Clippers 97 - Washington 95 - Another Ugly Win

How many times tonight did Gordon knock a ball loose? The guy’s quick as lightning and soft as a feather. We should call him Thunder Charmin.

And Skinner was more than serviceable, 10 rebs in 10 min, only 1 foul. Unlike DJ, he very much looked like he knew what he was doing. I say we move him up in the depth charts.

I didn’t realize until you pointed it out, SP, how many minutes our starters logged. Where’s Mardy?

kaman should rest a bit before the fourth quarter..he doesnt’ seem like a player than can play big minutes all the time

how about we trade for Cory Maggette? He can play SF and be the 6th man like he was last time.

We need something off the bench and our only shot if we don’t have a trade is Thornton. He might not like it but he will understand it this time around. Damn that game looked ugly. I liked the Brian Skinner sighting he is useful in taking down bigs on the other team and could be useful against the Wolves who are healing up and coming off a big win. To the same note what happen to DJ I’d rather have a Skinner and DJ frontcourt than Smith and Skinner.

No matter how ugly it is. I’ll take it.

John Lucas.

Like Silverclip said earlier, he actually looked like he knew what he was doing. He was solid and in the right places at the right time. He will never take over a game, but he doesn’t hurt you either.

I’ll forget that missed point blank, wide open dunk.

It’s hard to tell where CMDSr is going to make his “innovations.”

He decided to stick by Butler, and was rewarded by him hitting a couple of shots. This was crucial in a game where Thornton didn’t have anything going in the first place, and then hit foul trouble. Our “what about Mardy Collins” approach suffered a significant setback. The idea of going so far as to put Butler into the starting lineup seems vaguely horrifying; let’s see him fight to keep his spot as 6th man ahead of Collins, which he can easily maintain by hitting some shots, like last night. Thornton has one bad game, but his last 10 games have been very strong.

Instead, we get a chance to consider Brian Skinner. I’ve always like Skinner, since the Clips originally drafted him as part of a string of solid Clipper power forwards (Michael Cage, Charles Smith, Loy Vaught, Lorenzen Wright, Antonio McDyess, Maurice Taylor). It turned out that he didn’t have as much offensive game as one might want, but he was still a solid banger, especially as a PF. Somewhere along the way, in a league where there are any extra highly-skilled true centers, Skinner became an acceptable backup center, able to play adequate defense. This has kept him in the league, but I’m not sure it’s the best use of his skills.

Where Skinner does a generally okay job against centers and their backups, it could be argued that he’s much better as a power forward. That’s what we got to see last night. The Clippers have been getting outrebounded rather inexplicably, even with Camby having some spectacular nights on the glass. Kaman’s rebounding has been down, although perhaps the milk is helping with that.

It’s a complicated equation, but it was good to see CMDSr making an effective change. Craig Smith provides crucial scoring on the second team. CSmith certainly isn’t solely responsible for Clipper rebounding woes, and he seems to carry his weight, more or less, on the boards. DJordan, probably a better backup center in ways than Skinner, and better against players like DHoward, is still raw and he’s not especially tenacious on defense or rebounding, not like the way he is in finishing next to the basket. Skinner doesn’t match up well against the Milsaps or Landrys, or the Rashard Lewises. But in some ways, Skinner seems capable of bringing the right mix when Camby goes out, and he’s playing alongside Kaman. And then he can still do okay when Camby returns. He’s a good sub in the right situations.

Not sure that he defended particularly well against Jamison, if that was his assignment. But the rebounding was nice to see.

These are minutes that should disappear when Griffin arrives. But it was good to see something different that actually worked.

1. Last night was a good night for Clipper playoff hopes (slim as they may appear). Among those teams who lost their games were the Hornets, Grizzlies, Thunder, Warriors and Jazz. There are a pack of teams now all fighting for 10th in the Western conference.

2. In case anyone missed it, the Wizards also lost last night. Their 7-15, last place in the southeast. With a new owner and a high pay roll, I foresee a firesale. A bag full of expirings for Caron? I mean, who knows…

3. One team that won was the TWolves. This may bode well for the Clips, their next opponent. That is, Minni doesn’t seem poised to go on a winning streak. It’s more likely they’ll breathe a collective sigh of relief and come out with less intensity than they need.

4. The Clips’ subs ought to match up well against the Twolves. Telfair is good against either point guard, and Smith out to be alright against Love. They both will want to play well against their former team, and Smith has the opportunity to score against a team that’s not so tall.

5. Speaking of reserves, last night showed that Dunleavy is not unwavering in his rotations. He was right to lose confidence, as SP describes. For what it’s worth, the guy’s not completely above making adjustments.

6. Speaking of adjustments, it’s great to have EJ back, playing at full strength. Now, if either AT or Butler happens to be hitting shots, then the floor really opens up, which gives Kaman a better chance. I thought our 4th quarter last night wasn’t nearly as stagnant. The prospect of shooting options is encouraging.

Go Clips!

He seriously needs to be the coach. The players especially BD feeds off his energy and you can immediately see a change in the way the rest of the club plays. MDsr reminds me of Gargamel while Lucas is more of a Poppa Smurf.

is confidence. Bassy has had his moments, but he’s also been ineffective at times. Early in the season, he was attacking a lot more, finishing at the cup and making plays in the paint. Lately he’s been making a lot of perimeter passes and settling for midrange jumpers. I wonder if there is a disconnect, where Dunleavy is giving him mixed signals, but then gets frustrated when Bassy isn’t producing, even though Bassy needs to run to get in the paint in a half-court set to be effective.

Even off misses, Dunleavy seems reluctant to let this team run w Bassy. WTF is his deal? It’s also tough to get in a groove when your minutes are fluctuating from night to night and you know you’re getting yanked at any second. If you know you’ll get your 18 to 20 MPG no matter what, you’ll be more inclined to be aggressive. Bassy is playing scared and it’s turning into a vicious cycle.

It’s just not sustainable to play your starters 35 to 40 minutes every single game. Baron is begging Dunleavy to trust his bench a little more. Maybe with increased playing time, the second unit will be able to gel a little more.

you’re implying that the only scenario worth giving Lucas credit is if the Clippers were 23-0. That’s silly.

I said “might”, there’s no way to account for it, he’s on the bench, he doesn’t put the ball in the basket. One can only speculate on the effect he has on the team this season. Which is what we’re doing here. I didn’t say it was a fact that he’s winning games for us. It’s just pretty evident to anyone watching that you can see his effect on the players, which in turn may effect the outcome of close games.

He gets absolutely no minutes! I believe he was a starter for the Wolves and Dunleavy gives him so few minutes hes probably very frustrated. I would be too!
That is a coaching problem…although honestly I don’t see how Lucas is a better coach….we really don’t know. I guess some people can be inspired by an old codger jumping on one leg on the sidelines but I’m not sure about this Clipper team.
Just watch the first 3 quarters if you dont believe me.

need to shut up and just enjoy. Analyze at the end of the season or half of a season. What’s up with the mouth fight. One or two games don’t mean anything. Analyze at the end of the season – you’ll enough sample to base on. I don’t care if it’s been six years of CMDSr, maybe this year he’s changed. Just be supportive or shut up.

In the mean time, if things are bad, hope that somebody will change them and make them good. If it’s good keep on cheering. It’s not like if you express your opinion, or oppose others’ opions it’ll make things better – you’ve been doing it for six years and nothing has changed, haven’t you learn enough already? Maybe you can express things at the season ticket holder meeting or something like that, but you want to argue here too? What you have proof that the owner or the GM reads this blog?

Seriously, stop arguing this or that. State an opinion and move on.