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Kawhi leonard wingspan5/2/2023 Zubac is the only player in that quintet in his 20s, and he’s a 7-foot center. But Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue has acknowledged the challenges his team has, saying that the Clippers are “ not a movement team, we’re the oldest team in the league.” And without George, Lue’s starting lineup is even older with Eric Gordon starting with Leonard, Russell Westbrook, Marcus Morris Sr., and Ivica Zubac. Listening to how the Pelicans talked is one thing. We got a lot of young guys, a lot of good athletes. When we’re getting stops and able to push and run, we’re a pretty fast team. But really, it’s based off of our defense. “I knew we were playing at a real fast pace. “I felt it, I’ll tell you that, because the first timeout when I came back to the bench, I was like, ‘oof, I’m getting a little tired,'” said Murphy, who won’t be 23 until June. But Murphy, who made sure to point out that “there was a little bit of chirping from the Clippers bench” before he made the first of his career-best 10 3s, explained how the Pelicans were wearing the Clippers out with their increased pace of play. The Pelicans are neither a remarkably fast team (14th in pace this season, averaging 99.8 possessions) nor a strong shooting team (22nd in 3s made, averaging 11.0 per game). “Casey had the scouting,” McCollum added, referring to former Clippers assistant and current Pelicans assistant coach Casey Hill the Pelicans are 8-2 against the Clippers since hiring Hill after the 2020 bubble. “Our offense got started by (Herb Jones’) defense,” said Murphy, who added 32 points almost entirely on 3s. So we just tried to get out and run, get stops, and create easy baskets.” “They’re generally a really good team in the half court defensively,” said Pelicans point guard CJ McCollum. And the Pelicans were open about how they beat up on the Clippers so formulaically. In a game with 101.5 possessions, the Pelicans had a 12-2 offensive rebounding advantage and a 20-16 turnover advantage. While the Pelicans had a hot shooting game, led by Trey Murphy III making 10 of the Pelicans’ 21 3s, the game was lopsided due to possessions and pace. Unlike Fox in that epic 176-175 scoring affair against Sacramento last month, Ingram did not have multiple turnovers, compiling 32 points on 12-of-22 shooting from the field with 13 assists and only one turnover. The Pelicans beat the Clippers 131-110 Saturday, with Ingram becoming the second player this season ( De’Aaron Fox in double overtime) to have at least a dozen field goals and assists each against the Clippers’ defense. The bad news is that Saturday felt like a blueprint of how to make things as hard as possible for Leonard and the Clippers at a time when the team is trying to hold onto a top-six seed in the Western Conference without All-Star Paul George. The good news for the Clippers and Leonard is that he is listed as probable for Monday night’s game against Chicago.
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