Clippers 126 - Memphis 105
by Steve Perrin on Feb 6, 2009 10:17 PM PST
in Game Recaps
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PrintAnd now for something completely different.
After looking completely hapless for weeks, the Clippers decided to put on an offensive clinic in Memphis. The contrast between Wednesday in Orlando and tonight is almost beyond comprehension. Both games were over long before the final horn sounded. In fact, the third quarter score is probably the more important metric in each - Wednesday, the Clippers trailed 71-104 after 3; tonight they led 102-77.
The team shot a season high 59% from the field, and made a club record 16 three point baskets. And most of those came from some pretty unlikely sources - Ricky Davis made a season-high 6, and Zach Randolph made (a career-high?) 4. (Ironically, neither Baron Davis nor Steve Novak made any.) The Clippers effective field goal percentage for the game was... wait for it... 69%. That's just crazy - especially for a team with a eFG% of 46% on the season. So shooting 50% better than you normally do turns out to be a good way to win basketball games. Who knew?
For this night at least, the Clippers personnel all made sense. Zach Randolph was unstoppable - he's an almost impossible cover for any of the Memphis bigs. If he's then able to step out and make 4 of 5 three pointers, that's just gravy. Of course, when the guy is throwing in 50 footers to end the half, things are really going your way.
But because Zack was forcing a double team in the post, the Clippers had shooters open all game long as well. And it didn't much matter who got the kick out. Fred Jones made 2 threes, Eric Gordon made 3, and even Al Thornton made 1. And then there was Ricky Davis.
Entering this game Ricky Davis was shooting 31% from the field and 26% from three for the season. Those aren't typos. Those are his actual shooting percentages. The Clippers signed Ricky to be instant offense off the bench - but for the most part, he's been an instant disaster. Tonight he scored a season high 24, on 9 of 14 shooting and 6 of 10 threes. This game by itself raised Ricky's three point field goal for the season more than 4 percentage points. And the simple fact of the matter is, if Ricky can be the reliable bench scorer he was brought here to be, it could make a big difference for the team. You had to feel good for Ricky tonight - he's an infectiously enthusiastic basketball player, and he's just struggled so much this season. He was very happy tonight, and I was happy for him.
Randolph, Gordon and Ricky carried the offensive load all night. Z-Bo (15) and EJ (12) scored 27 of the Clippers 33 first quarter points. They had 41 between them at halftime. By the start of the fourth, Zach (29), Ricky (24) and EJ (23) had 76 combined. Gordon actually had a quiet second half with only 2 points, but his first half was so good that his line still looks great. He was 5 for 5 with 3 threes and 21 points at halftime, and finished with 23 points on 10 shots, despite missing his last 4 attempts.
For Memphis, Rudy Gay looked terrific, Mike Conley had a nice game displaying his astounding quickness, and Darko Milicic made a few nice moves, which is not something I've seen before. But everyone else struggled. Hakim Warrick, who has hurt the Clippers in the past, was particularly bad. He was 2 for 9 - he kept trying to score against Steve Novak (which seemed like a good plan) but he kept failing.
Memphis has two rookies participating in the Rookie Challenge in 8 days at All Star weekend, but neither of them showed up tonight. OJ Mayo, one of the leading Rookie of the Year candidates, had only 10 points on 3 for 9 shooting. Marc Gasol was almost completely invisible - 3 points and 5 rebounds. He couldn't defend Randolph, so that made it difficult for him to stay on the floor too much, but still, 3 points and 5 rebounds in 27 minutes is not enough. As for Mayo, it was the second time in two weeks that Eric Gordon has significantly outplayed a rival rookie head-to-head. January 23 he outscored Russell Westbrook 41 to 11. Tonight it was Mayo, 23 to 10. Those kind of games get you noticed. (To be fair, he was outplayed himself by Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley recently, though it wasn't nearly so stark.)
The news is not all good. The defense wasn't good, allowing an offensively challenged Memphis team to shoot 49%. It didn't matter on this night, but season and franchise highs on the offensive end will tend to compensate for some defensive lapses. The defense has got to get better if they want to win when the shooting comes back down to earth.
