Clips Nation

Houston 103 - Clippers 96

2008-12-04T06:08:48Z

The Rockets made twice as many three pointers as the Clippers in this game (10 versus 5) and almost three times as many free throws (31 versus 11). That's a 35 point advantage for Houston in those two categories. I'm no expert on basketball (although I did once stay at a Holiday Inn Express), but I'm pretty sure you can't win when that happens.

Rafer Alston once again looked like an all star against the Clippers with 21 points, 7 assists and 8 rebounds. He was 5 for 9 on his three point attempts. Not bad for a guy shooting 36% from the field on the season and 31% from deep. If you're looking for telltale signs that the Clippers will lose a game you can start with this one: when Baron Davis is badly outplayed by an opposition point guard that you're not even sure should be starting in the NBA (think Beno Udrih, Rafer Alston, those kind of guys), then the Clippers are probably not going to win.

It's hard to hold this one against Baron though. He spent most of the first half in the locker room throwing up after a bout with food poisoning. He played 34 minutes in the game, and went the distance in the second half, but he clearly didn't have it in this game.

The bright spots continue to be the Clippers forwards. Zach Randolph and Al Thorton have combined for 54, 50 and 47 in the last three ball games. One would think that with that kind of productivity from the forward spots, the Clippers would be winning games. Unfortunately, the defense has been giving up about 100 points a game in that time as well.

Randolph has an uncannily soft touch. It's really astounding how many shots he gets up on the rim that just bounce around and eventually fall in. When he's near the basket, he just gets it up there, and it doesn't have to be a perfect shot, but he somehow gets the ball in the hoop.

Thornton has been outstanding attacking the rim. It's worth noting that he's had big games recently while being defended by Shawn Marion and now Ron Artest. Last season, big time defenders tended to take Al right out of the game. Not tonight. He took the ball right at Artest, and got the best of him on many occasions. He finished the game 11 for 20, and while his shot chart shows a few more jump shots, at least the shot was falling tonight. He's also had very few shots in the last three that have felt forced - not too many of those '17 jab steps and a fallaway' touches. He's also been rebounding better than at any other time in his career. He's had 8 or 9 rebounds in each of the last 3 games, and it's no coincidence that the Clippers have been more competitive on the boards in those games. (They battled Houston to a 47-47 standoff in this one.)

But despite the efforts of the forwards, and despite the fact that the Clippers fought back from 15 down to draw within 1 at the end of the third quarter, this one frankly never really felt much in doubt. Yao Ming was 6 for 8 from the field and 12 for 13 from the line - 24 points on 8 shots. And if felt like, with no Chris Kaman for the Clippers, he could score any time he wanted to. His productivity is even higher when you consider that many if not most of Houston's threes were the result of Clipper double teams on Yao. It's a boring and predictable but very effective strategy - surround Yao with a bunch of guys who can shoot with range, dump the ball into him and spread the floor.

With Kaman out and Baron hurting, this one would have been a major upset. It sure would be nice to be 1-1 on this trip right now instead of 0-2.

It gets a lot easier in Memphis on Friday, but of course the Clippers have managed to lose to really bad teams this year as well.

Clippers at Houston - Game Preview and Open Thread

2008-12-03T14:00:07Z

	vs.
3-14		11-7
Toyota Center
December 3, 2008 - 5:30 PM
TV: FSN Prime Ticket
Probable starters:
Baron Davis	PG	Rafer Alston
Eric Gordon	SG	Luther Head
Al Thornton	SF	Ron Artest
Zach Randolph	PF	Luis Scola
Marcus Camby	C	Yao Ming

The Big Picture:

The Clippers almost got off to a great start on their road trip Tuesday night in Dallas. But instead of a wire-to-wire win against the Mavs, they suffered a complete meltdown in the final 5 minutes and left the Big D with a big L. They'll have to try to put it out of their heads, because the NBA schedule has them tipping off in Houston against the Rockets less than 22 hours later. It's beginning to feel silly writing about the potential of a 3 and 14 team. 3 and 14 they are! At least the games are exciting; in three games of the Zach Randolph era, the Clippers have a one point loss, a one point win, and a two point loss. Against Houston, LA will really miss Chris Kaman. He hasn't traditionally played well against Yao, though he did in their November meeting in LA. But at any rate, Yao is an almost impossible cover for either Marcus Camby (he's not strong enough) or Zach Randolph (he's not big enough) - so Kaman will be sorely missed. Randolph has back-to-back 27 point games, and Al Thornton has scored 27 and 23 in the last two. But the Clippers bench has been pretty anemic with Ricky Davis and Kaman not playing.

The Antagonist:

The Rockets are currently playing without Tracy McGrady, who is out with a knee injury. They've lost 2 of 3 games without him so far. Of course, when the Rockets and Clippers played earlier in the season, TMac was 0 for 5 with only 2 points, so the Rockets have already proven they can beat the Clippers without TMac. Just based on personnel, I'm saying that this year's Houston team sans TMac must be one of the ugliest teams to watch in the league. I don't like Yao's game - he's very good, but not particularly graceful or fun to watch. And I simply despise watching Ron Artest. He's very effective, but all brute force and strength. If basketball were more like gymnastics and there were style points, Houston would never win. Not without McGrady - not if I was judging. The Rockets are well rested for this game, having last played on Sunday. The Clippers of course are playing the second of back to back road games, though at least the travel from Dallas to Houston is pretty short.

