The Los Angeles Lakers aren’t the only team with Los Angeles activated alarms at this start of the season. The LA Clipperswho many viewed as one of the Western Conference favorites in the preseason, Nor do they start as expected and this Sunday they added another defeat at home: convincing 112-91 over the New Orleans Pelicans.
The story of the fight? The return from Zion, after missing two games due to a hip injury, me 21 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists in just over 30 minutes on the pitch. Dominant as ever and responsible for delivering another blow to de Lue, to let them go note 2-4.
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What exactly is going on with the Clippers? There are two points that stand out above the rest.
The second worst offense in the NBA
The Clippers started the day as the second least effective offense of the match (only their neighbors the Lakers are below) and against the Pelicans they had another afternoon to forget, which will continue to sink them in the standings: barely 91 points, 41% from the field, 28% on 3-pointers, 61% on 3-pointers and 15 turnovers.
The bad timing of the Clippers offense is explained by individual and collective failures. For starters, they have fourth-worst three-point percentage in the league (31%) with two very clear culprits for them: the player with the most tries in the team (7 per game), Paul George, is only at 25.7%. The second with more launches of the three, Norman Powell (4.3 per game) is at 23.1%.
If the two highest intensity shooters are at or below 25% shooting, that obviously has a noticeable impact on the overall percentage. Especially when the third of most attempts, Reggie Jacksonit is not a guarantee either (32%).
The other major problem with the Clippers’ offense is turnovers: they are by far the team with the highest average per game at 17.5. And there you can not directly point to certain players (although George and Powell are also very bad in this regard), but in a collective mode that finds too many mistakes.
Which is quite impressive when you consider that among the 10 players with the most minutes on the roster, John Wall is hardly a new face.
In that sense, there should be two points of some illusion: last year these same players (and coaching staff) ended up mid-table in terms of ball deliveries, so logic suggests that they should improve this deficit. On the other side, and George and Powell should go up back to NORMAL and greatly improve his 3-point percentages.
What about Kawhi Leonard’s injury?
(NBAE via Getty Images)
Where the story gets a little murkier for the Clippers is with Kawhi.
Leonard missed the entirety of 2021-2022 with a major right knee injury suffered in the 2021 playoffs and after about a year and a half of recovery, the expectation was that he would be ready and healthy for the start of 2022-2023. But the reality so far has been very different.
Kawhi barely played two of the Clippers’ first six games and will also sit out the seventh (Monday vs. Rockets) with complications in the same injured knee. And when he played, he did it inside limited minutes and as a substitute.
On the one hand, it makes sense that the Clippers have it be as careful as possible with Leonard. On the other hand, it is one disturbing news that there is already talk of pain in an injured area a year and a half ago, with barely 41 minutes on the pitch this 2022-2023. Even more so considering Kawhi’s history with injuries and long recoveries.
This lack of running because you don’t have all the healthy parts during the Tactical Phase already hurt the team in the playoffs in previous seasons. And while some of his problems from this start can be improved, if the underlying problem (Leonard’s health) doesn’t have a strong solution these months, history could repeat itself in the next postseason.
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14 games of the NBA regular season were played on the night of December 23-24.
“Utah” hosted “Memphis” and in the middle of the second quarter they were ahead by 15 points at 50:65, but then they made a move at 17:4 and returned to the match 67:69. In the third quarter, the Jazz managed to take the lead with 71:69 and the game was leveled, but the Grizzlies added points at the end of the quarter and took the lead again with 109:101 and then calmly maintained the advantage with 137:128.
Svyatoslav Mikhayyuk The player, who was in Utah’s top 5 and played 22 minutes, recorded 9 points (4/4 free throws, 1/4 two-pointers, 1/5 three-pointers), 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 1 turnover and 1 foul.
The most productive player of the match was Aldama, who scored 37 points for Memphis, while Spencer also recorded a double-double, adding 11 points and 13 assists.
In the main match of game day, San Antonio unexpectedly defeated Oklahoma.