But why rain on this parade (even if it is pouring outside my window right now)? It's a good feeling to get an easy win, especially after losing 21 of the last 23. Amazingly, this starting lineup of Baron, Gordon, Thornton, Randolph and Camby is now 7-6 on the season - on a team that is 11-39 overall! Kind of makes you want to start that lineup some more, I suppose. It's misleading to some extent - the team looked terrible in two games in Florida with all of those players available, if not actually starting. But still, it's something to point to with some optimism.
Let's see which Clipper team shows up in Atlanta tomorrow. I hope they didn't use all of their shots up in this one game.
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I don't care
who the win was against.
A lot of players played well. If Gordon does not get props for a good game, I don’t know how he’ll get some love from Thorpe.
Moki a prophet?
Got to say, you went out on a limb calling for an improvement after such a horrible loss against Orlando. But there’s always a bottom, and hopefully that was it.
Keys to the game tonight were obviously Zach & EJ setting the tone on the offensive end, and even more so for EJ to hold Mayo in check. That’s the best way to tackle Memphis…if you can take away their best player and leader that has huge consequences. Actually, just thinking of how OJ being the unquestioned team leader as a rookie is pretty astounding. Can’t remember anyone since LeBron claiming that, except for Kevin Durant last year. That’s pretty good company. Hopefully, EJ can make tonight a force of habit, but I’m not so sure. You could tell EJ was able to get the momentum tonight and just not let it go. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next time they meet.
Inside/ Outside game: For the first time in a long time, we had a dominant inside presence. That’s pretty key in setting up the outside shot. We pretty much looked like San Antonio or Orlando on offense…minus the team defense of course.
Anyway, this was a tough turn to predict. We’ll have to see where we go from here.
Do Nothing
Always darkest before the dawn. Good night for Club Optimism. Can’t wait to get Mardy Collins back.
I can’t believe I missed another game, but at least the ship came back on line somewhat. Have to make sure I watch the Atlanta game? Where’s Mike Taylor? Mardy? The SpaceCadetExtraordinaireMonsieur K?
Hard to believe we are eager for Mardy Collins to return
but he has played well.
F-Elton!
Someone posted in the game thread...
Apparently in DeAndre’s blog, he provides updates for Taylor and Mardy. Taylor All Star Break, Mardy possibly even before then, if I recall correctly.
Mr. Flippy joined Milph in the second quarter of the game. He said his foot is healing well, but they avoided any specific dates. So I guess we have to continue to assume after ASB, but I was not encouraged that they didn’t get more specific on that.
By the way, that’s only 3 more games. Is it really possible that the team will be at full strength after only 3 more games?
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. - Elwood P. Dowd
by Steve Perrin on Feb 7, 2009 12:02 AM PST up reply actions
Baron Davis postgame quote:
“I think our strong suit is just being able to get up and down and see how many points we can score,” guard Baron Davis said. “We don’t pride ourselves on our defense. So, we have to be able to score a lot of points.”
Rut-roh
F-Elton!
What is that?
MDsr is going to love that.
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. - Elwood P. Dowd
by Steve Perrin on Feb 7, 2009 12:03 AM PST up reply actions
Wow, Baron.
Really?
"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years." -Mark Twain
by WestsideBrandon on Feb 7, 2009 8:18 AM PST up reply actions
I saw that....
in the LA Times. I read it over three times. I weighed it carefully. I can only conclude that it was an incredibly stupid thing to say. There were a couple of guys playing defense last night (Camby in the middle and EJ on OJ) and they had a lot to do with the outcome of the game. Isn’t there a way to score a lot of points AND play defense?
The New York Times called
They just wanted to say they admire your ability to ignore another terrible game from Baron Davis because it doesn’t fit the preferred meme.
Lowest +/- among starters; another terrible shooting night, especially when you count FTA; 8 second violation; technical foul…
Get me BD and 75 and I'm in
Some positives as well...
8 assists to 1 turnover. He was getting to the rim well – but not finishing. So while he ended up 4 for 10 (hardly terrible by his standards) there were few bad shots. He was 3 for 4 in the 4th.
Baby steps. Obviously he wasn’t the star for the team – which is why he didn’t get mentioned. Al Thornton didn’t really get mentioned either. I’m allowed.