The Subplots

Carlis Scoldry. In the first meeting between the Clippers and Rockets, Luis Scola and Carl Landry combined for 34 points and 16 rebounds from the power forward position. Needless to say, the Clippers can't afford to let those guys put up those kinds of numbers and expect to win.
Get Ready for a Lot of Brian Skinner. Skinner played 20 minutes in the first meeting, and that was with Kaman healthy. Skinner did a very good job on Yao in that first matchup, so I expect him to get most if not all of the backup minutes at the bigs in this game.
Countdown to Ron-Ron Trouble. We're 18 games into a new team for Ron Artest. Aren't we overdue for some sort of hijinx? It would be nice if he would get himself kicked out of this game or some such. The Clippers don't really have any answer for him. Al Thornton can't guard the guy.
Problems down the stretch. The Clippers have played well enough to win several more games this season. Unfortunately, they have been unable to finish strong. They are the worst 4th quarter scoring team in the NBA, and 4 of their last 6 losses have come down to the final possessions. Of course, this was supposed to be a big reason that Baron Davis was going to help the Clippers - he was the clutch point guard the team needed down the stretch in tight games. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out that way. Baron was 1 for 6 in the fourth quarter in Dallas last night, and other than a couple of jump shots against Miami Saturday, he's mostly been a negative in clutch situations this season. The Clippers won't win many games if that doesn't change.
Guard play. On paper, it would seem that the Clippers have the advantage in the backcourt, as Baron Davis and Eric Gordon go against Rafer Alston and Luther Head. Still, Skip has had some big games against the Clippers, and Gordon is just 19 so it may be too much to ask him to carry the team. But Baron really needs to have a big game in this one if the Clippers hope to pull out a win.
Z-Bo. With back to back double-doubles, scoring 27 in each, it would seem that Zach Randolph is pretty comfortable running EB's plays. The guy can score the ball, and if he continues hitting his jump shot, he's going to keep putting up huge numbers. But he's going to have to work to keep Scola and Landry in check on the other end as well.

Dallas 100 - Clippers 98

2008-12-03T06:48:19Z

After trying very hard to give a game away on Saturday, the Clippers put in the extra effort to get the job done tonight. It just shows what you can do if you really put your mind to it.

Leading the Heat by 8 points with 82 seconds left in the last game, the Clippers gave up the final 7 points and also gave the Heat one shot at the win which came up short. Tonight, they led by 7 with a little more than 2 minutes to go, and allowed the Mavs to score the final 9 points for the 2 point victory. When JJ Barea made a three pointer in the final minute it was the Mavericks first lead of the game. So for the record, the Clippers led for 47 minutes and 10 seconds, and the Mavs led for 50 seconds. But the Mavs led the only time it counts.

The Clippers actually had to work extra hard to give this one away. They led by 15 in the fourth quarter, and by 12, 96-84, with 5 minutes to play. In the final 5 minutes they were outscored 16 to 2.

During those final 5 minutes, the Clippers seemed to be simply trying to run out the clock. Dallas switched to a zone defense, and the Clippers seemed to be content to pass the ball around the perimeter until they forced a long jumper late in the clock. Zach Randolph, who had 27 points on 12 for 17 shooting and had been basically unstoppable in his first 37 minutes of play, was essentially non-existent in the final 5 minutes. Maybe they haven't had enough practice time with Z-Bo against zones. Truth be told, the Clippers have looked absolutely terrible against zones all season; I don't know why more teams don't play it against them. Everyone's going to credit Carlisle with the brilliant adjustment to switch his defense. Here's my question: what took you so long genius? You could have won this game by 50 if you'd just started in the stupid zone!

In their final 9 possessions, the Clippers turned the ball over 3 times, and took 4 long jumpers - one of which actually went in. They did manage to get one good shot - a short baseline jumper by Eric Gordon with just under a minute to go and LA still clinging to a 2 point lead. If that jumper goes in, they probably hold on for the win.

On the final few possessions, Gordon looked like the 19 year old rookie he is for the first time since he's been in the starting lineup. On one possession in the final 2 minutes, he took a long three with 8 seconds still on the shot clock. That in and of itself is not a great idea, but you like the kid's confidence, and he's been making long three's all season. The trouble is, he missed badly - as badly as I've ever seen him miss. The long rebound led to an easy fast break and a layup for Jason Terry. On his baseline jumper a couple possessions later, EJ really looked tentative - he looked like he did not want to take the shot.

These are some of the growing pains of having a 19 year old in the starting lineup. He's going to be a great player, and he's already pretty good. But he seemed overwhelmed in the fourth quarter of this one.

That makes half of their last eight games that the Clippers have lost on the last possession. What's particularly disconcerting is that they have failed to get a decent shot in each and every one of those situations. Against the Spurs, needing a three, the complex play they ran resulted in Baron Davis running away from the basket as time expired. Against the Sixers, Baron tried to create and forced a wild shot at the buzzer. Against the Nuggets, they chose not to call a timeout, and ended up with Marcus Camby taking his one and only three point shot of the season on the final play. Tonight, whether it was MDsr's play or simply Baron free-lancing, Davis just dribbled for awhile and then shot a long three.

