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LA Clippers can only improve against Toronto Raptors

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The LA Clippers’ preseason opener against the Golden State Warriors was terrible, but they can only improve against the Toronto Raptors.

The LA Clippers‘ 2016-17 preseason opener couldn’t have gone much worse. Outside of Marreese Speights having a team-high 14 points against his former team, the Clippers’ 120-75 loss to the Golden State Warriors was awful. The effort waned relatively early on and the Warriors’ offense was fluid, selfless, and read hot behind Klay Thompson‘s 30-point barrage in only 21 minutes playing time.

Meanwhile, the Clippers’ primary backcourt of Chris Paul, J.J. Redick, Austin Rivers and Jamal Crawford shot a combined 1-of-25 (yes, 1-of-25) from the floor. It was that bad. And such woeful shooting generally indicates how the flow of the game went as the Warriors stormed ahead to lead 71-33 at the half.

The Clippers’ performance certainly wasn’t pretty. Outside of Speights’ shooting flurries and some solid driving ability shown by new signings Alan Anderson and Raymond Felton, a level of penetration the bench will appreciate this season, there really aren’t many positives to take away.

Blake Griffin is healthy and still primed for a great comeback season, offering a couple of reminders against the Warriors, but will look to have a more convincing showing against the Toronto Raptors at Staples Center on Wednesday night.

However, even the Warriors themselves weren’t quite so formidable in their own preseason opener. They lost 97-93 to the Raptors, shot 39.3 percent from the floor, and struggled with their slightly diminished size and lost the rebounding battle by a commanding 58-42 margin.

If the NBA’s newest super team had a relatively slow start and needed time (albeit not very much at all) to find its footing, then I think it’s fair enough to give the Clippers some time to settle into the preseason as well.

For a start, the level of competition is far weaker for their next game. The Warriors are easily ahead of everyone else, and the Raptors did nothing but maintain a similar standing as a top-three team in the Eastern Conference this summer.

The loss of Bismack Biyombo will be huge to their defense and second unit, and the biggest signing of the summer was retaining DeMar DeRozan on a five-year, $139 million deal.

Signing Jared Sullinger hardly solved their power forward problem as they’d have liked, and most should agree that the Raptors will fall behind the Clippers in the grand scheme of the NBA power rankings.

More to the point, as we consider Wednesday’s game at Staples Center, the Raptors lack something that destroyed the Clippers’ in their preseason opener: the best offensive lineup we’ve ever seen and the “Death Star Lineup”.

Without that shooting at their disposal or the terrifying lineup of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green, it goes without saying that the Raptors won’t be giving the Clippers so much trouble.

The Raptors are considerably easier to guard than the Warriors given the sheer drop off in both talent and elite three-point threats that eventually leave defenders late to rotate.

Before the first quarter started to get out of hand and the Clippers’ guards went on to have such a poor shooting night, there were brief signs that L.A. could give Golden State some trouble. Whether it’s with their size inside, Griffin drawing double teams and finding the open man as he does so well, or crashing the offensive glass. Unfortunately for L.A., those signs didn’t come close to lasting on Tuesday.

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Let’s not forget how good this Clippers team can be after just one preseason game, though. Only those eager to overreact will do so, yet nothing should have changed about their 58-win potential (by my prediction, that is) and improvement upon the return of a healthy Blake Griffin.

Effort, shooting, consistent ball movement and generally everything you need to win a basketball game was absent for the LA Clippers against the Warriors. But it was their first preseason game. The first attempt to get things right and find chemistry, and that isn’t going to happen on the first attempt. Or the second, or the fifth, or the tenth.

It will take time. Time is needed for the team to acclimatize to the return of Griffin and time is needed for the bench players to fit in and everyone to adjust to what they bring. The Clippers finding the correct rotations, successful lineups and chemistry is a process. The preseason is the time to start figuring things out.

Based on the LA Clippers’ showing against the Warriors and their next opponent being far less challenging, the only way is up as the preseason continues. This Wednesday at 10:30 PM ET at Staples Center is their time to get a win.

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