Portland 116 - Clippers 87

Milph (the Clippers’ announcers) were a little surprised that they gave him 13 (in which Outlaw took one dribble on the way to a dunk). I thought that one was fine. But the 14th was very, very bad.

Of course, Stockton and Magic Johnson – all the assist leaders, really – benefited from friendly official scorers throughout their careers.

But who knows, maybe John Lucas got sumthin’ similar.

And NBA defense wasn’t always 90’s style grind it out fare… PLUS the tempo was often faster back in the 80’s. Blake did it on a team that plays slow, and got that many assists without a lot of turnovers forced or an abnormally large amount of possessions for the Blazers.

It was definitely home cookin’ though. I bet the stat man thought, like me, that Rudy would shoot (and make?) the wide open 3 but like a dummy who doesn’t know Blake has a NBA record on the line, he drives for the basket instead. Now THAT is low BBall IQ, why isn’t he listening to the announcers talk about the record?!?

The 14th wasn’t an assist. I wouldn’t mind if they took it away from him to be dicks, but it ain’t that important and no one knows if John Lucas didn’t receive the same help from the scorekeeper. Like any Hornets fan knows, Chris Paul gets quite a few assists that aren’t REALLY assists, and it just sorta goes that way.

Now that we got YouTubes and League Passes and Everyone sees Everything, it’s easy to see that Blake didn’t get that 14th assist in Fairness Land, but we can’t give Lucas that same scrutiny. I don’t even think anyone even realizes that 1984 was a lockout season (we were protesting the NBA season because of the Russians), so Lucas’s record was in an intramural game against an 8th grade team from Montreal. HARDLY competition worthy of such an esteemed record. So, I say oh well, and give Blakey the record and we tell Lucas to go to hell.

Mortimer

That’s what being a Clips fan has taught me, anywyays.

You have no idea. During the 07-08 season, Kaman took his game up a couple of levels and played the first half like an all star, and then suffered through a series of minor injuries. Brand was out with the Achilles, and was supposed to be back by the ASG. We though we’d have both of them for the final 30 games or so. Instead, they never played together again, with Brand playing 8 meaningless games down the stretch while Kaman was out. So here we go again. Three very good bigs, and no idea how good they might be. We’re still supposed to see them together this season in theory, but after last season I’m not so sure.

I feel like I’ve been writing the ‘when everyone is healthy post for 2 and a half months – oh, that’s right, I have. So I have lots of thoughts on it, but they’re all so speculative. The theory has always been that with 96 minutes available at the big positions, Camby’s age and Kaman’s recent injury problems, there would not really be a minutes problem, and the team would continually have 2 starting quality bigs on the floor at the same time. As for fits, I look at it this way – Camby is 90-10 defense-offense. Randolph is 90-10 offense-defense. Kaman is 50-50. (That’s oversimplifying of course, but you get the idea.) With any two of them on the floor, you have at least one good defender and one good defender on the court. When Kaman and Camby played together (a million years ago for about 11 games) they were the Clippers’ best players and looked really good together. Likewise Camby and Randolph looked good. In theory, Randolph-Kaman would be the most potent offensive combo, with one of them drawing a relatively weak defender.

MDsr has said he wants to see them together and plans to keep them. But most people still believe they won’t keep that much salary tied up in those two positions, and one of them will be gone – probably Kaman if they can get his trade stock up.

The Clippers get out-muscled every game. It looks that our players don´t develop their body like the rest of the league. For example, take Andrew Bynum, in 3 years has developed a Howard-type body. On the other hand, take our beloved Chris Kaman. He hasn´t added weight in the 7 years he´s been in the league. And they´ve both been injured. So one of the two has worked a little more. Or took better supplements. Whatever. The only Clipper with a worked body I can recall was Corey Maggette as a result of being a gym-rat.
Again, it´s kind of an absurd perception. Anyway, I´m sharing it with ClipsNation.

Personally, even though I ain’t speaking for Clipper fans since I am a Blazer fan, I think no coach could get really get much success out of this lineup. So, Dunleavy the coach can’t be blamed ENTIRELY for that.

HOWEVER, Dunleavy the GM has had no direction, no plans, and just wildly threw money and wiggety whack personnel decisions around, hoping it would work somehow.

Kaman being out hurts a LOT. Camby being in and out, along with Baron, hurts a LOT. This team, when healthy, is better than its record.

BUT, this is a horribly mismatched roster and that is on Dunleavy the GM. If I was the Clippers owner, known for being cheap, and had Dunleavy on the books for a few more years at 5, 6 million each that I had to pay him… I’d get a New Jack GM to turn things around, Pritchard/Presti style, really makeover the roster and rejuvenate the front office of the Clippers, and keep Dunleavy as coach.

Just remove him from total control of personnel decisions. I don’t think he’s much of a GM. I don’t think he’s a bad coach, just that no one can coach a team like the Clippers and do well, as presently constructed (even healthy, they just don’t match well).

And ya don’t want perennial losers and lazy ne’erdowells like Ricky Davis around young, impressionables like Eric Gordon and Deandre Jordan. Well, Gordon is probably smart enough to know what he wants out of his career, but I’d worry about Jordan being led astray by a sneaky vondruke like Ricky Davis. Ya want vets to help guide these young dude’s career with sage advice and wisdom, not teach them how to engage in tomfoolery and shenanigans that won’t help them off the court.

The Clippers location and the front runningness of many LA citizens could make them an attractive destination, they just need a front office overhaul. Players wanna play in LA, and the bad history of the Clippers would quickly be erased if people had faith in the front office’s direction.

Mortimer