How the Clippers held Dallas to 8 points in a quarter!

How did LA lock down Luka Doncic and Dallas’s offense in the 1st half of Game 1 of their 2024 NBA playoff series? This watch along reaction film breakdown details Coach Ty Lue’s hard-nosed gameplan to take away the Mavs pick-and-roll offense and how they attacked them on offense.

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it is playoff watch a long time game one
welcome let’s pick it up with about
seven minutes and change to play here in
the first half the Clippers have jumped
out to a surprising 15-point lead uh
Luca donic there with a little lob to
Derek Lively it’s probably the easiest
basket the Mavs have had in this entire
first half we will talk about that a
little bit more as we continue to watch
this half unfold but it has been an
offensive struggle for Dallas the
Clippers have had a great defensive game
plan here deep into possession and they
just reset it and end up with a James
Harden three and so the first part of
this possession was defended very well
with Paul George coming off that screen
but when they reset it
here Terren man instead of attacking
himself gives it to George so he can set
the screen to put laa in the pick and
roll Luca jumps George to avoid being
attacked nice job moving the ball in
rotation and Harden gets the open three
and in a way that’s symptomatic of what
we’ve seen where the Clippers have made
a lot of good
decisions and the Mavs come back and set
this screen way out near half court you
see a zubot he’s just in the paint in a
very deep drop but the key to this
entire play is that even though the
screen is set out near the timeline
Terrence man avoids getting screened so
he stays in front of donic the whole
time that’s a very tough shot early in
the clock and that has just been a key
to the success for the Clippers in this
half so
far Harden at the other end attacking
Luca there couldn’t quite get the
floater and then in transition Paul
George and this is not an easy play to
make swipes before Luca can start his
Euro Step and now they come the other
way it’s a five on
four Harden lets everyone reset
though right by Irving to the
corner that was a good look so no
containment by Kyrie Irving on that
end whereas Terren man a second ago with
that halfcourt screen refused to get
screened so the Mavs don’t create an
advantage this time Luca gets off
ball briefly draws
two and this is a I think a dynamic to
look at in this series and for the Mavs
in general their offensive Stars draw
two to the ball it’s four on three
behind the play but first of all Maxi
CBA is not a great short roll passer
they get the kick out to the corner and
then Derrik Jones Is Not Great
offensively in that spot attacking the
close out so it’s a floater and I think
the Clippers
mathematically will do very well to have
PJ Washington and Derek Jones Jr and
Dante exom take a bunch of sort of two
dribble mid-range floaters like
that this time it’s just basically
Harden
ball and I mean that is vintage Harden
ball step back three on a switch
not sure about that
call that to me is not a foul if
anything that’s an offensive foul with
the left leg but it was not a half with
a ton of free throws and three shot free
throws so a little Charity for Harden
swells the lead to 19 at this point and
here’s a turnover and this is caused to
a degree by Terren man on the Baseline
just hounding Kyrie Irving and staying
connected to all these Mavericks players
causes a miscommunication as he wants to
go back door again kba not the greatest
passer in the world so you’re stressing
the defense that way especially with
Luca on the bench and Kyrie is the main
focal
point this was a 13-point game a second
ago 4128 we’re up to
4728 and the Clippers playing a lot of
Harden ball in the half court
but that time Harden did the work the
hoop and the harm and this is always
where I felt Harden could add so much to
his game he did it when he was younger
in Houston so you have that three-level
attack between the three-point line and
the basket where you get free throws or
layups so all of a sudden this is 50 to
22 and remember the Clippers are playing
without Kawhi Leonard in this game he
has knee swelling it’s uncertain when
he’ll play this time Kyrie again pick
and roll
and this is a totally different coverage
than the one we saw a second ago they
have Lively screen to bring zubot up
into the pick and roll again zoo with a
hard show here his size makes Kyrie
Retreat he doesn’t hit the short roll
and now the entire defense can reset and
you’re left trying to shoot over a big
body in a mere coffee 10 on the shot
clock again that’s not the greatest shot
so these are a lot of tactical wins for
the Clippers defensively
and it’s been consistent with what we’ve
seen throughout this entire half
really Harden finally cools
off Kyrie with a great pass and man when
it rains it pours
because that is one of the best shots
Dallas has
had Paul George on the other
end knifing through everything and zubba
spots with the putback and this is one
of those rebounds created by George the
second Lively has to leave zubot his
body to contest the shot no one’s big
enough to stop him he puts it back in
and the Clippers actually started this
game with a bunch of zubats postup
possessions where he was just too big
and too strong for whatever Dallas was
throwing at him usually Daniel Gafford
in the first few minutes of the game but
Gafford got a f early and I think was
hesitant to really challenge him and
pick up a second foul zubot used that
strength and zubot just asserted himself
in this half as the biggest guy on the
court dominating with that size and
strength all right back to where we were
it’s now a 24-point
game
Kyrie a little ISO here and oh man okay
so first you see they slide
harden up from the corner to sit in the
driving gap on his right hand Terren man
lingers in the paint the Clippers like
to do this instead of chasing the cutter
out to the corner Paul George is sitting
at the edge of the lane and look at this
length comes over nearly blocks it Kyrie
feels him kicks it out instead now
there’s eight on the shot clock great
job recovering by the Clippers after
that loose ball and air coffee with yet
another good man possession defensively
and overloading on the Stars asks more
of the role players this pass needs to
go to Tim Hardway Junior here it doesn’t
and then look at these rotations by the
Clippers George instantly to the corner
zubot there to provide help on the
Baseline Harden is slid down behind on
the big man coffee gets over to the next
pass quickly man is on the pass after
that and again the ball needs to go to
Hardaway as Harden is recovering it
doesn’t and coffee is good enough to
slide and get the Stop and he’s had a
