Baron Davis = "rowdy little fella"

Good for BD. I hope that he got right-up into Kamen’s grill and said “WTF planet were you on tonight?”

Losing pretty much always sucks. If you play as well as you can and just get beat by a better opponent, that’s something you can live with. But if you play as incompetently as the Clippers did, then you need to kick yourself in the arse. I think we can all agree that what is so disturbing about this game isn’t that the Clippers lost, but that they lost in such a pathetic manner.

BD worked hard last night. He seemed to be in 3rd gear while most of the other Clippers were in 1st gear or, in the case of Kamen, in Park. Often BD would drive to the basket and you could see in his eyes that he was looking for Kamen to do something – go up for an alley-oop pass, move toward the hole to get a bounce pass as the bigs collapse on BD, or step-out in position for a short jumper. Instead Kamen would stand there toreador fashion doing nothing. No pick, no box-out on his man. Nada. Just watching BD go by. All he was missing was a red cape. Hey Kamen, this ain’t rocket science, it’s freakin’ basketball. You’re 7 feet tall and you’re playing with Baron Davis – don’t just stand there, move to the basket and he will find you!

Getting that early lead was fun and exciting to watch, with the added bonus of shutting-up the Lakers fans for a while. But what was up with that second rotation? I turned to my buddy Jason and said “Uh, what exactly is the game plan with this line-up?” That was simply painful to watch and that debacle rests squarely on the Clippers coaching staff. I accept that this is a new team with players that have not played together. But, with the exception of the rookies, we all know very well the strengths and weaknesses of our players. Shouldn’t the coaches have a much better idea already of what kinds of line-ups to have on the floor?

I often hear Coach Dunleavy talking about how NBA basketball is a game of match-ups. I get that. Why not just pound the ball down low to someone like Elton and let him get 20 and 10 on someone like Vlad Rad. This approach certainly guarantees a certain amount of success as long as you have superior talent (and they stay healthy). The problem with this approach is that you are constantly reacting to what your opponent does instead of making your opponent react to your game plan. Another problem with this approach is that players often don’t know what they are supposed to be doing on offense. The “match-up” approach often results in a stagnant two man game with no opportunities for easy buckets. How often have we seen two guys working the ball while the other three stand around on the perimeter doing nothing? I’m just saying, that you need to come-up with an offensive game plan that plays to the strengths of the players you have, and where each player always knows where they are supposed to be and what they should be doing. Watching Brian Skinner dribbling the ball around at the top of the key is a clear indication that there is no offensive game plan. Tell me, in what offensive set would you EVER want Brian Skinner to dribble the ball? In a good offensive scheme, execution of the plan creates the mis-matches and the scoring opportunities. Just look at the way the Lakers or the D’Antoni Suns run/ran their offenses. Always moving the ball, always looking for the easiest scoring opportunitie. You plug the players into the system where they fit best, instead of searching for the best one-on-one match-up every night and hoping for the best.

Okay, that’s enough whining for now. Go Clips!!!

…is actually very valuable in terms of what the Clippers were trying to do when they were still in the game, and some of their limitations. Worth looking at.

CS makes a very good point about 06-07 and the long failure for a meeting. I believe Cassell was dinged up, along with Livingston—hard to keep it all straight—and we know that FElton was never going to step forward and rally the troops. But Cassell was such a leader, and a guy who taught the Clips how to win on the road and in close games down the stretch, that’s it’s odd that he wasn’t pulling the team together. Perhaps everybody was freaked out by Maggette as a 6th man, which caused a vacuum because one of the two or three best players on the team was discontented. It’s kind of like, the Clips would have had a team meeting and come out of it with the decision to go to Dunleavy and say, we all want to play harder and get over the hump, but can you help us out and put Maggs in the starting lineup? The fact that they were so successful the year before and came back so funky, and that there was no clear and sensible leadership, makes me happy that the Clips have turned the page. And it’s great to see Baron here.

The other thing, along with the direct leadership of BD, is that the roles all seem to be very clear. There’s a little bit of an evolutionary question about the SG spot and backup wing rotation, and maybe some back up PG, but we’re probably talking about less than 10% of the available minutes on any given night, a very small concern.

The big thing is if BD can inspire the Clips to get some wins in this first 5 games, then the next 5, as Camby comes back and they learn to play together. The meeting and the passion it represents are great. Cassell was a big step forward for the Clips, but his contribution should be miniscule compared to BD, who will also be 48 hours healthier than he was against the Lakers. Even with Camby not playing, Carmelo is out, and the Clips badly need to establish themselves, step up and get a win tonight.

Just saw took a look at CS’ new schedule feature of upcoming games. I knew that the first ten was something of a murderer’s row. I found out pretty recently, maybe last night, that Carmelo isn’t playing tonight. And I knew that there was a back-to-back with DWilliams-less Utah coming right up. What I didn’t realize, until just now, is that the Clips are heading into a back-to-back tonight and the Utah road game is tomorrow night. Makes getting a win tonight more important both to get a victory, but also to get some momentum going into Utah, where it’s ridiculously hard to win (wonder what BD and Camby’s record is like there).

But then, after Monday’s home Utah rematch, I didn’t realize that the Clips get the Lakers again as soon as Wednesday, the night after the election. Hmmm. Okay, why not. They will have three games under their belt. Optimism says that they’re going to make a lot of progress, guys (like Kaman and Thornton, maybe even Camby, RDavis and Gordon) will have found their sea legs, so it will be good to get a rematch to guage progress and competitiveness, before taking on the next slate of elite teams. All the more reason to do something good tonight. Very important game. Eager to see the preview.

I loved the comment Bdiddy made “one day we’ll thank the Lakers for hitting us up side the head and waking us up.”