Washington Wizards guard John Wall (2) goes to the basket against Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Clarkson (6) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015, in Washington. The Lakers won 108-104. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
The Clips live to fight through to a game 7, and we finally get a new series to talk about! Let's break down what we can expect from Clippers/Jazz, and get a fresh look at the Washington-Boston series. Let's do this like Brutus.
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The Celtics pounded the Bulls after being gifted a Rajon Rondo injury, and you have to think they're flying high with their new lease on life.
You have to think they're going to be attractive fantasy options to start this series for a few reasons. First of all, Washington plays a much faster game than Chicago does, playing the league's 10th fastest PACE as opposed to the Bulls' 20th.
While Chicago is a weaker team defensive than the Wizard are, the uptick in pace should largely make up the difference at many positions. I am a little concerned about Isaiah Thomas going into this one though. The Wizards have been a black hole against opposing point guards, allowing the 4th fewest fantasy points per game to opposing ball handlers this season.
The Wizards are a little better than league average against opposing shooting guards (which should hurt Avery Bradley slightly), are roughly league average against opposing small forwards, and were considerably below league average against both power forwards and centers. Unfortunately for the Celtics, Al Horford is really the only guy poised to take advantage of Washington's big men deficiency. I do think he's an excellent play going into this series, though.
As for Washington, the Celtics play a similar pace to the Hawks but at a worse defensive efficiency, making this a step in the right direction as well. An obvious winner here is John Wall. Against most teams the Celtics can just stick Avery Bradley on whomever they perceive to be the stronger wing threat, but the dual threat of Wall and Beal make hiding Isaiah Thomas a lot more difficult. Wall should get an easier match-up than a normal PG of his caliber would against Boston, and that feels like a good thing for a guy who's already carrying a huge load. Speaking of Isaiah Thomas, I wouldn't be surprised to see him draw Otto Porter on defense for some of this one, making Porter a very attractive option.
As usual we'll know a lot more about how these teams plan to attack this series after game 1, but thankfully they are both two of the more sane teams from round 1, so I think we can trust a lot of what we saw there.
Is there really a lot left to say when you get to the 7th game of a series? Well, it this series there sort of is. The Clippers decided to go small, starting Austin Rivers alongside JJ Redick and Chris Paul, and it seemed to pay off. The slower Jazz looked unable to keep up at times, and while Rivers didn't exactly go off, he handily paid off on his paltry prices. I suspect he'll be an every line-up guy in our lineup optimizer assuming he draws the start again.
Other than that, things went pretty much on plan for the Clippers. Chris Paul was good, everyone else was mediocre, and the shooting guards wound up cannibalizing each other. I'm looking for more of the same from them in game 7.
As for the Jazz, this had to be a pretty dispiriting loss. It's brutal to have to go back on the road for a game 7, and even facing the Griffin-less Clippers has to seem a little bit daunting. Gordon Hayward was the main fantasy show for Utah with a bunch of other guys generally no-showing around him. It was reassuring to see Gobert get 34 minutes in this one, but you were nowhere near happy on his ~$10k price tag for that production.
I think we'll still be considering George Hill and Joe Johnson in this one, while leaving Joe Ingles on the sidelines. After those guys, there isn't a lot to see here.
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