During the three quarters, there was an even contest in which no team could gain a lead of more than 8 points, and the leader changed 16 times. The fate of the match winner was decided in the fourth quarter, and the 9:0 attack of the home team was effective in this, and then the advantage reached 12 points (98:86). San Antonio then controlled the course of the game and confidently cruised to victory, gaining an advantage of 130:110.
The top scorer of the winning team was Johnson, who scored 25 points, while Castle scored 24 points for Spurs.
I am a sports journalist who has written for various websites and magazines. I currently work as an author at Sportish, a news website that covers sports news. My main focus is writing about soccer, rugby and other sports in the world.
Version Forbes announced its annual ranking of the world’s most expensive sports teams.
NFL franchise Dallas Cowboys, estimated to be worth $13 billion, has led the pack for the ninth year in a row.
While NBA Golden State Warriors ranked second with a valuation of $11 billion, another representative of American football, Los Angeles Rams (10.5 billion), was in the top three.
The top 10, as last year, includes only American teams from the NFL and NBA. There are seven NFL clubs in the top 10 overall, which Forbes analysts attribute to the league’s large-scale television contracts.
Among football clubs, Real Madrid remains the most expensive – the Spanish giant ranked only 20th with a value of $6.75 billion.
Also in the top 50 are Manchester United (24th, 6.6 billion), Barcelona (42nd, 5.65 billion) and Liverpool (48th, 5.4 billion). In total, only four football clubs are represented in the top 50 rankings.
Formula 1 representatives also returned to the list – Ferrari (26th place) and Mercedes (34th).
The 20 most valuable sports teams in the world according to Forbes
I am a sports journalist who has written for various websites and magazines. I currently work as an author at Sportish, a news website that covers sports news. My main focus is writing about soccer, rugby and other sports in the world.
Six games of the NBA regular season were played on the night of December 21-22.
Atlanta hosted Chicago and lost in a high-scoring game.
The teams focused on offense from the beginning of the match and this continued throughout the game. As a result, Atlanta made 23 three-pointers and Chicago made 20, and both teams had a shooting percentage close to 50. The teams also frequently missed each other at the basket, so the game resembled a constant exchange of points. The leader changed 20 times in the meeting and the fate of the match was decided at the last minute. Prior to that, the Bulls had built a 6-point advantage, but the Hawks nearly made up for it as the opponents took one of every two shots and Young and Johnson each scored three points for the home team. Still, the outcome was 152:150 in favor of Chicago.
The most productive player of the match was Johnson, who fell one assist short of a triple-double with 36 points and 11 rebounds. The Bulls also had a triple-double contender, but Giddy, who had 19 points and 11 assists, was one rebound short.
Sacramento made a great comeback against Houston and won at home.
Having performed better in the first half, the Rockets eventually gained an advantage of 11 points (68:57) and maintained a comfortable distance from the opponent in the third quarter with 9 points (91:82), and at the beginning of the fourth 12 minutes, this difference increased to +14 – 100:86. But after that the Kings made a 12:0 move and practically equalized: 98:100. Houston then had a few-point advantage, but with 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Westbrook made a three-pointer and tied the score at 112:112. The match went to overtime and Schroeder’s three-point shot 4 seconds before the siren was decisive – 125:124.
At the end of this match, Schröder recorded a double-double with 27 points and 10 assists. While Westbrook achieved the same success with 21 points and 13 rebounds, Reynaud also played with 12 points and 14 rebounds.
New York confidently won its home game against Miami.
Heat had a successful performance by winning the first quarter with a score of 37:30, but in the second 12 minutes, the Knicks managed to close the gap and take the lead and entered the long break with +4 – 66:62 on the scoreboard. In the second half, New York constantly kept its opponent within two or three attacks and carried the match to a confident victory with 132:125.
Brunson was the best player of the game, scoring 47 points, which significantly helped the Knicks win.
NBA. Regular season, December 22
Atlanta – Chicago – 150:152 (38:38, 35:45, 42:33, 35:36)
I am a sports journalist who has written for various websites and magazines. I currently work as an author at Sportish, a news website that covers sports news. My main focus is writing about soccer, rugby and other sports in the world.
