Neither one of these teams will be relevant in the second round, in my opinion.
The Clippers have an awful offense. They're either getting dunks in transition or standing around waiting for Chris Paul to do something. Aside from Paul, they don't have anybody who can consistently generate offense. Their defense isn't any better. Kenyon Martin is their only above average individual defender. As a team, they don't generate the low-percentage shots and turnovers necessary to fuel their potent transition offense. They don't play at a contender level on either side of the ball.
I don't know what happened to DeAndre Jordan. I thought he would develop into a force on both sides of the ball - a Tyson Chandler-esque eraser on defense, and a good cutter and garbage man on offense. Instead, he's been practically invisible. I may be expecting too much improvement from him too quickly, but in my opinion, he's made no real strides from last year. That's disappointing.
Memphis plays defense, but for all of their offensive talent they have a lot of trouble scoring efficiently. They go into "Watch the guy with the ball go one-on-one" mode way, way too often. Rudy Gay settles for difficult shots more often than not, and if he's ever going to be a legitimate go-to guy for an offense then he has to develop a better feel for what is and isn't a good shot.
On offense, Memphis seems bad at five-on-five basketball. Conley, Mayo, Gay and Randolph all have the ability to make difficult shots in iso situations, but with the exception of Gasol they don't display the ability to get easy offense by making their teammates better. Which is weird, because their unselfish play was one thing that made them so dangerous last year.
I don't see either of these teams providing a significant challenge for San Antonio.
