The weary Cavs return home for a Sunday matinee against the LA Clippers, who beat them in LA 12 days ago 132-119. The Clippers are 42-31 and in 6th place, just two games behind the Lakers and Grizzlies for 4th place with nine games to play. The Clippers finally have all their big dogs healthy and they are on a major roll having won 10 of 12 with one of the losses by 2 points to OKC.
This is a very talented and experienced team led by James Harden (age 35), Kawhi Leonard (33), and Norman Powell (31). Those are their top three scorers with each averaging 20-22 ppg. Bogdan Bogdanovic (32) is a sharpshooter off the bench. Ivica Zubac (28) treated the Cavs like a chew toy in the first game with 28 points and 20 rebounds. He was like Godzilla marching down the street in Tokyo, smashing anything within reach.
The Clippers on the season are scoring 112.4 ppg on 48% from the field and 37% on 3’s. But in March their average is up to 118.6 ppg on 51% overall and 42% on 3’s. Cleaningtheglass.com ranks them first in the NBA in point differential over the last two weeks at +20.5 in non-garbage time. OKC is second at +18.7. The Cavs are +0.4.
So this is a very formidable opponent to say the least. I don’t know if any team is playing better right now. On top of that, the Cavs are having some serious rebounding issues and the Clippers are totally built to take advantage of that as we saw earlier this month. Zubac had 8 of the Clippers 14 offensive rebounds that game.
Bogdanovic came off the bench in LA to go 8-for-8 for 20 points and a +19 in 29 minutes. But it was 33-year-old Kawhi Leonard who turned back the clock with 33 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals.
The Cavs’ luck continues as Leonard is out with a knee injury. This is on the heels of Cade Cunningham and Victor Wembanyama missing games recently. Kawhi is averaging 36 minutes per game in his last 14 games and last week he played 37, 40, and 41 minutes in three consecutive games. Of course his knee hurts. I don’t know what the Clippers were thinking. He’s only played 30 games this year. You'd think now that he's healthy they'd carefully manage his minutes.
The Cavs have been stumbling along lately with 3 wins in their last 8 games. They are 4.0 games ahead of Boston with 8 to play. The Cavs need 5 wins in their last 8 games to finish ahead of Boston if the Celtics finish 8-0, which is very realistic as their schedule is cake the rest of the way.
Rebounding will be huge in this game and the Cavs understand they need to get a lot better on the glass and they don’t have much time to do it.
In their last three games, opponents have led the battle for offensive rebounds 54-34. They are taking nine more shots per game…The Cavs rank 25th in the month of March in defensive rebounding…In his postgame press conference after the 133-122 loss in Detroit, Atkinson stressed the Cavs have “nine games left to get back to who we are.” - Terry Pluto
I always say I’m not a rebounding coach. I have to find a better way to help these guys because we’re just getting smashed right now. Nineteen offensive rebounds against Portland, 19 again tonight. Your defense can be fine or good, and then you’re giving these extra possessions. It’s just too hard. Teams are too good, and we’ve got to find a way to rebound better as a team…it’s definitely something we gotta fix. - KA
Too often, opposing squads extend possessions by grabbing offensive boards, either because Cleveland’s bigs are pulled out of position contesting shots or because their surrounding wings and guards aren’t crashing the glass hard enough…
Giving up offensive rebounds leads to extra shot attempts, second-chance points, and unnecessary defensive fatigue. It devalues everything the Cavs are trying to accomplish on the other end of the floor.
The next test for the Cavs comes Sunday against the Los Angeles Clippers, led by Zubac, who tormented them for 20 rebounds — eight on the offensive glass — just a week ago. In that matchup, Cleveland was thoroughly dominated on the boards, losing the rebounding battle 49-29.
While some of those battles have come against dominant rebounders like Ivica Zubac and Jonas Valančiūnas, the concern deepens when teams like the Spurs — playing without Victor Wembanyama — still manage to beat them on the offensive boards. - Ethan Sands
Atkinson admitted that “we’re just getting smashed right now” and “it’s definitely something we gotta fix.” The question is how? They can’t put 30 pounds of muscle on Allen and Mobley overnight. I agree that the wings and guards aren’t crashing the glass hard enough. There has to be an understanding that Allen and Mobley aren’t built to joust successfully against 280-pound hulks like Zubac and Clingan. It’s going to take a village to get defensive boards.
More than half the time only one of Mobley and Allen is on the floor and they’re frequently contesting the shot because a perimeter defender got beat off the dribble or curling around a screen. That puts our only big out of position for the rebound.
So this game will be a big test of the Cavs’ ability to find a solution and not let Zubac own the glass. At least they won’t need to figure out how to contain Leonard, who got whatever shots he wanted last game on his way to 33 points.
The Cavs were 14-for-41 on 3’s in the first game. They need to be better to beat the Clippers. Mitchell was 2-for-9 and Jerome 0-for-4. The Cavs missed 27 threes and lost by 13. This is one of those teams that the Cavs are not going to win the rebounding battle against. They need to simply outshoot the Clippers, which is tough because the Clippers rank 4th in scoring defense, although Leonard being out will help.
The Clippers have three 30-somethings in the starting lineup; Dunn, Harden, and Powell, with Boggy (32) and Batum (36) coming off the bench. The Cavs should blow by these older guys and attack the rim, hopefully getting Zubac in foul trouble. Don’t do these old fellas a favor by jacking up a ton of 3’s. They’re 5th best at defending them. Make them move their feet and foul you as you blow by them.
I assume Derrick Jones, Jr will start for Leonard. He’s another experienced hand in his 8th season. Jones is averaging a career high 10.3 points in 24 minutes so the Cavs can’t take him lightly. We’ve seen what usually happens when an opponent is missing their best player - the rest step up and bring their A games.
The Cavs can't let Bogdanovic get open looks this time or he could go 8-for-8 again. I expect James Harden will put up more shots with Leonard out. Norman Powell was held to 11 points in the first game and I expect he'll be trying to pick up the slack. He's hitting 42% from deep.
The Clippers don’t have any starters except Zubac over 6’6” unless they start 6’10” Ben Simmons, but he is the backup center.
Ty Jerome is still out and Max Strus is a GTD.
Injury Report
CLEVELAND
Ty Jerome - OUT (knee)
Jaylon Tyson - QUESTIONABLE (knee)
Emoni Bates - QUESTIONABLE (personal)
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
Kawhi Leonard - OUT (knee)
Jordan Miller - OUT (hamstring)
Seth Lundy - QUESTIONABLE (ankle)