And yet again the Clippers made a relative NBA unknown look like an All Star. Continuing in the tradition of Paul Millsap, Beno Udrih, Anthony Morrow and Roger Mason, JJ Barea had a season high 15 points and 6 assists on 7 for 11 shooting in 25 minutes of play.

What's truly frustrating about this game is how thoroughly the Clippers outplayed the Mavericks for 43 minutes. But in the final 5 minutes, they lost the game to a junk lineup (JJ Barea and Brandon Bass joining Kidd, Nowitzki and Terry) playing a junk defense.

Clippers at Dallas - Game Preview and Open Thread

2008-12-02T18:08:52Z

	vs.
3-13		8-8
American Airlines Center
December 2, 2008 - 5:30 PM
TV: KTLA Channel 5
Probable starters:
Baron Davis	PG	Jason Kidd
Eric Gordon	SG	Gerald Green
Al Thornton	SF	Josh Howard
Zach Randolph	PF	Dirk Nowitzki
Marcus Camby	C	Erick Dampier

The Big Picture:

At the risk of sounding like a fan boy, it must be said that the Clippers have been playing better. Of course, the bar wasn't set particularly high. But after failing to be competitive for the first 6 games of the season, and then being embarrassed at home in consecutive games against weak division rivals in games 8 and 9, the team seems to be getting its act together. In their last seven games, they've won two and three others have come down to the final possession. So the team is improved-end-of-game-execution away from winning 5 of their last 7. On the other hand, they almost managed to give away one of the two wins, so they could just as easily be 1 and 6 during that span. So, better - yes. Good? We'll see. They've only played two games with new addition Zach Randolph. In the first one Z-Bo was terrible as he started 1 for 8, and the Clippers lost by 1. In the second, he was terrific, scoring 27 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, and the Clippers won by 1. Unfortunately, Baron Davis was sub-par for most of that win, although he did finish strong. Center Chris Kaman is resting his plantar fasciitis and will not play on the current road trip, so we're going to have to wait at least a little longer before we see the team at full strength (and used to playing together, etc, etc - it just never seems to end). The good news is the the Randolph trade now looks even better, at least for keeping the team competitive through Kaman's injury. How many teams can lose their starting center, and still put a former DPOY and a 20-10 guy on the floor?

The Antagonist:

We've discussed it many times on this blog - the playoffs are a zero-sum game. In order for someone to grab a seat at the playoff party, someone else has to vacate. So if 12-6 Portland is for real, then some team that made the playoffs last season is going to miss the playoffs this season. In the early going, that team looks like Dallas. They began the season 2 and 7, and among their losses was the Clippers first victory. They've gone 6 and 1 since then, but upon closer inspection it's not the most impressive run, with wins over the Knicks, Bobcats, Grizz, Pacers and Kings. The only winning team they've beaten was Houston, and they were playing without Yao. Bottom line is, the Mavs don't have a win against a full strength playoff team 20% of the way through the season. Of course, neither do the Clippers, so it figures to be a pretty good matchup. In the first game, Josh Howard sat out with a sprained ankle. He's missed the last few games as well, but he practiced yesterday and is probable for tonight's game. In the first meeting, Dirk Nowitzki was terrific with 33 points, but he got absolutely no help from his teammates. Jason Terry was particularly bad, shooting just 3 for 15 and missing some absolute gimmes along the way. Unfortunately for LA, they probably can't count on that kind of generosity from Terry tonight - he's averaging 26.6 ppg and shooting 54% in his last 5.

The Subplots

Matchups - Dallas on offense. Dirk Nowitzki is always a matchup nightmare, but I'm particularly perplexed as to how this is going to play out with the new new Clippers. The Clippers will probably start with Camby on Dirk and Z-Bo on Dampier. Zach gives away a lot of length to Dampier, but he should be able to lean on him. Dampier's not a big scoring threat, so if Randolph can just keep him off the boards, that's enough. On the other hand, Nowitzki is a very tough cover for Camby. And when Marcus goes to the bench, then what? I don't see Paul Davis or Brian Skinner defending him. Maybe Thornton? And then who do you put on Howard? At any rate, don't be surprised if Dallas' forwards go off on the Clippers tonight.
Matchups - Clippers on offense. On the other end, Randolph could have a big game. He's much bigger than Dirk (by probably 20 or 30 pounds) and will make him work in the post if Dallas matches up that way. If they try to defend Zach with Dampier, Z-Bo can face up and either shoot his jumper or use his quickness advantage to get to the rim. Either way, I think it's the place to start the offense tonight. At the point guard, Jason Kidd has lost at least a step, and Baron Davis should be able to penetrate.
Road trip. This is an important trip for the Clippers. They've had the most home-friendly schedule in the NBA so far, with 11 of their first 16 games at home. Tonight begins a stretch of 9 roadies in the next 11, so the schedule is evening out in a hurry. The good news is there are winnable games on the trip - especially Friday and Saturday in Memphis and Minneapolis - the Clippers haven't seen very many bottom feeders on their schedule so far this season. The bad news is four games in five nights with travel and a banged up team. 3-1 on the trip might be too much to ask, but a win in Dallas is pretty crucial to achieving that. 1-3 would be bad, and 0-4 would be disastrous.
James Singleton. Former Clipper James Singleton has carved out some playing time in Dallas, and even got a few starts recently when Howard was out. Good for him. He's not lighting it up by any means, but it's nice to see him back in the league after suffering an ACL injury in Spain last year.
Dallas trying to get above .500. The Mavs have not been above .500 this season. They're 8-8, and they're opening a 7 game home stand, so they're hoping that they change that soon, preferably tonight from their perspective. As an aside, this is the Clippers second consecutive game against a 2006 NBA Finalist with an 8-8 record to start the season. LA beat Miami, so that's a good sign, right?
Al Thornton. Thornton had his best game of the season against Miami, and that was playing against a great defender in Shawn Marion. He attacked the rim relentlessly rather than settling for his jump shot, and also hit the boards. He'll be facing Josh Howard in this one, who is terrific on both ends. Al needs to win this battle, or at least hold his own, for the Clippers to have a chance in this game.
Injury update. Kaman is out, and was not even expected to travel with the team on this trip, choosing to remain in LA to get treatment on his foot. In fact, it's now being called 'up to two weeks.' Ricky Davis is also out with tendinitis. Eric Gordon (hamstring) and Marcus Camby (foot) each came up gimpy near the end of the Miami game. Camby missed Tuesday's practice and Gordon was limited, according to Ramona Shelburne. Needless to say, it would be very difficult for the Clippers to overcome the loss of their top 2 centers and their top 2 shooting guards. So let's hope that Camby and Gordon can play and be effective.

