Obviously, we picked up right where we left off in the first quarter tonight, dominating the game inside and out. Then, early in the 2nd quarter, (as CS thoroughly explains) Gordon picked up his 2nd foul. Dunleavy goes by the book and takes EJ out of the game, which caused my heart to skip a beat…some bad vibes crackled in the back of my mind, "This means someone has to come off the bench to replace him." Of course, that someone was Mardy Collins. Ouch. Mardy enters the game and promptly goes classic Mardy, lazily driving to the basket, getting his pocket picked by Durant, leading to an insane transition dunk by Durant himself, totally energizing the crowd, and most definitely getting the talented young OKC boys energized and intent on getting back in the game…just as they had done against the Spurs in their previous game.

If this were the old Clippers, we probably would’ve caved. Luckily, we have Randolph, Eric Gordon, & a healthy Marcus Camby to bail us out of such jams. A recent history of winning also may have came in handy, but all things considered, tonight’s win, given the circumstances, was pretty impressive. You can tell OKC is playing with purpose for their new head coach, and they are a much better team now than when we beat them last. They may have improved more than we have, especially if they can get that kind of play out of Wilcox. As was feared, their depth at guard, especially PG, gave them a big edge. Their tandem of Westbrook & Watson shows just what a luxury having two capable floor generals can be. Add Kevin Durant and Jeff Green, and you’ve got some serious young talent. Their gaping hole continues to be Center, and largely thanks to that, we were able to get the "W" tonight. Either way, I don’t see them finishing the year as the worst team in the league.

With the current starting 5 continuing to impress, tonight exposed 1 of the 5 as the potential weak link. It’s more a process of elimination. It’s certainly not Randolph or BD. Couldn’t be Camby. It’s hard to complain about Gordon, especially considering his Defensive ability. It’s one Al Thornton. When he’s attacking the rim, we love him. When he tries one iso fade away after another, turns the ball over, and fails to pass the ball effectively, we’re amazingly not so annoyed at seeing Mardy or Novak replace him. Thornton is the new Kaman. Above average talent, can even dominate at times, followed by complete ineptitude and bad decision making. Perhaps the bigger issue, they lose confidence easily, and get down on themselves. Is it any wonder this team couldn’t win with Thornton & Kaman as BD’s "go-to-guys"? As with any lecture against Thornton this year, we have to cite that this is only his 2nd year, and he continues to improve. If he can limit his off games to around 1 out of every 5 games, we can probably live with that. As it’s been this year, I count about 8 off games for Al out of 24, or about 1 out of 3. It goes a long way to explain what we see out of Al overall. 1 part amazing, 1 part solid, and 1 part wtf?

One thing of beauty with our team right now is the way Randolph & Camby our playing together. They complement eachother well, and you can count on both of them for playing hard, playing tough, and making good decisions. It used to be count on Brand, and maybe you get Kaman. Randolph + Camby > E.B. + Kaman ? Could be.

The other thing of beauty occurring with the team is the development of Eric Gordon. Tonight was his first 20 pt. game w/ Randolph starting along with him, and if there’s one thing he’s shown so far this year, it’s that he’s capable of making big shots. It’s no surprise that our 3 game winning streak has featured elevated play from our prized rookie.

EJ’s stats for his first 11 starts (Last 3 games in parenthesis):
Minutes: 36+ (41)
Points: 12.7 (16.3)
Rebds: 3.5 (4.3)
Assists: 2.5 (2.7)
T/O: 1.2 (0.7)
Steals: 1.6 (1.3)
Blocks: 1.0 (0.3)
FG: 54/111 – 48.6 (66.7)
3Pt: 20/53 – 37.7% (42.9)
FT: 75.9% (70%)

but at least Taylor can also create a shot. Hart can’t.

Zach is simply a much better player than I expected. It seems funny now that so many of us were dead set against acquiring him, especially in the summer after FElton defected. Some of the reasons are legit. His contract is big. He does have a reputation.
But the guy is producing more than I ever imagined, and he is not the “blackhole” in the paint or selfish knuckle-head that he was built up to be in Portland. His defense has been good enough, and he has shown willingness to pass the ball.

I think Zach is really benefiting from the strong veteran leadership on this team. Davis and Camby are good influences, and are unlikely to put up with any crap. He is also benefiting from the fact that MDSr’ s offense is practiaclly taylor-made for a player with his skill set. At a glance, they seem like they would be oil and water, because ZBo’s reputation is that he just likes to chuck it up. But he has not taken many bad shots in his Clipper career. And he is as good a finisher around the rim as anybody in the league. Seriously.

I’m curious to see whether Kaman or Camby starts when Chris returns. Probably Camby for now. Kaman will bring much needed scoring off the bench.

It’s premature to get into this too deeply, and perhaps this should be its own topic and a fan post, but maybe I can just check in on it for a second and then CS will do a more in-depth review.

It seems like we’re headed towards thinking that it’s a no-brainer for Kaman to come off the bench. There is the luxury of coming off an injury, where at least for a couple of games you get to experiment just to see how it goes as he gets his legs and his game back.

But it looks like we might want to get out the analytical seat belts, as this could be a long and bumpy ride in classic Clipper fashion. Many of us are veterans of the Maggettifesto days, so don’t be surprised if we’re a bit gunshy and anxious. The good news is that having 3 productive bigs could be a fantastic high class problem, without the downside of the QRoss-Maggette debate.

There are just so many facets here, it’s mind-boggling. Let’s start by noting that Kaman is so unique and strange that nothing in which he’s involved is ever completely straightforward and normal. We don’t gain much by looking at Ross-Maggette, but we do go back to Kaman-Brand-Wilcox, ironically enough after Wilcox put up a monster 2nd quarter last night, just as a reminder. But Kaman 2.0 is a completely different player from the days of that controversy. Maybe we should just look at what Wilcox did last night as a harbinger of what Kaman might start doing to other teams, along with the fact that a guy like Wilcox doesn’t go off like that if Kaman is in there. Camby and Kaman 2.0 are vastly superior to Kaman 1.0 and Wilcox. High class problem.

You also have to get into the familiar issue, very tricky in this case, of “it doesn’t matter who starts” and who is in the game at the end, during crunch time. That’s where it’s really going to get intense.

I’ve been meaning to write the discussion of BSimmons and Mark Stein (on Simmons’ podcast), which happened last week before the modest Clipper win streak. Simmons sticks to not liking Zach Randolph (“it’s Zach Randolph”), which he may be revising, like many of us, at this point. And he says that the trade only makes sense if, as soon as you make it, you trade Kaman. Then they talk at length about who would want Kaman and his contract—and they seem to think that Kaman’s contract is bad and burdensome, which is interesting. They also spend time talking about taking on Camby’s deal—it’s a rather lengthy Clippers discussion, with Simmons sticking to his “how is Dunleavy not fired point,” and this is before Heisler weighed in on that issue—but they don’t talk about how it’s an expiring 2010 deal. That fact tips the scales decidedly against trading Kaman. But again, this was discussed when the Clips were just showing signs of playing well, before they actually started winning.

We waited for seemingly forever to see Kaman 2.0-Brand and it never happened. We never saw Kaman-Camby because of Camby’s injury. Now we’re watching Camby-Randolph and it has been nothing short of marvelous. Can the Clips please keep playing well and get some wins and get Camby-ZBo-Kaman as a Christmas present, after all of our patience and the team’s struggles? Please? Really, Santa—is that too much to ask?