Two teams arent listed here due to the fact that the Clippers are particularly vulnerable. Since they arent, two teams are noted. In lieu of one great answer, here are 2 decent ones..
Even the best common competitors tend to have a kryptonite. The Clippers, at least in playoff terms, do not appear to. The stock response to “who are the Clippers scared of” all season long has actually been the Lakers due to their superior size, but there just hasnt been any evidence painting that as a true vulnerability. The Clippers won the rebounding fight in all 3 of their games this season. They permit the seventh-fewest shots within 3 feet of the rim in the NBA, and challengers make those shots at the eighth-lowest percentage. They permit just 0.861 points per post up, the fifth-best mark in basketball. These numbers arent strictly the result of an underrated frontcourt. The Clippers are so proficient at the point of attack that nearly any look a challenger is able to get at the basket has actually been changed somewhere along the way. But that isnt going away, and nothing that has occurred on the court this season suggests that the Clippers are going to get bullied inside..
Their absence of passing is troubling, however late-stage playoff basketball is practically widely pick-and-roll and isolation-driven anyhow. They never score in shift, however nobody carries out in the playoffs. Doc Rivers will not leave Lou Williams on the flooring enough time to get switch-hunted to death. They quit too lots of 3s, but so do the Bucks. Its an effect of rim-protection by committee, and theyre stingy in the corners where it counts. Opposing coaches will find scabs to choose at, however there arent any apparent ones. It will likely have to be at their own video game if the Clippers are beaten in the bubble. The 2 teams from another location geared up to do so just happen to be on the other side of the bracket.
The leagues 3 finest pre-Disney routine season groups, by far, were the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks. If everything goes right for Houston, there is a variation of the Rockets that turns into the finest group in the NBA at Disney. 2 groups arent listed here because the Clippers are especially vulnerable. These are simply groups equipped to match up with the Clippers personnel in a grind-it-out seven-game series. The teams they are most likely to experience arent the ones best equipped to beat them.
Milwaukees protective weak points, in as much as they even exist, are mostly self-imposed. They offer out to stop specific sort of shots to great result. The Bucks quit the fewest shots at the rim in the NBA by a mile, and while theyve permitted the most 3-point efforts in basketball, the 11th-fewest portion of those 3s originated from the corners. Take all of the mid-range jumpers and above-the-break 3s you want, simply dont expect to get analytically-endorsed shots against Milwaukee..
Whether genuine champion competitors exist beyond them or not, there is a clear line of demarcation between the NBAs top 3 groups and the rest of the field. The leagues three finest pre-Disney routine season teams, by far, were the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks. The trio combined to post a 146-46 record before the coronavirus closed down the season, and while injuries hindered the Clippers for much of the early going, the Lakers and Bucks lead their respective conferences by a combined 12 games..
Under normal circumstances, the assumption would be that these teams would wind up knocking each other out. Without home-court advantage and after four months off, every team is susceptible.
Who is placed to exploit them? While anticipating the modifications in Orlando would be premature, based upon what we saw before the season closed down, we can a minimum of use statistical and stylistic indicators to recommend who may have the very best shot. Aside from one another, these are the worst possible matchups for the 3 finest groups in basketball in the postseason..
Milwaukee Bucks: Boston Celtics.
Boston makes those shots. The Celtics shoot 44.5 percent between 10-16 feet of the basket, sixth-best mark in the league. The Bucks allow the most such shots in the NBA. They hover around league-average in regards to total 3-pointers, but almost none of them come from the corner. If fourth quarters of a possible Bucks-Celtics series boil down to seclusion jumpers on both sides, Jayson Tatum is equipped to provide daggers that Milwaukees offense, since yet, has shown not able to reciprocate. Milwaukees clutch defense is considerably better, it ought to be kept in mind that Boston scores 6.1 more points per 100 belongings in clutch settings..
The key for a potential Boston upset bid is getting to those clutch settings intact, since for the first 40 or so minutes of many video games, Giannis Antetokounmpo is virtually unstoppable to any group that doesnt utilize Kawhi Leonard. The Celtics have no such ready-made solution to the Giannis issue, however they arent as powerless as most of the league, either. If absolutely nothing else, they can throw bodies at Giannis. Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Daniel Theis and Gordon Hayward fall in the general size-range required to trouble him. Marcus Smart is going to try, physical restrictions be damned. Brad Stevens will throw away a trick or 2. Walls will be formed..
