The LA Clippers Have Their Offensive Blueprint – Will They Stick To It?

After stumbling out of the gate with a 2-4 record, the LA Clippers have turned things around in the early portion of this season. Winning eight of their last 11 games, the Clippers are back in business and only sit 1.5 games out of first place in the West (two games separate first and ninth, which is crazy to see after a month of action).

For most teams, the 20% mark of the season is the first checkpoint. That’s when most players have settled in, developed tendencies, and figured out their individual roles. The Clippers are hoping their most recent win is a sign of what’s to come and not just an outlier.

Ty Lue, who has already been under a lot of stress from dealing with inconsistent availability and juggling lineups, called Saturday’s win the best game they’ve played all season. It was their first wire-to-wire victory, and quite frankly, the only time they didn’t waste a quarter or look lackadaisical offensively.

Too often have the Clippers been sloppy and unorganized over the last month, resulting in turnover issues and a problematic shot profile. Heading into Saturday’s game, LA was 27th in turnover percentage, coughing it up on 16.8% of their possessions (league-average is roughly 14.8%). They also weren’t generating enough clean, open three-pointers that became this team’s identity when Lue took over.

The offense needed a jolt. For a team expecting to be a title contender, they were in the mud … and spinning their tires.

Facing the league’s worst defense, the San Antonio Spurs, there was a thought LA could use Saturday as a course correction.

That’s exactly what happened, as they drilled 21 threes and recorded 32 assists on 44 made baskets (72.7% assist rate) to trounce the Spurs. For a team that couldn’t get out of its own way offensively, they looked like a completely different group.

It was actually the most efficient game they’ve played all season – by a substantial margin. They had a 127.1 halfcourt offensive rating, over 12 points per 100 possessions better than their clutch win over Cleveland on Nov. 7:

Bad opponent or not, it also entered the top four of most efficient games LA has played under Lue. The only three above it were from the 2021 season.

Defensively, they’ve been elite in all areas, with or without their main stars. The Clippers currently rank second in halfcourt defense, behind only Milwaukee, and eighth in transition defense. Although they don’t force a lot of turnovers, LA is number one in opponent free throw rate (meaning they don’t foul), and they’re still a top-eight defensive rebounding squad with a team primarily composed of wings and guards.

Addressing their biggest concerns, though, Saturday was a major step in the right direction. In what Lue called “the blueprint” for them moving forward, the Clippers had a healthy balance of rim attacks, transition opportunities, and pick-and-roll reads that yielded wide-open threes.

With Kawhi Leonard back in the rotation after missing 12 straight games with stiffness in his surgically-repaired knee, the Clippers have another weapon to help break down defenders and draw attention.

Leonard returned to the starting lineup on Nov. 18, acknowledging it’s going to be a long process to get back to his full share of minutes. He’s trusting the team doctors to guide him through a long season, making sure they play it safe with his ACL recovery so he can get back to full strength.

In the four games he’s played this season, Leonard hasn’t tried to hijack the offense. He’s slowly reintegrating himself into the ‘drive, kick, swing’ offensive rhythm Lue preaches, dialing back his own attempts in the process. One would think Leonard is getting up as many looks as possible since he’s on a 22-minute restriction. But up to this point, he’s only taking 13.8 shots per 36 minutes – much lower than the 18.4 he took during his last healthy season.

Despite missing a calendar year and still not being as physically dominant as he’d like, Leonard is a top-tier player when it comes to demanding help. He’s a force that opposing defenses are still terrified of, as he’ll often find himself surrounded near the paint after one or two dribbles. Because defenders know how strong he is, they try to make him play in traffic to prevent him from getting all the way to the rim.

However, since Leonard joined the Clippers in 2019, his biggest improvement has been in the playmaking department. It doesn’t always have to be super creative, and hardly any of his passes will be shown on highlight reels.

