It surprises some people to find out which team has the top offense in the NBA.
The Golden State Warriors have been the champions of social media with the way Stephen Curry dominates nightly highlights. The unselfish, perfect system of the Atlanta Hawks had the entire NBA world buzzing up until the All-Star break. The team they modeled themselves after, the San Antonio Spurs, were once again using extra passing and great shooting to dominate on that end of the floor. And the Cleveland Cavaliers have three of the best offensive players in the world that dominated when on the floor together this season.
And yet, none of these teams mentioned above ranked as the top offense in the NBA this season. The Los Angeles Clippers pulled that off with an offensive rating of 109.8 points per 100 possessions, just ahead of the Warriors (109.7, second), the Cavs (107.7, fourth), and the Hawks and Spurs (106.2, both tied for sixth). Despite not having much of a bench all season long, the Clippers had the top offense because of the way Chris Paul and Blake Griffin led this team when they were on the floor.
With this All-Star duo on the court together, the Clippers scored a preposterous 116.7 points per 100. Add DeAndre Jordan to these two and Los Angeles' offense jumped up to an offensive rating of 118.4. They really couldn't be stopped with their main stars on the floor. It's easy to look to Chris Paul as the reason the offense is run so efficiently. He's one of the best point guards in the NBA from a scoring and passing standpoint, and he led the NBA in points per game created by assists (28.3).
However, that's not enough to make this Clippers' offensive engine run the way it does. Griffin's passing ability has often been an underappreciated part of his attack because his dunking ability and highlights steal the show. But it's his passing that turns him from a highlight conveyor belt into a complete offensive juggernaut. We've seen this evident during the Clippers' battle with the Spurs in the first round so far.
Griffin averaged a career-high 5.3 assists this season, and has increased that average to 7.3 during the first four games of the postseason. His increase in playmaking this season has had a profound affect on just how potent the Clippers remain offensively, even though their bench greatly brings down the level of scoring efficiency for stretches of each game. LeBron James was the only other forward in the NBA that created as many or more points per game with passing as Griffin.
There are three main ways the Clippers utilize their All-Star forward's passing ability.
BLAKE GRIFFIN GIVE-AND-GO HAND-OFFS
In the video above, it's pretty clear to see a big part of their half court offense come from him running a two-man game, mostly with J.J. Redick. Griffin receives the ball at the high elbow, almost completely extended to the 3-point line quite often. His ability to set screens to get separation while reading the play of whether or not to hand the ball off is incredible.
If the space is there to lead to a jumper, Griffin delivers the pass. If the defender is too tight, Griffin can drive to the basket on the overplay or simply wait out the defense's ability to stick with the guard.
Sometimes the Griffin touch is so quick that you can hardly tell he even had control of the ball. Redick hands it off to Blake and he will either touch pass it right back to J.J. or he'll hold for the right moment. Griffin's unselfish nature here is something the defense is highly aware of and knows they have to hang back as much as possible to protect against everything else. As you can see in the screenshot above, Griffin creates so much space for his teammate to get a good shot off.
Even when the defense recovers, by the time they're starting into their jump, the shot is on its way. Redick can adjust to either turn it into a 3-point shot, a midrange jumper, or drive it into the lane depending on how much Griffin's defender helps out. The chemistry between Griffin and Redick is nearly perfect too. It's a lot like watching Marc Gasol and Mike Conley operate in Memphis.
This season, Griffin made the second most passes to Redick and it results in 50.5 percent from the field and 44.2 percent on 3-point shooting by the Clippers' guard. In the series against the Spurs so far, the third highest percentage of Griffin's passes have gone to Redick and he's making 45.0 percent of his shots and 44.4 percent of his 3-pointers.
Griffin always has several options when he gets the ball against a scrambling defense and the effect CP3 has on opponents often leaves them scrambling. As soon as the defense is out of position, Griffin can survey the floor and pick where he wants the ball to go. He can throw the lob inside to Jordan or he can find the man who just passed him the ball pretty quickly.
A simple ball fake because of his passing acumen is enough to shift the defense away from the intended target, as he does before getting the ball to Paul. Chris Paul received over half of Griffin's passes this season, and while the percentages for CP3 dropped (42.6 percent FG, 35.8 percent 3FG), they've risen in the playoffs. The two-man game of Griffin to Paul is helping the point guard shoot 64.3 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from 3 in the first four games.
So often after receiving a pass from a teammate, Griffin is calling for the guard to come get the ball on a hand-off so he can screen away the defense. And so often it results in shooting space like this. The threat of Griffin rolling to the paint for a Vine that will dominate social media for the next week is too great for most defenses to risk. Almost 20.0 percent of Griffin's possessions that end in a shot, free throw attempt, or turnover come as the pick-and-roll big man.
