NBA Week 4 Rewind: Warriors remain historically dominant
By Tom West
Who’s Struggling?
To look away from the NBA teams on the rise for a moment, let’s delve into a couple of teams who aren’t finding quite as much success.
The Clippers were always going to need time to find their rhythm this season. They rebuilt their entire bench and Doc Rivers had so much new talent to work into his rotation, it was bound to be a while before they got things together. Besides the issues of the second unit’s general offensive struggles and shot selection, though, it’s Doc that’s been a major problem recently. His rotations have been baffling at times, as he insists on playing Jamal Crawford and Paul Pierce for the majority of the game while limiting the likes of Lance Stephen, Wesley Johnson and Josh Smith. Crawford and Pierce were totally lost on defense against the Warriors, and Doc choosing to keep them in was a key reason why the Clippers lost their 23 point lead late in the game. And as fans will know too well, the Clippers’ intensity and and ability to close waned as the night came to a close.
As if this loss wasn’t bad enough, the Clippers took their struggles to a whole new level against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday night. They were completely blown out in the first half 63-34, and despite holding the Raptors to only 8 points in the third quarter, the Clippers still weren’t able to scrape together consistent play at either end of the floor and lost 91-80. They had 20 turnovers and shot just 39.2 percent from the floor, and played with zero intensity or urgency the entire night. Yes, they have some adjusting to do, but their mindset and attitude on Sunday was appalling. If they don’t play like they want to win, they won’t. It’s that simple for their team right now.
The Rockets couldn’t continue with their struggles without taking action, and promptly fired head coach Kevin McHale shortly after a loss to the Celtics on Monday night. We’ve already had a look at that game which displayed the kind of troubles the Rockets have been dealing with so far, although the same troubles occurred throughout the week. In fact, their only positive moment was a 103-108 win against the Portland Trail Blazers, but that was still a struggle as they were forced to overtime.
The small ball lineups they’ve used surrounding Dwight Howard haven’t work defensively, as they surrender far too many easy looks for their opponents inside the paint. As for their superstar James Harden on the perimeter, his lack of effort and input on defensive is worrying yet again. The offensive rating of the Rockets’ opponents is 9.9 points higher with Harden on the floor, and his 38 percent shooting and 27.1 percent three point stroke make matters no better on offense either. And that’s not the end of Houston’s woes. They have eight players shooting below 40 percent this season, and they’re in the bottom four in the NBA in turnover ratio, offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency.
The arrival of Ty Lawson was supposed to make a positive difference, but instead he’s hardly worked in the offense and the Rockets’ ball movement looks like a struggle and their defense is beyond lacklustre. They certainly look at the other end of the spectrum after being Western Conference finalists just a season ago.
Next: The Best Highlights of Week 4