NBA

Los Angeles Clippers Stat Monkey Brief: Clippers/Jazz (2/23/13)

Yulian Fedulov Feb 23rd, 2013
After witnessing the Parker show, the Clippers will need to play better perimeter defense against Utah tonight.

(Not) Lob City Highlight of the Night

I like the Clippers too much to show highlights of Tony Parker breaking their ankles all night, so here is another retro look at what the dunk contest used to be… LET'S GO HOME!

The Parker Show

Speaking of Tony Parker, with a game score of 30.3 he put together his best game of the season. He scored 31 points on 12 of 16 shooting and contributed another 7 dimes. His offensive efficiency rating for the game was 177, which means that if he had 100 possessions he would score 177 points. For comparison sake, LeBron’s highest game score for the season is 36.9 and his ORtg was 137 for that game. Just let that sink it for a moment…

There is no shame for the Clippers to drop one to the Spurs after already beating them twice. It is disturbing, however, to lose by 26, let the other team to shoot an effective field goal percentage (eFG%) of .644, and to allow just one player to dominate you. It is going to be interesting to see how the Clippers respond.

Tonight’s Game

The Clippers take on the Jazz tonight, who after being two games under .500 the last time they played each other have turned their season around and are now 31-24. The Jazz ranked 11th and 24th in offensive and defensive efficiency two months ago, and one would expect that there would be a huge improvement when a team has a nine game swing. That never truly happened; they rank just ninth and 22nd, respectively, in each rating, but at least to the excitement of our own Zach Warren they are treading in the right direction.

And to his disappointment the Clippers have already beaten the Jazz three times this season. Granted, the first two games were decided by a combined three points, with the third being a little more lopsided. The biggest advantage the Jazz have is their 3-point shooting (ranked 10th). That advantage came out in the two close games, where Utah just went lights out. The key for Clippers tonight will be guarding the perimeter, bouncing back offensively, and hopefully putting together a few highlight worthy plays.