Inadvertent, Schminadvertent

2008-11-30T20:04:47Z

According to Lisa Dillman in the LA Times writing about last night's final play:

[The officials] ultimately decided that Heat star Dwyane Wade had made contact with an official and caused an inadvertent whistle. Wade had collided after he picked off Baron Davis' attempted pass to Al Thornton with 7.2 seconds left.

This explanation is all fine and dandy, except for two things. (1) It pretty much ignores what actually happened on the play and (2) when taken in the context of what transpired with the officials, it makes them come off as complete and total idiots.

They huddled to discuss the play for 60 seconds before initially awarding the ball out of bounds to the Clippers. Let's assume that it was indeed an inadvertent whistle. None of the three of them thought there were any violations on the play, and Kirkland's whistle sounded when Wade collided with him. Fine. What were they discussing?

Crew chief Greg Willard calls the group together and asks them what call they have. Ron Olesiak says, "I got nothing." Courtney Kirkland says, "I got nothing." Willard asks who blew the whistle. Kirkland says "I did, but that was inadvertent when Wade ran into me." Done. Easy. Heat ball.

But that's not what happened. Which begs the question, what the hell were they talking about? What exactly is the series of events that leads them to award the ball to the Clippers, and then to reverse that with the explanation that there was never any out of bounds call to begin with? If there was never any call, why did they conclude, after apparently careful consideration, that it was Clippers ball? Does that make any sense to anyone?

Also, are there any rule book geeks out there who can speak authoritatively on the question of contacting a referee who is out of bounds? If a player were to jump across the end line, and make contact with the stanchion under the basket, but throw the ball back in bounds before he hit the ground, he would be considered out of bounds because the stanchion is out of bounds. Right? How is this different? There's nothing magical about being on the floor out of bounds, as far as I know.

This is a non-explanation.

UPDATE: Tom Ziller writing for Fanhouse went to all the trouble of looking up the actual rule. Thank FSM for Ziller - that kind of 'research' and 'fact-checking' just exhausts me. At any rate, he verified that my first inclination was correct. If Wade has the ball and comes into contact with Kirkland out of bounds, then he is out of bounds - LA ball. And it's not open to interpretation. So the ONLY way to justify the call they finally ended up with (I'm assuming that they actually know the rule since it's you know, their job) would be to assume that Kirkland wasn't out of bounds - something of a suspension of disbelief, given that he was actually falling against the scorer's table trying to get out of the way. They can't even argue that Wade didn't touch him, since they inconveniently lost that explanation by saying that the collision is what caused the inadvertent whistle. All in all, a none-too-proud moment for the officiating crew, who had the guts to get the call right the first time - and then for some reason got it completely wrong, giving a completely non-plausible explanation, under pressure from Dwyane Wade and his youthful ward Eric Spoelstra. (How old is that guy? 14?)

Clippers 97 - Miami 96

2008-11-30T08:24:13Z

Well, that was interesting.

As it happens, I missed the first half. I forgot to set the TiVo before we left for the grandparents house on Thursday for Thanksgiving, and then we stayed up there a couple days.

So while the Clippers scored 54 points in the first half, I had the distinct displeasure of watching them put up 14 in the third quarter, and miss 10 straight shots during a stretch covering the end of the third to the beginning of the fourth. Yeesh.

But then, for about 5 minutes, Baron Davis did what he was brought here to do. During a 17-3 Clippers run, he assisted on nine of the points, and scored six himself. The second of consecutive Baron jumpers finished the run, as the Clippers turned a six point 86-80 deficit into a 97-89 lead with 83 seconds left in the game. These being the Clippers however, they then managed to give up seven straight, and then to turn the ball over on an inbounds play with 7.6 seconds on the clock. To their credit, they defended Miami's final possessions well, using a foul they had to give with 2.9 on the clock, and forcing Wade into a desperation three as time expired. They can't do anything the easy way, can they?

