National Basketball Association

LA Clippers' season opener vs. Trail Blazers is about intensity

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

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There are plenty of technicalities to look out for in the LA Clippers’ season opener against the Portland Trail Blazers, but their energy level and pace is just as vital.

Can the LA Clippers‘ second unit defense survive when Marreese Speights is exposed in the pick-and-roll against strong offensive teams? Will Austin Rivers take another step forward this year? Could Blake Griffin and Chris Paul be top 2017 MVP candidates? There are countless topics to talk about as the 2016-17 NBA regular season gets underway, but we’ll take our time in considering such questions at these early stages. For the Clippers, as is the case for any team, all they’ll be thinking about is starting their season opener as they mean to go on, defeating the Portland Trail Blazers on the road in convincing fashion.

Damian Lillard is coming off a 39-point performance against the Utah Jazz to begin his season, so the Trail Blazers’ leader has already started hot and will be as motivated as ever to push his team as far as they can go.

Last season, that came at the expense of the injured Clippers, but Paul and Griffin will look to correct than now they’re healthy again.

More than anything, it’s a chance for the Clippers to start as they mean to go on. Doc Rivers learning which rotations will work best comes with time. Learning how to use his new players and how they compliment one another will take time. As was the case last year, even with Griffin’s absence, the team needed time to find themselves and solidify as the top-four defensive team they became.

So, heading into the season opener against the Trail Blazers, the biggest thing the Clippers need to showcase is energy. Energy to start the game strong and not relent if they move into the lead, to start proving to critics (even if it doesn’t really matter) that there’s a hunger and determination about them this season that can take them to another level.

It sounds simple because it is. The Blazers’ talent aside, these Clippers are far more formidable than they were in the playoffs with their two best players healthy and motivated. And Evan Turner doesn’t take Portland to some new daunting level.

The biggest potential issue with the Clippers on Thursday night would be a lack of conviction on their offensive sets and slips in effort defensively. But for a team led by such hungry superstars in Paul and Griffin, both motivated by contract years and to achieve the success they were deprived of by injury last season, that should be the case early on.

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Hopefully for L.A., it’ll be the case all season, and starting in the correct fashion goes a long way to making a statement that this team isn’t going to stumble out the gate to begin their new campaign.

There are some key technical elements to look out for against the Blazers. How much Austin Rivers is used to help Paul guard an elite backcourt of Lillard and C.J. McCollum, how many minutes Doc gives his stars, whether Paul and Griffin are staggered to help the bench and how these possible lineups work are just a few of the many aspects of the game to focus on. Each question will garner more urgency as the season progresses.

Playing on the road also makes things interesting as the less preferable place to kick off a new season, although Jordan recently told Dan Woike of the Orange County Register how that can fuel the team to fight even harder than they do in Staples Center.

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If we’re talking about something we should expect these desperately contending LA Clippers to get right immediately, it’s effort. They can benefit from more roster continuity than they’ve ever had heading into the first weeks of the season, and fans will be hoping that’s the case from game one. Detailed discussion of what we start learning about this adjusted team will follow.

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