Much like the vanilla nature of Leonard’s personality, he enjoys the simplicity of halfcourt basketball. Most of his reads aren’t advanced, but they are incredibly effective due to the threat he presents. Whether it’s attacking the paint and setting up shooters one pass away, or launching a 20-foot pass into a teammates’ shooting pocket, he’s capitalizing every time he bends the defense:

The vision and willingness to get off the ball once he attracts help is much better than it was in San Antonio, or even Toronto. That’s not to say he was a bad playmaker then – he’s just quicker at dissecting the options and making you pay.

In a lot of ways, this is the best possible situation for Leonard. With the Clippers having the deepest team in the West and the ability to throw out many different lineups depending on the matchup, he’s not under pressure to score 25 or 30 each night. The Clippers are going to be competitive with him easing his way into the offense. Add in the fact nobody is running away with the top record in the conference, and you get the best of both worlds. They can make sure their superstar is comfortable while also staying in the hunt for a homecourt seed.

When Leonard was asked Saturday about the team’s depth and offensive performance in their dominant win, he mentioned how it alleviates him from those creation duties.

“Just not having to put a burden on myself to try and win a basketball game in 20 minutes,” Leonard said. “But it’s going to be all season – we have a lot of talent, and we all have to go out there and play hard, see where our open shots are. When my number is called, it’s for me to make plays for the team, not necessarily score the basketball. We want to keep building off of this.”

You can easily tell how intentional the Clippers’ offense feels when Leonard is on the floor, particularly when he’s involved in pick-and-rolls.

Here, with a spread floor, they run a ball-screen between Leonard and Ivica Zubac. All three players not involved (Paul George, Reggie Jackson, and Marcus Morris) are along the perimeter. Right as Leonard recognizes the Spurs are hedging and putting two defenders on the ball, he hits the rolling Zubac. This causes a weakside rotation, opening up George in the corner:

Lue was impressed by how purposeful their offense looked all night.

“When our team is playing like that – when they double teamed, Kawhi moved the ball, easy and simple passes, got open shots,” Lue said. “We drove to the basket, they collapsed, we made the right play. It’s in us. We can do it. Today was probably the best game we’ve played all season.”

To begin the year, LA was settling for too many pull-up threes and bad mid-rangers early in the shot clock. A lot of it had to do with Leonard, one of their best attackers, not being on the floor. Other times, it was due to the small-ball lineups not having competent screeners to help create those paint touches. Unless you’re blazing fast, it’s really hard to consistently reach the middle and get opponents into rotation if you don’t utilize big bodies as screeners.

In the minutes Zubac was on the bench (his playing time is at a career-high, but he still needs a breather), the Clippers’ offense would get stagnate and devolve into isolation-heavy possessions. Putting Leonard back in the starting group, where he can have a center screening for him, was the right move to help their penetration issues.

The “get the paint or die trying” approach has finally started to seep through every player in the rotation. When the Clippers do have to play small, Wall is using his natural speed to get downhill and force help at the rim. It’s also rubbing off on guys you wouldn’t expect to be playmakers, such as the Marcus Morris drive-and-kick in the second possession shown below:

Wall had 15 assists in Saturday’s win (on 18 potential assists). While his shot selection can be a bit puzzling at times, he’s done a fairly good job of using his burst to create an advantage and delivering on-time passes to open shooters.

With Wall on the floor, the Clippers’ assist percentage balloons to 62.4%, a mark that would be right outside the NBA’s top 10. When he’s on the bench, it dips to 54.2%, which would be 28th in the league.

Lue is still set on bringing Wall off the bench, mostly because he likes the spacing Jackson provides for the starters. It also allows Wall to give the bench unit a bit more speed and creation.

Wall is content with being the table-setter for any lineup he’s a part of. At this stage of his career, given that he hasn’t played for a real championship threat, he understands his role is not the same as it was five years ago.

“With this team, we have so many guys that you don’t have to hunt for shots, or try to force it yourself,” Wall said. “So for me, it’s just trying to find a rhythm. I think I only took three shots in the first half (versus San Antonio), and it was all catch-and-shoot threes. Other than that, it was just trying to find guys, get into the paint, and push the pace. In the past, I just had to do everything – pass, score, defend. Do all of that. Here, I don’t really have to do that. My job is just to be myself, push the pace, make open shots, and find my shooters.”

