Clippers at Jazz - Game Preview and Open Thread

Yesterday, I sat next to two Denver fans who told me in the second quarter, “Anthony Carter sucks so bad, but at least he’s not Jason Hart.” Carter then proceeded to block a Jason Hart 20-footer with his forearm, easily beat him down the floor, and passed to a trailing Nene who ALSO beat Hart down the floor. I know Madglove hates Taylor, but you really cannot get worse than Jason Hart. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no way Taylor is a legitimate NBA starting PG, but Hart isn’t even a legitimate NBA player. Hart will make Ronnie Price look like Chris Paul.

MD had a much better game than he did against the Lakers, but still had some baffling decisions. Tim Thomas looked great all night, but posting him up against K-Mart instead of Al on Carter made no sense. They should have also forced the ball into Kaman a lot more in that 4th quarter. Lastly, please play Eric Gordon more, especially with Baron out. No one else can create a shot on the entire team.

Kaman looked much better. CS is right, however, in that he is developing that disgusting habit of trying to reverse with his left hand. I saw it in the Laker game also. It’s soft and turns a likely foul into a terrible layup attempt. He needs to play a lot stronger. It was encouraging to watch him finally make a strong move in OT on Nene with his right hand.

Another heartbreaker for our Clips.

They know what they are doing on the offensive end. I see Kaman getting owned by Carlos Boozer tonight.

why doesnt dunleavy just start ricky davis and cat in the backcourt. All hart does anyway is bring the ball up court, pass it to the wing, and wait for someone to penetrate and kick to him so he can shoot his ugly 15 footer. At least ricky davis can create a shot for others, and im sure he is a way better shooter than hart who can spread the floor all the way to the three point line. I see why hart was a better fit last night becuz someone had to guard AI, but with deron out tonight why not just go with better offense in the backcourt.

Utah is starting ronnie price tonight as well as ronnie brewer. That backcourt doesnt scare anybody, and I will be pissed tonight if dunleavy starts hart just so he can shut down ronnie price. Put in davis and cat out there together and we have the advantage in the backcourt in my opinion. We don’t need hart to play heavy minutes just so he can chase ronnie price around.

As much as I like both Hart and Mobley in a half court set when we had a strong inside game with both EB and Kaman, it is becoming apparent that Hart’s lack of offense and Cat’s penchant to force shots in stagnant iso situations have been killing us in the first two games.

If we are going to lose the next 40 games anyways, I would rather see the rookies get some minutes. I understand that DeAndre has yet to grasp all the defensive rotations and probably knows very few offensive plays. But the last two nights have shown that we are getting demolished on the boards and inside. Nene, Bynum, even Mihm have been scoring at will against our lineup of Kaman, Skinner, & Davis. Simply put, we lack the athleticism and bulk to match up against legitimate NBA power forwards and centers. I cringe to see what Boozer will do to us tonight. He will probably go for 90+ points, grab 30 rebounds and threaten Wilt’s record.

I don’t think that Dunleavy will play the rookies or change his lineup until we are 0 – 61 and is mathematically eliminated from post season play. Then he will probably give the rookies some minutes in the last twenty games and “build” for the future.

Also now that we’ve put Elgin to pasture, can we finally get rid of Jason Powell as well? I mean now that Baron is under his expert care, I can easily see his bruised tailbone degenerate into a broken hip, then a complete hip replacement surgery, putting him on the injured list for the next four years until his contract expires.

LOL the Jazz closed out the 3rd quarter in a 15-0 run. We ran like 10 horrible isos in a row. Taylor has gotten minutes but Ricky Davis is ice cold, Mobley and Thomas have cooled off. We need buckets but not a minute for Gordon. Is he the 12th man or is Jordan the 12th man? Maybe we should move them both to the D League if we’re not going to play them and maybe bring in Rick Brunson for mad points off the bench.

Awesome we’re only down by 28 points with 3 minutes left, maybe Gordon can pull off an ultra TMAC and score 30 points in 3 minutes and we can win by 2….It’s official, Gordon is the 11th man off the bench with Jordan the 12th man. Apparently, Dunleavy has alot of faith in Ricky Davis who has gone 1 for 12 the last two nights.

