Key #3 – Contain Lou Williams
With Blake Griffin out of commission, the Clippers are more than likely to turn to their second leading scorer and most prolific wing player in Lou Williams. Williams is coming off an astounding 42-point outpouring in the Clippers’ last contest and he will without a doubt be a force to be reckoned with, especially considering that he’s now the main focal point of LA’s offense.
As my J-Notes colleague Ryan Aston wrote on Wednesday, this will be a nice test for Donovan Mitchell who will assume a large portion of the duties of stopping Lou. If he’s able to do even a decent job of holding the Clippers guard in check, it will go a long way in stopping a team that is down several key players that handled a significant amount of the scoring load.
Lou Williams had 42 points against the Lakers tonight, a team he scored 40 points with twice in 2016.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 28, 2017
He's the 2nd player to score 40 points in a game for both the Lakers and Clippers (Jim McMillian). pic.twitter.com/wpMmDKFBW9
After Lou Williams, the next highest scorer on the team is Austin Rivers, who has in fact played well against the Jazz in the past. However, after him, there’s a significant drop as the next player in terms of scoring that’s actually healthy is DeAndre Jordan who’s putting up just 10 points per game. All the remaining Clippers are averaging less than double figures.
Therefore, stopping Williams could very well have a “cut the head off the snake” effect and leave the Clippers with little offensive firepower with which to put up the necessary points to surpass a Jazz offense that has been surprisingly effective of late.