ton of good possessions he’s a big body
who started for kawhai Leonard and look
you’re not going to replace kawai’s
offense in the slightest but you
maintain this versatile set of big Wing
Defenders zubot again but he missed that
time so anyway with coffee if you have
to switch or something like that he can
stay in front of quick guys or he’s big
enough to stay with
Luca and there’s that PJ Washington
issue missing a floater as a closeout
the idea here is that you’re going to
put zubot in the pick and roll and hunt
him and punish him but this time he’s
dropped back so it’s a different
coverage than the one we just saw coffee
does a great job fighting around the
screen and then getting back at the last
second to recover to take away that Luca
shot and then this is the thing again
attacking the close out two dribbles and
a floater that’s contested that’s not
great and that leads to a Terren man run
out in
transition but he kind of flubs the
layup and this is just Helter
Skelter and we get a foul at the basket
but what we’ve seen in the last couple
minutes is we’ve seen a hard show where
you have two on the ball we’ve seen a
deep drop like that on the last half
court possession and they’ve thrown a
ton of different coverages at Luca and
the Mavs in this half we’ve seen zubot
up to the level of the screen earlier in
the first quarter a minute later he
comes out to the level of the screen
basically to switch and the idea here is
that you’re going to put zubot on an
island and have Luca’s offensive skills
outperform him but sometimes he can hold
his own and more importantly you’re just
throwing different looks at him so the
next time they came down and had the big
screen look where zubot was he was at
the elbow in an incredibly deep drop and
that ends up going nowhere and then
we’ve even seen them switch basically
with the intention of sending a trap so
you’ve got showing dropping switching
switching to trap High dropping there’s
another one of those floater closeout
shots from the sort of short mid-range
it’s just a ton of different coverages
to throw off the rhythm of the Dallas
offense just in the first half alone
okay so back to the second quarter
Dallas made one of two free throws
that’s their first point in this stretch
you see they’ve scored seven points in
the entire period with four
turnovers and ooh that is a beautiful
pass by Harden where James is putting
Dallas as big in the pick and roll to
try to give him the same treatment and
Tim Hardaway Jr sneaks way over super
early Russell Westbrook with a great
corner cut and the finish I’m not sure
thj needs to be over like that but
that’s a great counter from Westbrook
and the lead is somehow 25 Luca back in
the game you see zubot dropped way off
in the
paint and because of that he is able to
basically sag off and play the lob and
this is possible because of What’s
Happen up at the screen with Terrence
man which is just a clinic fighting
around this pick staying in front of
Luca and by staying in front of him that
allows zubot to never really commit and
sag off and this has just been a theme
for the Clippers in this half if you
notice all these plays the players are
able to get around the pick anytime
zubot or one of the bigs is in a
drop here it is again
it’s the same thing here as we run it
back zubot is in the Deep drop kba this
time actually wants to change the angle
of the screen at the last second to try
to pick off man man still fights his way
around Luca loves to snake and use kind
of his size and Tempo to Chisel into a
particular spot in the paint this is
just a great job
recovering tried to draw the little
offensive foul there but the more
important part is sort of like a 16 17t
mid-range shot and if you’re going to
say what was the secret to stopping the
Mavs in this half I think it’s this
screen navigation that we’ve seen on
some of these
plays so that time it was man he had the
primary assignment on Luca and he did a
great job of either fighting through
screens or just not allowing himself to
be screened anytime you had zubats back
here in a deep drop so he’s kind of
blanketed on donic so you end up with
difficult contested shots now man wasn’t
the only one to do this as part of the
game plan Amir coffee had a few nice
trips like this in the first quarter and
even Russell Westbrook did a good job
executing this because if you set the
pick way out High someone like Westbrook
is quick enough to get back in front of
Luca while Luca waits for his big man to
roll look at this one where Westbrook is
just completely connected to donic
making even a basic handoff difficult so
you see the Clippers big Retreat Way
Back the game plan is to stay connected
to Luca and recover that leads to a
turnover and this to me was basically
the difference in the Dallas offense
normally versus playing against the
Clippers the combination of the drop
with the way the guards were able to
either get around the screen rupt the
activity at the screen or recover back
in front of the screen and there are
possibly things we’ll see Dallas do to
adjust that going forward but even just
in this game later in the game they
started posting Luca on the wing and
kind of moving away from hunting zubot
because it’s not as effective if you
can’t create an advantage or put the
defense in rotation Dallas is so used to
asking a third Defender to come help on
the Luca pick and roll and the Clippers
here basically just said our guards are
going to do the work and our big men
will be traditional shot blockers at The
Rim so as we wind down this half LA
with Russell Westbrook in transition
taking them up to 56 to 29 that’s just
one point for the Mavs in the last s
minutes there’s the postup counter I
talked about with Harden and that one
gets a slightly more traditional double
team from the top and a swing swing for
an open look but PJ Washington’s not a
great three-point shooter so if you’re
the Clippers again you will take an
above the break three with a close out
instead of Luca donic carving you up
like he does other teams in pick and
roll and here we finally get some free
throws for the Mavs Mark Cuban just in
in
disbelief as are many fans but give tyo
credit
a fantastic game plan and give the
players credit for the Clippers this is
their strength switchy versatile Wings
who can also get around screens and in
some way the game plan was just go out
and get around screens use your athletic
advantages use your size it’s an eighto
quarter for the Mavs the Clippers take a
massive lead into halftime that they
would hold on to and that gives them a
one- nothing advantage in the first
round of this series Without kawh
Leonard hope you enjoyed this one we
will certainly have more watch alongs as
the playoffs continue and as always I
hope you are having a great day