Chicago Bulls at Los Angeles Clippers Game Outlook: Butler, Lopez, CP3
Robin Lopez
I’d like to think that Chicago’s front office looked at my fantasy team and then decided to do me a solid by having Lopez at as a major fulcrum of the Bulls offense. That’s probably not how it actually works, but it feels like it for me.
Lopez was an adjustment for everyone from fans to players. He can’t play perimeter defense, can pass as well as the former Bulls big man, but offers much better interior defense and a legitimate scoring option. The Bulls had Joakim Noah for so long, they probably had no idea what was going on the first time Lopez popped a 15-footer. And he can repeat that over and over. But he can also play fantastic offense in the interior with his back to the basket.
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Despite having considerably lower shooting percentages over the past four games, all of which were Chicago wins, he’s also been shooting the ball more than other Bulls. His shot attempt totals the past four games: 20, 16, 15, 16. He broke 40 percent on his field goals in two of those games and was shooting closer to 30 percent in the other two. His conversion rate isn’t high, but he is still playing an integral role for the Bulls. In fact, despite his low percentage of scoring success, he has double-digit scoring in each of those games and he’s riding three consecutive double-doubles of his own, grabbing more rebounds than points in two of the last three games.
This is important for Saturday night’s game because he’s going to be matching up with DeAndre Jordan. Jordan does two things better than almost any other center: Dunk and rebound. Jordan is fourth in the league in rebounding at 12.5 per game, just behind Dwight Howard, Andre Drummond and league-leading Hassan Whiteside.
It won’t be an easy task, but even if Lopez doesn’t keep up his double-double pace, he can still be a game-changer. The key will be playing great defense and prevent free rim runs from Jordan for lobs from Chris Paul. He’ll be in trouble if the Clippers run a lot of very high pick-and-roll sets where he’ll be drawn out of the paint and into an area where he’ll be tasked with trying to impeded Paul, hoping for help behind him.
His offensive ability will be his biggest defensive skill. If he can get up a bunch of shots again or put himself in position to get a lot of looks at the basket, he might be able to draw fouls on Jordan early. This is the same kind of approach that a lot of teams use with Whiteside when playing Miami. Attack the player and see if you can get the foul count run up early enough that it forces him to sit, taking away a big piece of their attack.
If Lopez hits his season averages of 9.3 points and 7.8 rebounds, it should be enough when combined with his defense. But only if he doesn’t need 20 shots to get his nine points and if he can use his offensive ability to get Jordan off the floor early.