Give CP3 that much space on a jumper and you're likely walking back up the floor, shaking your head, and wondering where the defense broke down. It broke down because there is no rush to get a shot up; they just let Griffin feel out the cat-and-mouse game for the right time.
THE BLAKE GRIFFIN-DEANDRE JORDAN CONNECTION
Probably the most well known passes by Griffin are the ones to DeAndre Jordan. There is an incredible connection between the two and Griffin knows that if he can draw the defense in the paint as they try to stop him from getting an easy basket, he can create an even easier basket by lobbing the ball into the heavens so Jordan can finish the play.
On this pick-and-roll with Jamal Crawford, the defense collapses to the dotted line in the paint because they don't want Griffin to get a good shot off. That's where the perfect ruse can be completed as Jordan dives in from the baseline to go up for the dunk. Tim Duncan can't just commit to staying on Jordan because then Griffin is at the rim. You have to hope you can recover against Jordan and either stop him (unlikely) or foul him to send a historically bad free throw shooter to the line.
Griffin's second highest number of assists (Redick was first) went to Jordan this season. That's probably because of how easy the conversion rate was. When Blake got the ball to the big man, Jordan made 84.3 percent of those shots.
Because of Blake's willingness to pass the ball anywhere, his calm and poise give him time to look off one passing option to trick the defense into inching away from his intended target. On this play, he is doubled by Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard just above the free throw line. Boris Diaw has to make a decision of whether to leave Jordan or start preparing to run at the 3-point line where Matt Barnes is standing.
Just the slightest movement toward Barnes gives Griffin the window he needs to fire the pass inside and get Jordan an easy look. Griffin has nine assists to Jordan so far in this series and Jordan has made every shot he's taken when Blake just passes him the ball and he goes up for a hook shot, layup, or dunk.
This play is an evil set by the Clippers. Paul runs a pick-and-roll with Jordan, but Jordan slow plays the roll a bit. As Paul turns the corner, he whips a pass to Griffin near the opposite elbow. This shifts the focus of the defense toward Griffin, but the roll man of Jordan is still the guy they need to worry about the most. The natural steps toward Griffin lead a perfect passing lane to Jordan.
It takes a very disciplined defense not to play the wrong guy here. But with Griffin's ability to hit midrange jumpers, you have to respect the threat of him shooting around the free throw line there.
THE THREAT OF GRIFFIN FROM THE INSIDE-OUT
Whether Griffin is in transition or he's in the half court, his goal is almost always to get the ball into the middle of the floor and force the defense to choose where they'll defend. This dedication to playing the ball inside-out ends up resulting in so many shots on the perimeter for wings, which jump-starts their offense. Once they draw the attention of the defense to the perimeter, elite finishers like Griffin and Jordan can wreck the rim.
Because Griffin is so good at handling the ball in the open court, he's usually the best option for them in transition. He can go to the basket or he can find a teammate for an easy shot. On this play in particular, he's paced himself and forced the defense to stop any potential lob plays to Jordan. As the defense then scrambles to set up back in position, Griffin spots Redick flashing to the corner as Marco Belinelli completely loses track of where he's going.
Redick is a 46.6 percent shooter from the right corner.
So many read-and-react moments happen out of that two-man game with Griffin and a guard. They can pass the ball back-and-forth a couple of times before they jump into a pick-and-roll and get Blake the ball in the middle of the floor. Once he's there with the ball, the defense is forced to collapse and that means someone is open.
Only referee Ron Garretson is in position to stop Barnes in the left corner here, and while Barnes isn't a consistent outside shooter, he shot an acceptable 35.6 percent from 3-point range on passes from Griffin and 36.2 percent from downtown the entire season overall.
There are some people who don't believe Griffin has a post-up game. These are people that probably haven't watched him closely since his second season in the NBA. Of players that had at least 300 post-up possessions this season, Griffin ranks fifth in scoring. NBA defenses know how big of a threat he is there, so they often have to swarm him with the double and hope to rotate back to shooters.
Something you can do to screw up those rotations is have one wing cut into the paint to be a passing threat for Griffin, which opens up another shooter on the perimeter as the defense collapses. That's exactly what happened on this play, and CP3 eventually knocks down the 3-point shot.
The Clippers have a lot of work to do in this series if they want to beat the Spurs in two of the next three games. But a lot of that work should be going through Griffin and trusting him to create great shots for him and his teammates like he's done all season long.
After all, that helped get the Clippers the best offense in the NBA this season.