About that call: who knows what the hell that was all about? In the replay, it's very clear that Wade makes contact with referee Courtney Kirkland while Kirkland is out of bounds and while the ball is in Wade's hands. It's my understanding that in that situation, the referee is considered out of bounds, and if the player is in contact with him then the player is out of bounds. Clippers ball. But here's the amazing thing. The three referees - Kirkland, Greg Willard and Ron Olesiak - huddle and discuss the call. They spend a good 2 minutes talking about it, which, it would seem, gives them ample time to discuss all the nuances of the situation and get it right. After their conference, they decide that indeed it is, Clippers' ball. The Heat are none too happy about the decision, as you might expect. So Wade explains something to Willard, and he decides that the earlier conference was irrelevant - turns out, they were just kidding before, and in fact it is Heat ball. I'm pretty sure that Wade's argument went something along the lines of 'Hey, it's me, Dwyane.' I'm not sure what other explanation there is for reversing the earlier decision. They didn't look at a replay. No one re-wrote the rule book in the interim, as far as I know. As for the explanation that Wade called a timeout in mid-air, before coming into contact with Kirkland, I watched the replay many times, and if he called time out, he did it in ventriloquist, because his lips weren't moving.

So chalk it up as a 'Dwyane Wade' call. Like the travels and carries he got away with on almost every possession. Or the play just seconds earlier where he ran over Mike Taylor with no whistle. [Actually, truth be told, this was a very un-Wade-centric game by the refs - he made it to the line exactly once all night, despite the fact that he was averaging over 10 trips per game coming in. Still, that out of bounds play was just weird.]

Back to the game: it's nice that the Clippers were able to get a win when their starting center was out and their starting backcourt combine to shoot 8 for 28. It would just be so nice if the key players could all have a decent game on the same night. I'm not talking about everyone scoring career highs. I'm just saying, one game where no one stinks up the joint. Because although Baron made three straight buckets during the crucial fourth quarter run, before that point he had been 3 for 15, and 1 for 5 from the free throw line. In Baron's defense, he'd been sick with the stomach flu all day, and must not have been feeling so great. His backcourt mate, Eric Gordon, after back to back games of 25 and 24, managed only 5 points on 7 shots; drawing the defensive assignment against Dwyane Wade has a way of taking you out of your offensive game, I guess.

But the front court came up big. Zach Randolph, in his second game as a Clipper, scored 27 points and 13 rebounds - 6 of them on the offensive glass. He scored 8 straight during the decisive fourth quarter run, including the go ahead three point play the hard way, followed by a corner three to stretch the lead to 4. So now we see why MDsr wanted to bring him in, and we can all embrace him. And Al Thornton also scored 27 - on only 14 shots. Al's shot chart was exactly like we all want it to look after every game - 1 for 3 on jumpers, 7 for 11 attacking the rim, and 14 trips to the free throw line. Meanwhile, Marcus Camby put up a dozen/dozen, with 12 points and 12 rebounds to go with 3 assists and 4 blocked shots.

The Clippers also did two things in this game that have happened way too infrequently this season - they outrebounded Miami (45-37) and they got to the line more (a lot more, 35-11). Unfortunately, they also missed 12 free throws, almost costing themselves another game with their foul shooting (and I do mean foul).

But again, this being the Clippers, there has to be some really bad news. In this case, it's that Eric Gordon spent most of the final quarter on the sideline after tweaking his hamstring. The good news is that Gordon is 19, and hamstring injuries don't usually linger long for 19 year olds - if it was me, I'd be out for the season. But we'll have to wait and see. Camby also spent some time on the bench in the fourth, but Marcus returned for the final two minutes and altered a couple of shots, so hopefully whatever was bugging him is a non-issue.

Nine of the next eleven games are on the road, beginning Tuesday night in Dallas against the suddenly hot Mavericks. There are some winnable games on the first leg of the trip, starting with the Mavs whom the Clippers have already beaten once this season. Is a win streak too much to ask for?

Embracing Zach Randolph

2008-11-29T21:21:12Z

It's been a week since the Clippers traded Cat Mobley and Tim Thomas to the Knicks for Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins. In the interim, while we were waiting out Cat Mobley's heart condiition and wondering if the trade would actually happen, we've had some time to think about his role on the Clippers.

It's not particularly easy to get your head around Z-Bo. (It's almost as difficult as getting your arms around him.) Let's go through some of the conventional wisdom about the trade and see where it leads us.

Reasons the trade was good:

It gives the Clippers a go to scorer in the post. This is pretty clearly the reason that MDsr pursued Randolph. A psychology student could probably write a dissertation on this subject: rejected by the 20-10 player he nurtured (and depended on) for years, the coach fervently pursues another 20-10 player. His point: 20-10 guys don't grow on trees. The list of names this season is short and impressive: Howard, Duncan, Bosh, Jefferson... and Zach Randolph (although Z-Bo's 7 point game on Wednesday dropped him below 20 ppg for the time being). The counter-argument: not all 20-10 guys are created equal. Zach Randolph is clearly not Tim Duncan. Nonetheless, while Chris Kaman is a good scorer, he's never been, nor is he likely to become, an offensive force. And all of his talk of playing a more up tempo or perimeter oriented game turned out to be just that: talk. MDsr is an inside-out kind of coach, and without a bona fide low post scorer, he's a little lost. Randolph arguably fits MDsr's offensive system even better than Brand did: EB is a good isolation score, where Randolph is great. We've complained plenty around here about the 'all isos all the time' style of basketball - but if we're stuck with it, let's at least give it a chance to work. In that regard, Randolph is a good fit.
It makes the Clippers younger. This is a simple fact. Although this is his 8th season in the NBA, and he long ago wore out his welcome in Portland, Zach Randolph is a mere 27 years old. His contract runs through 2011, and is gargantuan, but even at the end he'll only be 29, which is still very much prime time for power forwards. Mobley is 33 and Thomas is 31, and neither figured into the Clippers' long term plans. And Mobley's departure cleared the way for Eric Gordon, which is clearly a good thing, particularly if the team is destined to miss the playoffs this season. The net result of the trade gives the Clippers Baron Davis (29), Eric Gordon (19), Al Thornton (24), Chris Kaman (26) and Randolph (27) through 2011. There's no question that those five have a lot of talent - but there's no guarantee that the pieces fit together.

