Then I could watch them when I go back to see Mom and Dad

i’m more hopeful about shaun returning as a decent playmaker/defender off the bench. miami is currently a playoff team and next to wade, chalmers and quinn provide shooting, while livingston does not. i see it as a situation where a project without a role was expected to get playing time, but wade came out healthy this season and so they’re doing all they can to win now.

i emailed you a few times steve and was pretty upset about the way the clippers season was going. a lot has changed since then and i am still upset. but at least gordon is getting time.

long term, i’m tempering expectations on gordon because gordon’s development as a star in this league will forever be hindered by playing on a losing franchise. a lot of clipper players start off competitive and doing anything it takes to win. but the expectation is to win or at least improve.

eventually losing takes it toll and they become selfish shoot first players. it’s hard to fault the players because their natural inclination is to overcome losing by attempting to score more points. when teammates and coaches fail them, the player puts his head down, looks up out of the abyss, and emerges as ScoreMe Maggette. Or as Warrior fans call the beast, Bad Porn. (sure there’s penetration and scoring, but watching it makes you sick).

Gordon looks like a good kid now, but you never know.

The Clippers have a chance to win tonight’s game . . . if they get 50-60 points from Thornton and Gordon.

A much more likely scenario is Terry, Barea, Howard, and Dirk taking turns heating up against the Clipper defense and building a 20 point lead in the 3rd quarter.

Looking forward to seeing how the suns play with Jrich and where they stand in the west, in particular if it’s the Suns or Dallas team that is less likely to make the playoffs.

Is there a new Clipper point guard for the evening?

I just checked over at Clipperblog, where KA has done the yeoman’s work of gathering information on Samb. Sounds pretty intriguing. Not a saviour, but if you’re more of a connoisseur of the ineffability of upside with an affinity for the big man stylings of Nick Fazekas and Summer League 07 Paul Davis, not to mention the Great Zeljko Rebraca and, yes, maybe even another free Nugget center named Marcus Camby, Samb may be fun to watch. Don’t be surprised to see him hit a 3.

KA has a separate post about DeMarcus Nelson, and seems to like him. I have to say I wouldn’t mind watching Cedric Bozeman play for the Clippers for 10 days and see how he does. The Livingston question is more complicated, but if he can’t play for the Clips in every game for a couple weeks, he doesn’t really solve the immediate problem. Of course, they’re going to lose anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

He played every minute so far and went 50% from the field and 8 out of 9 at the free throw line. Curious to see if Dallas tries harder to shut him down in the second half. He is awesome!

or are the clippers playing better without baron?

gordon goes for 40 this game

Without being able to watch the game at all, I am guessing due to the lack of depth on our team at present, we will run out of legs in the last quarter.

I admire the guys for putting their best efforts forward to date though.

Some guy on Clipperblog posted this link and it seems to work:

http://albaaa.altervista.org/watch.php?id=202

seems like whatever was streaming it crashed! :(

blake or jrue?

So close !!

My streaming footage never worked as it was always buffering. Maybe I have a slow connection??

Very respectable effort, but some mistakes & missed shots down the stretch by AT & Gordon. Hopefully they will learn from it.

with a horrible turnover and airball in the final minute. uggh, can’t believe he took 24 shots. shot a better % than baron at least.

Poor Gordon and Camby! But this is only going to make Gordon tougher minded. Hopefully he will remember all these close chances he had to win it and he’ll use them to get better the end of games.

But hey, he was TIRED. There was NO bench! I am really proud of these guys for not mailing it in and actually trying.

Thornton was sick and played through it so I guess he gets a pass. They said he has the flu.

Clippers were outscored 11-1 in the last part of the game. The Dunce is so clutch.

Pretty exciting to get this kind of effort from this lineup. The injuries are helping Eric Gordon’s development quite a bit, kind of like the way that things worked out with Thornton last year, except that the schedule is greatly accelerated and Gordon is a better, more highly skilled player, just as good an athlete, and he’s very young. Did I say that he seems to be very young to be putting up 30 pt games back-to-back?

It’s kind of uncanny how things are going with Gordon. Every Clipper season is bizarre and strange and we should get used to it, but we should have remembered that when the going gets weird, the weird go pro, and this applies really well to the Clips ever since the Brandacle.

Did I mention that the guy who was supposed to be the steady starter, and allow young EJ to have a measured transition into NBA game time retired with a serious heart problem after he was traded for a player who is arguably a better fit and better player than FElton? And there was another guy, a proven NBA scorer and consistent weapon who was ahead of EJ on the depth chart, who was horrible and hurt and is still out of the picture. So he becomes a starter and gets to play big minutes. But wait, we’re not done. The Clippers bigtime free agent PG, who feels he has to shoulder the scoring load and is making great passes but his shooting is horrible and he’s feeling the funk on a very funky team, when the chips are down and he’s the first option he gets dinged up and he goes on the shelf. So now Eric Gordon becomes the obvious first option, along with Al Thornton doing the best he can, working through his own growing pains.

And Gordon is great. He’s fine. He hits shots and makes plays. He’s not taking over and closing out games, but let’s give him some time. He’s making the Clippers competitive against good teams. Marcus Camby is doing his job and he’s not going anywhere. Even Mardy Collins is a solid enough roster guy at this point—he’s doing what QRoss used to do and more. I can’t wait for ZBo and Kaman to come back. And Baron Davis. And Davis2. And whoever else is on the roster.

If only we could benefit from tanking and we could be celebrating a quality loss!

The guys that were out on the floor won a moral victory of sorts. Even though its another loss, almost everyone on the team gave everything they had tonight. Watching Gordon, Camby, a flu-ridden Thornton, and even Mardy Collins all playing 40+ minutes is almost exhausting to watch.

Which makes me think about the “injured” players on our team…Kaman, Baron, Zach, and maybe Ricky Davis and Jason Hart. How hurt are they actually? Just how serious are their injuries? If guys like Gordon is forced to play 46 minutes becaues your foot or elbow hurts a bit and you choose stay home rather than contributing a few minutes a night, then you don’t deserve a job in the NBA.

It would have been a very rewarding win tonight…mainly for all the guys that were out there. They deserved it and more. If I were a teammate of theirs, and was healthy enough to play but chose to sit out, I would be ashamed to show my face in the locker room again.

The losses help our draft position, but it would’ve been nice to cash one in. We definitely played well down the stretch against Detroit, it just came down to a final defensive stop and they were able to convert and still they gave us a decent shot at taking it back.

Tonight we were a huge underdog and improbably took it down to the wire. Credit Dallas for making some big shots late, and excuse us for inevitably running out of gas.

Hopefully we’re not as competitive against SA, so these guys can get some rest.

Unfortunately, this year’s draft looks to be the weakest since Olowakandi’s year…so it only makes sense that we are really really bad when the draft really really suck.

we’re talking about the draft in January AGAIN