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. - Elwood P. Dowd
by Steve Perrin on Feb 6, 2009 11:57 PM PST up reply actions
Maybe Baron will work out
I have been especially critical of Baron but after watching this game, I now know he is superior to any other PG the Clips can realistically acquire. His shooting percentage sucks, but for the most part his shot selection this game was good. When he drives and dishes he is almost unstoppable. We need to see a focus on assists and maybe 10 shots max – if he sticks to that he will be an important part of the team. He just needs to remember that he is a role player now and not the star – that honor is shared by Randolph and Gordon. A new standard has been set, we now know what he can do when motivated.
They won, they won!
It’s almot a bad thing that they have to get back on the court tonight. I want to savor this one. I missed the first half, but I came back from dinner about halfway through the third quarter, and I was obviously pleased with what I saw. This looked like a completely different Clipper team. They were raining down threes from all over the place, and just outplaying the Grizzlies completely. Any time you can win a road game by 21, it’s defintely a good thing. I do have to agree that the defense was pretty poor. I mean, Dunleavy’s supposed to be a defensive coach, but the players seem to forget how to rotate after a double team sometimes. Either they don’t care, or Dunleavy’s not putting them in the right position.
With that said, there is a whole lot more to be hapy about. I forget how nice it is to read a GamePost after a win, since they come so few and far between. By the time I got home, EJ had already scored all of his 23 points, but he continued to put the defensive clamps on O.J. Mayo, the probably frontruner for Rookie of the Year. Zach Randolph looked like Zach Randolph. He definitely brings a lot to this team. Rick Davis was sensational, and I can’t believe that I just typed that. Judging from the postgame interview, Davis has been humbled by his extremely poor start (Well, that makes one Davis, but I digress). It’s not even a start anymore, considering we’re more than halfway through the season. He was confident and it spread to the rest of the guys. I also liked how in the interview he made it clear on who he thought should be Rookie of the Year, and it wasn’t O.J. Mayo.
I didn’t see much of Baron, but the team did seem to look better with Fred Jones at the point. Again, I didn’t watch a whole lot of the game. Baron looked confident, but as we all know that can be a bad thing. Though he made some shots in the fourth, I still don’t like posessions where he is the only Clipper to touch the ball. If he gets it back and takes a good jumper, I don’t mind quite as much.
Anyways, good game, good win. I’m going to try to hold on to this feeling.
"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years." -Mark Twain
this was such a fun game to watch. It is so important to have a low post presence like Z-bo he’s unstoppable. Then if we have Al Thornton as a role player, i think that will benefit him and the team because he won’t have to force shots, he played well last night. We already knew how Baron could play when he’s motivated, DUH, did you see him against Dallas in the playoffs when he was a dub,,he looked like the best player in the league.
One thing though, is it just me or has Camby not looked himself since he’s come back
Camby isn't impressive when he has
an impressive Zbo playing next to him. But that is fine. He probably won’t get many 20 rebound games the rest of the season but he still looked good tonight.
Baron made some great passes. He has great court vision. I hated the 8 second call. Just a mental lapse. Hopefully his shot and drives will start to improve. He still has no lift which is impacting his finishes. Camby probably still isn’t at full strength, so he is not quite as active as he was before.
EJ just continues to impress on both ends. He will be an all star someday. It’s interesting how shooting is so contagious, even Jason Hart made a long jumper. I think I’ll keep this one on the DVR a little while.
by whydoiliketheclips on Feb 7, 2009 9:05 AM PST reply actions
lets hope we don't fall in love with the 3pt shot...
you know, that whole live and die thing….
"Duck, Crab. Crab, Duck"
Roger Sterling - Mad Men
That 8 SECOND call
I ran the Tivo back and forth several times and for some reason the FSN clock onscreen started at 22 seconds. Couldn’t see the floor clock. So Baron was only given SIX SECONDS to get to half court from what I could see.
I still think he’s only the fourth or fifth best player on the team. That role player idea for him is a good one. Can his ego handle it?
Not on my DVR...
There was a child abduction alert on my broadcast right at the beginning of the second half, so I didn’t see the 8 second call. The play by play on NBA.com shows Al getting the rebound at 10:42, violation called at 10:35 (7 seconds), although that’s not necessarily going to be completely accurate. It’s no excuse of course – Baron needs to see the shot clock and get past half court before it hits 16. That’s all the ref is looking at.
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. - Elwood P. Dowd
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