Reasons the trade was bad:

The loss of Mobley makes the Clippers dangerously thin on the wings. There's good news and bad news since the actual trade on this subject. Part of the problem before the trade was the simple fact that Ricky Davis had been terrible on the season so far. With the revelation this week that his knee has been hurting, and that he has been by his own estimate "about 60%", there's now a plausible explanation for RD's dismal performance. By sitting him down, the hope is that he'll be better upon his return in a week or two. In the interim of course, the Clippers got even thinner on the wings. But the unmitigated good news is that Eric Gordon appears more than ready to take over the starting position. In the first two games without Mobley, with Ricky starting and EJ coming off the bench, the Clippers got almost nothing out of the 2. In two games with Gordon in the starting lineup, he's led the team in scoring both times with 25 and 24. And while we already had some level of confidence he could score, his defense has been solid as well. The Clippers still need Ricky Davis healthy and productive - the post-Mobley options for backing up Al Thornton at the small forward, or for defending big shooting guards, are less than ideal.
There aren't enough minutes up front for Kaman, Randolph and Camby. In the first game with Randolph in uniform, this didn't prove to be a problem at all. That's because Kaman played only 12 minutes before shutting it down to rest his sore foot. The fact that his foot was sore at least in part due to the number of minutes he'd been playing in the first month of the season, argues for limiting his minutes. And of course Camby, 35, has been on limited minutes all season, and for the last few seasons of his career. So it would seem that finding minutes for all three of the bigs is not really going to be an issue. Limiting the minutes of the injury-prone guys is a good thing, and there will be plenty of opportunity to milk the guy with the hot hand.
There isn't enough room up front for Kaman, Randolph and Camby. The jury is definitely out on this one. Of course, this was already a potential problem for the Clippers, even before the trade. Most of us in Clips Nation have been convinced Kaman and Camby have co-existed and even thrived - though unfortunately their supposed synergy has not resulted in many wins. Adding Randolph into that mix is definitely a potential problem. It certainly didn't work to have Randolph and Curry together in New York.
Randolph's contract takes away cap flexibility for summer 2010. This is an indisputable fact. We'll never know what it costs the Clippers - no one can know what would have happened with the cap space. But barring another move, the Clippers will not have enough cap space to make a play for any of the superstar free agents of summer 2010.
Randolph is good at putting up stats, but bad at helping teams win. This is the big question. The answer will come on the court.

The first game of the Zach Randolph era in LA didn't do much to settle the questions. If he's going to go 3 for 11 every game, then it's not going to work out. But it's safe to say he's not going to go 3 for 11 every game. (Of course, that's what we said about Ricky Davis, and so far Ricky has proven that thinking wrong.) Hopefully we'll get more feedback tonight against the Heat.

The simple fact is, the Clippers were 2-9 when they made the trade, so they didn't have much to lose. And while Randolph's contract pretty clearly falls into the 'bad' category, trading two medium bad contracts for one really bad contract is pretty much a contractual wash, especially when the team gets younger in the process. That leaves 2010 as the financial downside to this deal, and as I pointed out in an earlier post, the Clippers are gaining a trade chip into 2011 as they lose cap space in 2010, so it may not be as bad as it seems.

Ultimately this trade will be judged on its basketball merits. Does Randolph make the team more competitive? Does he make them competitive enough? Maybe not this season, which is probably already lost (a situation that cannot be blamed on Z-Bo), but next season? Or is he more trouble than he's worth? A guy who can put up numbers, but whose liabilities on defense and in the locker room cancel out his assets?

In Woody Allen's Manhattan, Isaac's first wife, played by a very young Meryl Streep, leaves him for another woman. When someone asks him why he married a lesbian, he says "I thought I could change her." Can MDsr change Zach Randolph?

I can't get my head around that one.

Clippers vs. Heat - Game Preview and Open Thread

2008-11-29T13:30:06Z

	vs.
2-13		8-8
Staples Center
November 29, 2008 - 7:30 PM
TV: FSN Prime Ticket
Probable starters:
Baron Davis	PG	Mario Chalmers
Eric Gordon	SG	Dwyane Wade
Al Thornton	SF	Shawn Marion
Marcus Camby	PF	Michael Beasley
Chris Kaman	C	Udonis Haslem

The Big Picture:

The Clippers have a dismal 2-13 record, second worst in the NBA. However, three of the last five losses came down to the final possession, so the team is being more competitive. In Wednesday's game versus Denver, they battled back from 13 down and had a chance to win at the buzzer, but Marcus Camby's three pointer came up a few inches short. The team is also changing. Zach Randolph made his debut for LA on Wednesday night, but started the game ice-cold, missing 7 of his first 8 shots. And with Cat Mobley leaving town as part of the Randolph trade and Ricky Davis now resting his sore knees, 19 year old rookie Eric Gordon has become the starter at the shooting guard. Gordon has led the Clippers in scoring in both his NBA starts, with 25 and 24 points in the last two games. So if the addition of Randolph can start to help the team, and the opportunity for Gordon continues to help the team, then everything should be fine. Right? Any minute now, the wins will just start pouring in. Chris Kaman, whose averaging 14 points and 9.5 rebounds per game and shooting 57% from the field, missed the final three quarters of the Denver game with plantar fasciitas. The plan was to get a cortisone shot and be ready for this game; he's listed as questionable and will probably be a game time decision.

