”

That is most likely the most used cliché in all of sports clichés. However, it is true to some extent. No, not always do the best defenses win NBA championships, but teams with the worst defenses never win NBA championships.

All this should be bad news for the Clippers, who entered their Saturday game last in the league in defense efficiency allowing 110 points per every 100 possessions.

If the Clippers plan to be a contender for the NBA title, they must make significant changes to their defense. On Saturday, in their win over Houston 107-94, the Clippers showed they know how to play defense. Now if they could only do that on a consistent basis.

Over their previous two games before Houston, Los Angeles saw how even the league’s best offenses can be slowed for a half or more.

On Wednesday of last week, the Clippers top offense in the league ran into the defense of Orlando scoring just 42 points during the first half. The following night against the Miami Heat, the Clippers managed just 41 points in the second half.

However, in Saturday’s game, the Clippers were the ones that shut down a strong offense, but not until they allowed the Rockets to score 55 first half points.

During the second half, the Clippers clamped down on defense and gave up just 39 points between the third and fourth quarters.

In the second half, the defense was able to shut down Jeremy Lin and Dwight Howard. The two had combined to score 22 points in the first half. In the second half, Howard and Lin only scored a combined five points.

The Clippers were ranked No. 29 in opponents field goal percentage before the game, but in the second half held the Rockets to just 36% shooting overall and 20% from three-point range.

What Los Angeles did was get a bit lucky as Houston tanked a few shots including a layup by Francisco Garcia. However, Houston did exploit one weakness for Houston, the ball handling of Lin, who had three turnovers in the second half.

The Clippers also committed less fouls. In the first six games of the season, the Clippers gave up 186 attempts at the free throw line. In 41 minutes of the game on Saturday, Houston went to the line for 25 shots, but over a seven-minute key stretch of the game, the Clippers gave up just two fouls shots, of which both were missed by Omer Asik.

It will take time for the players to learn new Head Coach Doc Rivers’ system but if the second half of Saturday’s game against Houston was any indication, the team is learning quickly and will be the force in the West everyone thought they would be.