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Clippers vs Cavs Preview: A Test Against the Best
The Clippers host the team with the best record in the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in a game that will be a good indicator of where the Clippers are at as a team with a month to go in the season.
Game
Information
Where: Intuit Dome, Inglewood, CA
When: 7:30 PM PT
How to Watch: FanDuel Sports SoCal, AM 570
Projected
Starting Lineups
Cavs: Darius Garland – Donovan Mitchell – Max Strus – DeAndre Hunter – Jarrett Allen
Clippers: James Harden – Norm Powell – Kris Dunn – Kawhi Leonard – Ivica Zubac
Injuries
Cavs: Evan Mobley Questionable (Foot)
Clippers: Jordan Miller Out (Hip), Cam Christie Out (G-League), Trentyn Flowers Out (G-League), Seth Lundy Out (G-League), Patrick Baldwin Out (G-League)
The Big
Picture
The Clippers’ mid-March turnaround has continued, as they racked up one of their biggest wins of the season on Sunday night against a rather pitiful Charlotte Hornets squad. It’s tough to take almost anything away from games against the dregs of the NBA in March, but the Clippers continue to get healthier (their injury report is clean outside of depth piece Jordan Miller), Kawhi is progressing, and James Harden and Ivica Zubac are playing some of their best basketball of the entire season. The rest of the West is doing them no favors, so the Clippers need to continue to win if they want to have any shot of avoiding the play-in.
The
Antagonist
I thought
that the Cavaliers would improve off their 2nd round playoff
appearance last year, especially with new head coach Kenny Atkinson. I did not,
however, anticipate that they would be a 60+ win team with the best offense in
the NBA. Donovan Mitchell is seemingly a lock for All-NBA First Team, Evan
Mobley will make 2nd or 3rd Team All NBA, and Darius
Garland has an outside shot at the Third team as well. Those three are
bolstered by the ever-steady Jarrett Allen at center and a bevy of capable
supporting role players. There might be some questions about how the Cavs will
perform at the very highest levels of the playoffs, but there is no doubt they
are an awesome team with great talent, strong depth, a terrific coaching staff,
and good vibes. They are very tough out each and every night.
Notes
A Good Test: This game will be a phenomenal test of where the Clippers are at as we head into late March. The Clippers’ last few games have not been against the stiffest competition, making this one a measuring stick of their progress in the past couple weeks. Can they continue to play high-level defense and rotations against the best offense in the NBA? Can they break down the defense of a solid but not great Cavs squad? Do they have the perimeter defenders to contain both Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland? Will the Clippers settle for bad shots or continue to move the ball and get better looks? We need to see these questions answered in a game against a great team, and hopefully the answers are positive ones.
Full Roster Rotations: This will only be the second game that the Clippers have had their full rotation available since the trade deadline, and the first one unfortunately only lasted nine minutes before Norm Powell left with an injury. I’m thus curious to see what Ty Lue’s rotations are. We know four of the starters, but is the fifth starter Kris Dunn, Derrick Jones Jr., or Nic Batum? I’d lean Dunn for the Mitchell-Garland matchups, but who knows. After that, does Ty play all 10 of his top rotation guys, and if so, how does the staggering with Harden and Kawhi work? Do they not fully stagger, or are there bench players that just get really short shifts? Again, these are the questions that have to be answered in the coming days as the Clippers try to make their postseason push, and I’m fascinated to see what Ty Lue and his staff does with this deep team with lots of interesting lineup combinations.
Clippers vs Cavs Preview: A Test Against the Best
Robert Flom