The Antagonist:

The Heat are 8-8. They have not won more than two straight, nor lost more than two straight this season, and have not been more than one game away from .500. Given that the team won only 15 games last season, it's pretty impressive that they're already more than halfway to that total after just 16 games. You might be tempted to think that the team's improvement is attributable to second overall pick Michael Beasley - and he's been OK, averaging almost 14 points per game. But make no mistake - there's one reason that the Heat are good again, and his name is Dwyane Wade. After an injury-riddled season in which he missed 31 games and shot 47%, he's back at the top of his game. He's led the Heat in scoring in 14 of their 16 games. The key to stopping the Heat is containing Wade. In their last two games, they lost by 38 in Portland as Wade scored a season-low 12, and followed that up with a 15 point win in Phoenix as he scored a season-high 43. He's averaging 27.4 points and 7.5 assists per game. Amazingly, the Heat are playing well, despite relatively modest contributions from former all-pro Shawn Marion, who is averaging fewer points than he has since he was a rookie 9 years ago. The Heat are starting two rookies, in Beasley and point guard Mario Chalmers, along with Wade and Marion and Udonis Haslem.

The Subplots

Z-Bo. Zach Randolph scored only 7 points in his Clippers debut, his lowest output of the season. Whether it was the rust of a week off, or issues of getting integrated into a new season, or just on off game, let's hope that it doesn't happen again.
D-Fending D-Wade. The task of trying to keep Wade out of the lane will likely fall on Eric Gordon. At the beginning of the season, MDsr was trying to protect his rookie from the trial by fire of being thrown into NBA games against the likes of Kobe Bryant. Well, he no longer has that luxury. Gordon has defended against Jason Kidd, Chris Paul and Chauncey Billups in the last few weeks - and he's done a good job. His offensive talents are obvious, but he also has the potential to be the Clippers best perimeter defender. It's also possible that Baron Davis will get the Wade assignment.
Shaun Livingston. Former Clipper Shaun Livingston signed with the Heat prior to the start of the season. He appeared in two games early in the season, but has only played in one since - two games ago against the Blazers.
Going Big. Even if Chris Kaman can play tonight, the Heat is a tough matchup for the Clippers' really big bigs. Beasley has a perimeter game, as does Marion, and either Randolph or Marcus Camby is going to have to chase one of those guys. Beasley did not start in their last game against the Suns and Shaq and Amare, but I expect he'll be back in the starting lineup tonight.
Get away game. The Clippers schedule has been incredibly home friendly so far (although they have a 1-9 home record to show for it). Following this one, 9 of the next 11 are on the road. You think 2-13 is ugly? It could actually get worse in December if the team doesn't get its act together.
UPDATES. Ramona Shelburne has some injury updates posted on her blog, (hat tip to Citizen oasisman in the comments). Kaman has been downgraded to doubtful, and Baron Davis is now listed as questionable, having come down with the stomach virus that kept Jason Hart and Brian Skinner home on Wednesday. Crap. With Ricky Davis also out, if Baron can't go the Clippers' backcourt rotation is reduced to Eric Gordon, Mike Taylor, Jason Hart and Mardy Collins. I love Gordon and Taylor, but I'm dubious about playing them 48 minutes.

Denver 106 - Clippers 105

2008-11-27T07:56:13Z

What an interesting game. There was really a lot going on in this one.

First of all, the much anticipated debut of the Clippers three bigs was a big bust. Chris Kaman played only 12 minutes - the team decided to shut him down with a sore foot after the first quarter. And Zach Randolph was horrible. Whether it was nerves on his new team, or rust from a week off, or confusion in the new offense, or simply an off night, Z-Bo missed 7 of his first 8 shots, most of them pretty badly. At least Marcus Camby played well against his old team, with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

But what the Clippers lacked in front court production, they made up in the backcourt. Eric Gordon put up 24 points on 14 shots in his second NBA start after scoring 25 points on 16 shots in his first pro start. Once again he made 4 three pointers, and once again he played tough defense, coming up with 4 steals and 2 blocks, including a crucial block on Chauncey Billups down the stretch. I think we can safely assume that he is now, and for many years to come, the Clippers starting 2 guard. Baron Davis also had a productive game with 18 points and 10 assists, and Mike Taylor was once again a great spark off the bench with 12 points. It was Taylor's steal late in the third quarter that snapped the team out of a long slumber and got them back into the game.

