Milwaukee 119 - Clippers 85

by Steve Perrin on Dec 21, 2008 2:14 PM PST in Game Recaps Comment 2 comments

When the Clippers had to play double overtime in Indianapolis on Friday night, we all knew that it did not bode well for another game in Milwaukee on Saturday. Especially considering the huge minutes the starters had been playing, and the almost complete lack of productivity from the bench.

Still, on one would not have suspected such a total and complete collapse.

The Bucks scored the first 8 points of the game, and then went on a 15-3 run later in the first quarter to stretch the lead to 18, and finished the first quarter ahead by 22. The first half lead grew to 32 and the half ended 62-32, a victory of sorts for the Clippers as it was the first time in a while that they had more than half of Milwaukee's total. The lead was never less than 27 in the second half.

The Clippers' four game road trip ends 2-2, and the results overall are almost as mixed. The loss in Chicago was fairly encouraging, in that the Clippers played well enough to beat a decent team on the road. But the win in Indiana was discouraging, as the Clippers had to get lucky to beat a very short-handed Pacers team.

The two losses on the trip could not have been more different, and present an interesting topic for a debate in a sports bar at some later date: is it better to lose in overtime in a game you should have won, or to be completely out of the game from the first quarter? Obviously they both count the same in the standings. Psychologically, it's probably easier to get over the second one. Whatever excuse you want to use (we were tired, we were cold, it was just one of those games), you just dismiss the game and move on. It probably shouldn't be quite so easy to explain away such total indifference and ineptitude, but we all need our little rationalizations. But it's more than a little backwards. If the goal following a loss is to win the next one, surely it's not a good sign to lose by 34.

Hopefully some help is on the way in the forms of Chris Kaman and Ricky Davis - not to mention five days off for those very tired starters to get some rest. There's one more game tomorrow night before then, and maybe the team can dig deep and get a win against the Raptors. But after being competitive for every game since adding Zach Randolph to the roster, it was not fun to revert to the form of the first two weeks.

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Hard to say

Not sure what to think after the latest debacle. It shows exactly why you can’t give away a game like they did in Chicago. They made up for that one by squeaking out the win in Indiana, but they really needed to do better than 2-2. And it’s more evidence that, while they have some nice pieces and some guys coming back from injury, they’re not a good basketball team. Maybe they are moving into the upper eschelon of teams that are not going to make the playoffs, which is probably where expectations should lie after the slow start. But it did seem, for a minute there and led by Zach Randolph, like they were playing well enough to put a winning streak together and do better than that.

Moving on, however, and another game tomorrow night. Mike Taylor out six weeks. He had been pretty quiet and late 2nd round-rookie-ish lately so it doesn’t matter much at first glance, until you start to think about all of those minutes with Jason Hart. And it begs the long-unasked question if things might have been different if Jason Williams had been a bit healthier and still had some gas in the tank, instead of retiring. Oh well.

Steven Novak got off the bench finally, and it seemed to me that he spent the first half shaking the rust off. I didn’t watch the 2nd half, when his shot finally started to go in. If he gets minutes, the Clips can get some scoring off the bench from him, especially if he’s playing with Randolph. He won’t solve the defense problems, but I don’t see how he could really make them any worse.

Not sure what has happened to Davis3, who can’t seem to make a shot to save his life, at a time when it’s crucial for him to contribute. Maybe, as some have always believed, he’s just not very good. When he’s playing well, he’s usually very active, banging around on the boards and running the floor, but he seems to be going through the motions on sets and then missing open shots. When Kaman comes back it won’t matter much. I’m almost tempted to go back and watch DeAndre’s minutes.

Lastly, I think Ben Howland deserves a lot of credit for the Buck victory. Luc-Richard was all over the place when the Bucks jumped out to that big first quarter lead. It was amazing to see his defensive intensity set the early tone, with his whole team feeding off of his energy, and he kept ZBo from getting going, in a way that no one else has been able to do. And the Bucks have a nice player in Charlie V. coming off the bench as a scorer to replace LRMM.

by citizen zhiv on Dec 21, 2008 5:03 PM PST reply actions 0 recs