Another competitor traveled to Brooklyn to face the Eastern Conference favorites on Tuesday, and another competitor fell against the power of his big three. This time, it was the Los Angeles Clippers trying to contain the unstoppable Nets, and they failed to defeat 124-120 at the hands of the best offensive trio in the NBA. Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden added 90 points in the win and returned from a 12-point handicap in the first half to take the game and move two of the Philadelphia 76ers to number 1 in the overall Eastern Conference standings.
Clippers can at least make New York happy to stay in the measurement contest. The Clippers opened the season with big wins against the Lakers and the Nuggets, but have been playing a weak schedule ever since. Now, after more than 20 games in the season, they have seen how they are facing one of the teams that may need to win to win the championship. Here’s what they and the Nets can get out of Tuesday’s clash of titans.
1. Brooklyn formula
Ignore the hiccups against Washington and Cleveland. Ignore the flashy opposing totals, the individual scoring numbers of the season’s highest opponents, and errors at the end of the game. Brooklyn has played with three playoff teams since acquiring James Harden, and a formula is starting to show itself: keep the game in the 120s, not the 140s, get an efficient attack from all three stars and trust that one of them will burst a 40-point blast or triple-double monster.
That, in essence, is what happened against the Clippers. Irving led with 39 points, but Durant and Harden combined to hit 64 percent of the field. Brooklyn’s defense has fared better in relative terms against good attacks (ranked 20th out of the 10 most important scoring units since the acquisition of Harden by Cleaning the Glass) than against mediocre opponents (last killed) and opponents who are in the last place (23rd). This suggests that the effort, to some extent, can elevate the Nets to competence, and this has happened against their best opponents.
On paper, this is how the Nets would probably like a Finals game to look like. His attack, as a whole, is defense-proof. No team will ever be able to defeat all three stars at once. They don’t have to be good defenders. They just need to be good enough to complement an attack that gives them a chance against any opponent, and that was on Tuesday.
2. Big or small?
When Brooklyn played against Milwaukee in their first Harden-era playoff preview, Brooklyn dedicated 38 of the possible 48 minutes to DeAndre Jordan in an effort to stop Giannis Antetokounmpo in the basket. It worked, but Steve Nash remained adaptable. Jordan played just 16 minutes against the Clippers, while Jeff Green put the remaining 32 in the center.
In theory, the plan worked. The Nets won the game and, even with Green as their small five, they more than held on to the inside. The two teams drew with 44 points each, and Brooklyn won the battle 44-39. Clippers are not a team that specializes in painting. Most of your shots are jumpers, and switching tends to be the best defense against such attacks. But playing this way allowed Kawhi Leonard to look for the ideal matchups early on. He managed to find Irving and Joe Harris in various starting positions, while the Clippers built their lead in the first half, and that strategy will be a common strategy that Brooklyn must expect against elite playoff attacks.
This does not mean that, on the balance sheet, small-ball is negative. In addition to the spacing benefits, it is much easier for the Nets to park Harden on the pole defensively, where he feels most comfortable and made a huge impact on Tuesday. But the Nets won Jordan’s minutes by six points and Green’s by two. This is not a huge difference, but it does point to the difficulty of switching between identities. If the Nets cannot master an approach, how will they divide the difference against teams that can punish both?
3. Who is ready for prime time?
Each Nets holder played at least 32 minutes in this game. Four Clippers holders did so, and Marcus Morris gave them 31 minutes off the bench. Both teams resisted a lot when their reserves had to play. Not a single Clippers reservation had a positive differential. Brooklyn backups, in addition to Jordan, attempted only five shots.
The Lakers won the league last season for a variety of reasons, but getting their minimum wages hired was one of the biggest. Removing Dwight Howard, Markieff Morris and Rajon Rondo from the scrap heap allowed them to play throughout the postseason without worrying about dedicating minutes to any ultimate responsibility.
The Clippers are getting close to that. Nic Batum was a revelation and Reggie Jackson is slowly starting to return to his Detroit form. The Nets still have a long way to go. They allowed Landry Shamet to play in his fights, but he is still hovering around 30 percent behind the bow. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot has been very inconsistent and, although Bruce Brown’s defense is sorely needed, he is shooting less than 20 percent in corners 3 so far this season.
The Nets trust only six players at the moment. The Clippers go deeper than that, but watching Luke Kennard play just four minutes in such a big game is not particularly encouraging. Brooklyn has time and tools to improve his bench. Clippers can expect their responses to be internal. But now, both are relying heavily on their players to win games. This may work in the regular season, but champions need players like Rondo and Howard to step up if they are going to last four rounds.
4. Don’t forget who was missing the Clippers
It doesn’t rain at the Brooklyn parade, but this was not quite the prediction of the Finals we expected, mainly because of an absence. Irving scored 39 points in this game, but the absence of Patrick Beverley, All-Defense point guard, probably contributed to this. Clippers have more than 10 points per 100 possessions better with Beverley on the floor (allowing 101.7 points per 100 possessions) than with him out (111.8).
This is not to say that Beverley would shut down Irving. Nobody can do that. But seldom do All-Defense selections allow 39 points out of 15 out of 23 shots. In a game with such narrow margins, Beverley making Irving work a little harder, or at least giving Clippers more versatility in the matchup and limiting Jackson’s minutes on the floor, may have made all the difference. Eventually, the Nets will find a team with three top perimeter locks in the postseason. Boston has three between Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Philadelphia has three between Ben Simmons, Matisse Thybulle and Danny Green. Milwaukee was never willing to employ his best players that way, but Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday would pose problems for Brooklyn stars. We have not yet seen how the Nets would handle such defensive depth. They’ve had at least one exploitable showdown in all of their games so far, but that will eventually change, and assessing Brooklyn’s playoff potential will be impossible before we see how they handle it.