We’re so bad and are playing so selfishly, it’s comical. Is Dunleavy that bad a coach or has he completely lost the team?

Good is Mike Taylor, and the fact that Dunleavy is apparently “unstubborn” enough, by some miracle, to recognize that Taylor is much better than Jason Hart.

Trying to understand who Hart is and why he’s there: when Hart previously played for the Clips, he became the PG after midseason on a team that had a lot of firepower and a strong handle on their basic sets. He just needed to bring the ball up and get it to Maggette, Brand, and even Kaman was coming around at that point. He needed to play some D, not make mistakes, and he was adequate. We know that on the Clips Brevin Knight was in way over his head last year, an undersized starter, no Brand. Last night he looked like a great backup PG, and a very good fit for the Jazz—who won going away without DWilliams or JSloane on the bench. Perhaps Hart might have some value as an adequate 3rd string PG, or really 4th string and inactive, if Gordon can start playing some PG minutes. That’s if the dominant stubborn version of Dunleavy realizes that he has one of the top draft picks in the league on his bench, and doesn’t need to quit his experimenting when he gets some good production out of the 55th pick.

Put Hart in the ugly category. Put Dunleavy’s failure to play Gordon in the ugly category. Put Ricky Davis in the ugly category. Another horrible scoring drought and the game getting away is ugly ugly.

So what’s just bad? The team was competitive for a half and the first part of the 3rd quarter. Not so good, not ugly. Kaman showed some life, Mobley had a good half, and Thomas played well for a stretch.

We really have to see how Dunleavy responds. He had limited resources, and he made a good adjustment by going with Taylor. But his failure to use Gordon is nearly criminal, and he didn’t figure out how to play Paul Davis. And DJordan could have actually made some plays in this game. Dunleavy acted like his only option was a tight rotation with Skinner replacing Thomas or Kaman, and the same thing with Ricky Davis replacing Thornton or Mobley, although there was a brief Novak sighting.

Dunleavy is acting like everything is set, determined, and obvious, when in fact guys are just playing for their spots and minutes and it’s crisis management. It’s a bit shocking that he made the adjustment with Taylor for Hart, so at least there’s that. Part of the problem for him last night was that Mobley had such a good first half, which made him think that Mobley might be more effective overall than he would have guessed. And Mobley’s effectiveness, which was “primary” (with the first unit), was paired with Hart’s struggles. It was different from Ricky Davis’ “secondary” ineffectiveness (paired with Taylor’s good effort. Ricky Davis didn’t look quite as ugly as he really was until much deeper into the game. All of this made it tough for Dunleavy to go to Gordon, even though it seemed obvious from a fan’s point of view. But it should show up in the stats and on the tape.

Dunleavy needs to realize that what he got out of Mobley in the first half is about as good as it’s going to get—and it should be all that he needs. 15 great minutes, and 10 adequate minutes. And he has to move Gordon ahead of Ricky Davis right away, and not wait around for when Davis heats up. RD is still going to get his minutes and opportunities—he’s not going to get buried right away. But just as Hart showed that he shouldn’t be the default starter and primary backup, RD shouldn’t be the lead wing in the 2nd unit until he shows some productivity and fire. He’s on a minimum contract, more or less—it’s not like he’s making real money like Mobley or getting paid the midlevel. He’s reminding me a whole lot of Reuben Patterson over these three games, and reminding me of how Patterson was getting the old lion’s share of Al Thornton’s minutes in the first half of last season.

It’s just so obvious. If the 55th player in the draft can come in and help out when you’re short-handed, how do you leave the big time scorer who fell to you at #7 sitting on the bench during a 28-2 drought? Move Thornton to PF for a spell if you have to, let him guard Millsap, if you are crazy to play Ricky Davis or think Mobley is going to go for 30 and save you. But play Eric Gordon. Play guys who can get shots and score points.

it sounds like BD may miss a couple more games unless he miraculously heals…I would love to see him and camby out there though… I think the clips will win on Monday. I think Camby will change the attitude on Defense and thats how we can grind out and win some of these games when our offense stalls out