Los Angeles Clippers 100 - Denver Nuggets 94 - A Painful Victory

I wouldn’t be surprised, but in the post game interview, EJ stated he would probably go, but wouldn’t decide until the next day and getting another examination with the training staff.

Bled was no surprise. It’s been clear he has the talent and skills, the only question is how consistent he can be. He really needs to work on taking care of the ball, passing, and not getting into jams.

The supposed foul on J.R. Smith’s dunk attempt, followed by the little floater in the lane on the other end? “Tantalizing talent” is the perfect way to describe him.

One other thing on Bledsoe: I understand Gordon was out, and Bledsoe was the only guard left behind Mo and Foye, but I noticed VDN decided to play the rookie for the final 15 minutes of the game. Showed a lot of confidence in Bledsoe, and it obviously paid off tonight. Should be interesting to see if this carries over into the road trip. I guess it will have to, with EJ out.

Needless to say, EJ’s presence to the team is vital. Hopefully he will just miss a few games, but it looked like a rough fall. Do the Clips Recall Willie Warren yet again? The roadtrip will be tough, no room for Foye to have any bad shooting nights.

blake should’ve dunked mozgov’s face off after what he did to EJ!

PS – bled was ridiculously awesome

If a shot to the face is not a flagrant foul, what is? It is a disgrace and another European center commited the foul. That is why it is tough to play international ball. I think that a person committing the flagrant foul should be suspended for a week, money is not enough punishment, especially when you hurt another player. Gordon must have really hurt himself bad not to be able to take his foul shots. When he left the game the Clippers were in shock. Bledsoe played a fantastic game and it was his attempt to block Smith’s dunk, that was his best play. The question is; will Gordon take a needle in the wrist for the pain? It’s a shame I had the Boston game circled Wednesday as a must see.The Clippers are the spoiler team the rest of the season no one wants to play them.

what a quarter for him. when he’s in control of himself, guy just looks like a great player. hopefully he gets steadier as the year goes on.

i love the win. but really, all i can think of are the injuries. griffin looks ok, but im just hoping gordon can be alright. not only do i want to see this team healthy for a nice stretch since who knows how long, but i dont want to inflate that pick we gave up to the cavs.

what a jerk that Mozgov is just because Blake embarressed him earlier this season don’t mean he gotta take Gordon out like that geez it looked like he meant to hurt him… he will be nothing but a tall goofy Russian dude in the NBA and those 2 plays i mentioned will be is claim of fame… we got 19 games left lets shut Gordon down no need to rush him at this point just let him rehab or whatever so he can come back strong next yr

If they would foul Rose like they foul Gordon and send Rose to the sidelines, there would be rioting in the streets of Chicago. Griffin is another player that gets beat up and the refs call walking or something stupid.

Way to ruin our fun, Mosgov. But I guess that’s lousy payback for becoming infamous for getting dunked on. You could see right away what happens to the Clippers when Gordon is gone. Even if Gordon was only 1-5 when he went down, he had already made his mark on the game by playing defense on Affalo, and his general defensive presence, and by just being tight and focused The Clips got some “luck” back when Affalo went out. The Clippers are not nearly as good a team without Gordon, and it’s a real bummer for us fans that we have to wait again. Jeez. Kind of like Kaman coming back for a game and a half, right?

Worth noting too that Bledsoe came in and had his standard immediate turnover, and then another. VDN jumped up and sent Gordon to the scorer’s table. But in the interim Bledsoe made one play and then another, I think, getting going. Bledsoe’s horrible start, combined with Gordon’s injury and Lawson and Felton as his opponents, might have been the catalyst for his amazing 4th quarter.

Such a drag. The Clippers looked great, very sharp, running out to that 16 point lead. Hoping that Gordon comes back fairly quickly. I strongly disagree with the idea that Gordon should shut things down and not return this season. He has a sore wrist, but he came back very strong and looked great in the last game. We’ll see about the recovery.

VDN and all of his “yes men” didn’t make a stink about the foul to Gordon. VDN doesn’t protect his ballplayers and the Clippers win despite of him. The Clippers were lucky that Bledsoe played his all career quarter because the offense is one on one with no movement.

It’s back to the Hee Haw moment. If the Clips didn’t have bad luck they’d have no luck at all. The Clips look like a good team when they can get a few of their best players on the floor and give them some time together. But January was the only time that’s happened this year.

What the Clips need is to get some consistent PTT for their five best players (Gordon, Mo, DJ, Kaman, and Blake) and get them used to working together in various combinations. Without that, nobody knows how good the players are or how well they fit together. The problems with injuries also makes it difficult to evaluate Olshey, VDN, or his coaching staff. Nobody knows nothing until the Clips stop being their own version of a Hee Haw reality show.

That said, Gordon should be playing as long he can function normally without aggravating the injury. The Clips need to play together as much as possible.

I have no doubt that if he pulled that sheet on Ray Allen he would be fined and suspended.

Great 4th quarter by Bledsoe. The kid has got game and then some.

im not a high flyer or anything myself, but when u fall like that u shouldn’t throw your wrists back to absorb the entire fall, and eric’s already done this a few times. i think blake’s already understood that, he’s taken some falls from dunk/lob attempts and rolled onto his shoulder, as it has a much better chance of absorbing the blow without serious injury. you might have a bruise if it’s a hard enough fall, but a bruise on the shoulder is better than a chipped bone in your wrist.

now eric’s probably use to falling and using his wrist to stop the fall by now, but it’s probably a bad idea to keep doing that after these injuries. eric’s shown great aggressiveness this year, but learning how to fall might be an important thing considering how much he’ll be going to the rim.

im not a pro bball player at all so i might just seem like im talking out of my ass, but i feel like there’s some skill in knowing how to take falls.

EJ should take hap ki do in the offseason… the first thing they teach you is how to fall… serious. and of course, they teach you other things too, which may come in handy after the fall, nah mean?!

One way for EJ from getting these hard fouls is to have an enforcer on the team, a player who will do some poetic justice on the other end of the court. I’m not advocating dirty plays, but a hard foul on one end calls for a hard foul on the other end. That’s just how it is. I was a little upset that no one on the Clipper team got on Mozgov’s (or Biedrin’s in EJ’s initial injury) face after the foul. I know the opposition wasn’t trying to hurt EJ, but it’s still a hard foul that didn’t have to be. Did Mozgov have to run his hand through EJ’s face and essentially cause him to fall awkwardly? Of course not. Had we retaliated and fouled one of theirs just as hard on the opposite end, it would send a clear message to the Nuggs and the rest of the NBA that we’re not going to be punked around.

VDN should have kept Rhino in after his FTs and made good use of the intentional foul they had to do to take Rhino out to re-balance the line up. A little hockey check on Chandler or Afflalo followed with a nice stare down was appropriate. Just saying.