Originally Posted by
thomorino
Utah v. Clippers Series
The key to this series is Gobert. He is the best interior defender in the league, but he struggles on the perimeter and the Clippers figured out against Dallas their best lineup is when they and move Morris who has been playing great to the 5.
Kawhi missed a lot of games with loss management but was great in games 6 and 7, and Lue finau is playing the right starting lineup with Jackson who was strong the final month of the season as the starting point guard at the point and not playing Beverly at all. Beverly got major minutes in game 1 and 2, and that hurt the Clippers a lot, Jackson is better and he was very good for the Clippers after he was out back in the starting lineup in game 3.
The Clippers did not play Zubac much at all in games 6 and 7 once they figured out their best lineup was going small with a Morris at the five and the Clippers will likely play small again. Gobert is a limited offensive player and well he will hurt the Clippers on the boards of the Clippers go small. The Clippers should be able to expose his perimeter defense against Morris and they will make him guard Leonard and George when Utah has to switch pick and rolls. Utah has always struggled to defend the perimeter against top teams with Gobert on the floor, but they can’t bench him because of how important his interior defense and rebounding is for them.
Utahs other weakness is that their 4th quarter offense depends too much on Mitchell, who is a star but not a superstar. Mitchell is obviously good but he’s not on Lukas level and Kawhi should be able to slow Mitchell down late in games. Bogdonavich, Ingles, and Clarkson can get exposed defensively.
I like the Clippers to win the series.