Milwaukee was the NBAs finest group during the regular season, however their playing design produces the simplest path to a possible upset against the ideal opponent. Their weak points, if not precisely exploitable, are at least noticeable. There is a road map for beating them. Few teams can follow it. If whatever goes right, the Celtics might be one of them..
Los Angeles Clippers: Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat.
Houstons theory is that no matter what any center does against them, the sort of offense that huge males create is so inherently ineffective that it drags down team efficiency to a level their barrage of 3-pointers can manage. Whatever they provide up inside, they try to comprise in spades abusing big men on the border defensively. If it worked on Davis, it could deal with anybody, and for a couple of brief stretches, the Lakers played into their hands even further by taking him out of the equation and putting LeBron James at center..
The Lakers put many of their offseason resources into acquiring him. Even if LeBron-at-center lineups work, they are inherently compromised by the fact that they cant consist of the Lakers 5 finest gamers. It would be LeBron plus the role players the Lakers might bring in with the meager resources left over after including Davis.
One-game samples are laughably unforeseeable. Nothing is conclusive yet, and the Lakers needed to be driven into smaller-ball anyway. More power to them if the Rockets can stop 7 video games worth of LeBron-Davis pick-and-rolls with no center cramping the spacing. Unlike many of the other groups in the field, they have an answer. Its either going to be a really excellent one or a really bad one, but its thoughtful and backed by numbers. If absolutely nothing else, that one video game in February was proof of concept. The Rockets have a feasible method. Whether it can be effectively carried out over 7 games is another matter entirely..
The Western Conferences top contenders do not have man-defenders efficient in deterring Kawhi Leonard alone. Miami (Jimmy Butler, Derrick Jones Jr., Jae Crowder, potentially Andre Iguodala) and Philadelphia (Ben Simmons, Matisse Thybulle) both have numerous wings possibly up to the job in spurts. The Butler-Bam Adebayo pick-and-roll isnt as harmful as the many versions the Clippers toss out, but theyre good enough defensively to hold serve. Shake Milton tortured them to the tune of 39 points on 70 percent shooting the last time he rolled into town. The Heat delight in the much deeper 3s the Clippers do not care to safeguard..
The Sixers are unfamiliar with the concept of things working on offense to begin with, and the Clippers would have no problem loading the paint against them. These are merely groups equipped to match up with the Clippers workers in a grind-it-out seven-game series. Really beating the Clippers would require exceptionally favorable shooting variation.
Its one of the many advantages the Clippers are bringing to Disney. The teams they are likely to come across arent the ones finest equipped to beat them. Their recent scuffles with the finest players and teams in the field have actually almost generally gone their way. That doesnt make them unequalled. Rivers, Leonard and Paul George have actually all seen LeBron go supernova enough times not to feel safe. Giannis will arrive faster or later on. Surprises are to be expected in Orlando. However if theres an upset brewing against the Clippers, there isnt an obvious course to forecasting it..
The paradox here is that the Lakers may well be Houstons worst matchup also. Thats how innovative their “no centers” gambit is. When they needed to, at least Golden State could go big. The Rockets jumped out of an aircraft with no parachute and we have no idea if theyre going to arrive at a marshmallow or a mountain. The Lakers may be too big for the Rockets. The Rockets may be too small for the Lakers. Should they satisfy in the playoffs, one of those two things will hold true..
If its the previous? No damage, no nasty. The Rockets were expected to lose anyway. If its the latter? The entire postseason is upended. Variance is one of the most crucial aspects of an upside. If whatever goes right for Houston, there is a version of the Rockets that becomes the very best group in the NBA at Disney. Thats especially scary for the Lakers due to the fact that theyve seen it firsthand..
It wasnt simply that the Rockets beat them when the two teams fulfilled on the night of the trade deadline. It was that the Lakers attempted to give in to Houstons playing design and still lost. They invested around 28 minutes of that game without among their 2 traditional centers– Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee. They were outscored by 10 points playing their variation of small-ball. Anthony Davis scored 32 points on 14-of-21 shooting, an efficiency befitting an All-NBA big male playing versus a group without any size, yet the Lakers were outscored throughout his minutes..
Los Angeles Lakers: Houston Rockets.
