The Clippers opened game 5 with this 2-1-2 zone defensively. With that, they completely disrupted the offensive flow for Phoenix which led to a bunch of unsuccessful possessions and even flat out turnovers.
This was yet another great adjustment that Ty Lue did in these playoffs proving once again that he is great in these game to game adaptations.
What else happened? Let me show you. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
As great of results as the zone yielded for them on that end of the court, the Clippers really got a great start from Marcus Morris on offense, which really opened things up for this team.
You can see that they hunted the switch early on with Booker, and once Morris gets it, he knows exactly where he wants to go. Right here in the middle of the paint. Powers his way, then raises up over the smaller Booker and hits the jumper.
Now, this is not a replay as they ran the exact thing a few times in a row and exploited the matchup.
Morris, who's previously been dealing with a knee injury, started this series pretty bad, but then woke up in game 5 to help LA stay alive and fight another game.
And of course we have to mention Reggie Jackson who I already featured in a previous video as one of the role players who’ve had the biggest jump in the postseason.
I messed up big time on the thumbnail so people didn’t really click on it, but you need to check out his progress from the season to now, as well as a few other players who’ve been stepping up.
And Honestly, I can’t even draw on screen or break things down with him. The dude just makes shots, and always stays in attack mode. That’s been Jackson’s thing throughout the entire playoffs, and it’s worked amazingly.
However, one thing that I can draw and annotate for you is this. Look at all the bodies around Deandre Ayton on the rebound. With Ivica Zubac out with an injury, they were forced to play a small lineup but did not give up a single thing inside.
In fact, I was even frustrated to see how the Phoenix big man was unable to take advantage of this and ended the game with just 9 field goal attempts and 10 points.
This is one of the reasons why I’m still undecided on Ayton as a player. He obviously has the physical abilities, but not being able to get the ball and dominate against defenders like Luke Kenard, or Nic Batum, or Terrance Mann, that’s just inexplicable to me.
So I’m not sure, half of it is his fault, but the other half is great execution defensively by the Clippers and a big shout out to them for the way they fought in this game with their season on the line.
Paul George Game 5: 41 PTS / 13 REB / 6 AST / 15-20 FG
And speaking of that, Paul George of course deserves the absolute biggest credit for balling out in this game, but also the entire playoffs and the season overall.
Dude scored 30 of his 41 points in the second half. All of that, while shooting 75% from the field, with 13 rebounds and 6 dimes. Phenomenal all around performance.
Basketball casuals will fall back to the memes of Pandemic P and only remember the 2 missed free throws that he had last game, but PG has really been playing well on both ends of the court and he showed that once again in an elimination game on the road.
So now all of a sudden they go back home for game 6 with momentum on their side, and who knows, down the stretch things might get really, really interesting.
Are we going to see a game 7? Let me know in the comments. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.