“I think not overdribbling,” Lue pointed out when asked about the offense. “I thought just getting directly to the point – we talked about making quick decisions today before the game. Our guys made quick decisions. When John Wall is playing like that, we’re a tough team to beat. Getting everyone shots. He is a guy that can score the basketball, but he also can control the game with his passing.”

When the Clippers got into the paint – they registered 38 drives on Saturday – the goal was to put pressure on the rim and spray out to shooters. They passed out of 52.6% of their drives and only turned it over 7.9% of the time. The league-average ‘pass out’ rate is on 43.9% of teams’ drives, to contextualize just how much the Clippers were forcing rotations and hunting open looks.

“I thought we came out pretty aggressive, just moving and cutting with our normal plays we were running,” Leonard said. “From there, just carrying it over. Guys attacking the paint, skipping the ball, sharing it with one another. If the starters start that way, the bench can only come in and carry what we’re doing. I think we made it contagious tonight.”

Part of what’s helped LA get downhill and play with more speed is the two-point guard combinations Lue has trusted. He has played Wall and Jackson together for 76 total minutes. In the grand scheme of things, 76 minutes is less than 10% of the 816 the team has logged this season. So, it’s not that much.

But given the results, Lue might be searching for more opportunities to test it out.

“It’s actually been really good for us this year,” Lue said of the Wall-Jackson tandem. “We haven’t done it a lot. We did it one more game, in San Antonio, where they both closed the game. John, once again, with his pace and getting into the paint, sparked our offense. Those two guys playing together is something I like to see. An extra ball-handler on the floor, a guy that can make plays, run pick-and-roll. It’s been good for us, so we’ll see if we can get to that a little more.”

Lue isn’t wrong. The Clippers have outscored teams by 11.4 points per 100 possessions when Wall and Jackson share the court. Their offensive rating (118.7) is elite, and the assist-to-turnover ratio (2.35) would be every coach’s dream. The downsides obviously come on the defensive end since both are liable to be hunted by bigger wings, but the idea of having those guys surrounded by Leonard and George makes it more realistic to try in spurts.

That’s the thing – the Clippers are going to be experimenting with different things all season. There’s no harm in getting crazy or going against conventional basketball strategies to collect data points in November and December.

Although this veteran team is never going to be the fastest, or even play at a top-10 tempo, they clearly play better – and more efficiently – when there’s a boost of energy on the floor. Due to the roster construction, that’s mostly going to come from Wall or Terance Mann.

Lue was asked if he notices the veteran players struggling to keep up with Wall’s tempo in transition.

“Well, they need to catch up,” he chuckled. “I mean, we have to get easy baskets. When you’re averaging 104 points a game, you have to get easy baskets. He allows us to do that. I think Reggie, in the last 4 or 5 games, has come into his own of scoring the ball and becoming more efficient. Also running stuff with PG and Kawhi, and picking his spots as well. So he’s been doing a better job with that.”

Moving forward, the biggest issue LA needs to address is keeping the shot profile consistent from game to game.

Before Saturday, they were only generating 8.1% of their shots from corner threes. Overall, 36.1% of their shots came from the perimeter.

In the win over San Antonio, which looked more like the team everyone was expecting this year, they created 15 corner threes (18.8% of their shot diet, and mostly off dribble-penetration. Overall, 40 attempts from the perimeter equaled 49.4% of their offense.

While understanding some matchups won’t allow for such a high rate, that’s the roadmap for the Clippers to revert back to the offensive juggernaut they were in 2021. It should be a primary goal for them to get 40 to 42% of their shots from beyond the arc, especially when Leonard see his minutes restriction lifted.

For Lue, it won’t be the raw number of attempts that matters. It will be how they get to those shots, and how much the ball is moving.