Unfortunately, the Clippers had no one who could defend Carmelo Anthony. In years past, Clipper-Nugget games have featured Q Ross and Cat Mobley tag teaming Melo, and the Clippers have had a decided advantage in the series because of the job they've done. With both of those guys gone, LA had no one who could stop the guy without fouling him. Melo shot 16 free throws for the game, making 14 of them. Al Thornton fouled out in 28 minutes of play, and Mardy Collins picked up 3 more fouls in 7 minutes. Melo finished with 30 points.

Speaking of free throws, the Nuggets took 43 of them - 14 more than the Clippers. It's not an exaggeration to say that the Nugget won the game at the line. Or maybe it's that the Clippers lost the game there. The Clippers managed to miss 8 of their 29 free throws (72%) while the Nuggets made 36 of 43 (84%).

Unfortunately, the Clippers seem completely incapable of winning close games. After accruing six double-digit losses in their first 9 games, they have a win and three final possession defeats in their last six. The bad news is, those losses look exactly the same in the standings. In this one, they battled back from 13 down late in the third quarter, and then erased all of an eight point Denver lead in the final 2 minutes. They even got the last stop they needed. But they still couldn't break Lawler's Law.

It was also interesting to see Kim Hughes run the team. With MDsr not back from Dallas where he attended a funeral, Hughes was sitting in the first chair. He seemed to give the team more rein, and nowhere was this more evident than on the final play. Down 1 with 32 seconds to go, the Clippers got the stop and the rebound they needed, and took possession with 12 seconds left. Now, that's a guaranteed time out for MDsr, but some people argue that stopping the clock in that situation just let's the defense get set, and it's threfore better to try to get the winning score in transition. Hughes eschewed the time out, and had Baron push the ball up court. Unfortunately, the shot the team wound up with - a three point attempt by Marcus Camby from the top of the arc - could hardly have been the shot they wanted. So remember that the next time you lament control freak MDsr calling a time out to set up a final shot.

The losses keep mounting, but there's no question that the team is more fun to watch right now. Gordon has led the team in scoring for two straight games, but truthfully he got the majority of his points tonight on kick out threes and filling a lane on the break. When they start going to him and getting him more looks, he's really going to go off. Mike Taylor is a blur out there. He went past Anthony Carter while dribbling on one break, and Carter started about three steps ahead of him. Randolph will settle in and make some shots. Let's hope Kaman's foot is OK.

I guess what I'm saying is, I'm actually looking forward to the Miami game. The Clippers will win that one.

The Bill Simmons Thing

2008-11-26T23:37:19Z

Well, it's linked on a FanPost by Citizen surfertony, and it's been referenced on a couple of comment threads. And then I got an email about it from the Hornets blogger from At the Hive a litte while ago. I read the article and responded to the email, and then I realized... hey, this is... what do you call it? Content!

To recap - In Bill Simmons' latest Page 2, he goes through 10 NBA items. The last item (scroll way down, he's almost as verbose as me) has the following title: In the post-Isiah era, is Mike Dunleavy the single most destructive coach/executive in the NBA right now? I think you all see where this is going, but in case anyone is confused, he ends his rant as follows:

My point is this: Somehow, someway, in one of the most inexplicable turn of events that's ever happened in this league, Mike Dunleavy is the only person currently coaching an NBA team and handling personnel decisions at the same time. Mike Dunleavy! How does this happen? My head hurts.

Here's what At the Hive asked me about it:

Wondering if you saw Bill Simmons' article trashing Mike Dunleavy? Seemed pretty harsh and unfair to me, but I haven't really watched the Clips much. Is he way off base?

Here's my response:

What can I say? It's Bill Simmons. There's a bit of hyperbole involved, you know?

There's also some blatant untruths. "Forget that he blew the only asset he had after Elton Brand screwed over the team -- cap space -- by acquiring 34-year-old Marcus Camby." This presumes that he could have used that cap space on something else. What, praytell? Josh Smith? Emeka Okafor? Luol Deng? Not only would their teams likely have matched, I'm not actually convinced any of those guys are better than Camby. And Camby only for two years, when once again the Clippers get cap space. So to complain about wasting cap space in a move that isn't bad and preserves future cap space is... let's say disingenuous.

So he trots out the 'Baron Davis doesn't fit the system' argument and the 'Zach Randolph creates a logjam in the front court.' OK. Fine. But again, what were the alternatives? "Let me get this straight... instead of getting paid $17M in Oakland next year, you're willing to come to LA and be the best point guard in the history of the franchise for $11M?" Was he supposed to say 'No" based on "artistic differences"?

Anyway, the team is in a bad way right now, and he owns season tickets for the sole purpose, as he admits, of watching the opposition. He's allowed to pile on. And MDsr has to take some responsibility at some point, right? I mean, he's the coach and GM of a team with $37M worth of bigs and 2 wins.

And that play against the Spurs was indeed a train wreck, which I pointed out myself.

But it's a cheap shot.

The point is, anyone can very easily pick out a handful of really bad decisions and rant about them. About anything. And if you're a relatively clever guy, which I think Simmons is, you can do it in a relatively clever way. But can we please stop trotting out the 'Daniel Ewing' thing? (That goes for all of you Citizens as well.) It was 32 months ago. Get over it. And for him to lament the treatment of Elgin Baylor, when he regularly lambasted the guy as a horrible GM is more than a little hypocritical.

So, his argument boils down to -

Acquiring Baron Davis was a bad idea - debatable, and probably wrong. He's a great point guard and he took a pay cut to come here.
Acquiring Marcus Camby was a bad idea - debatable, and almost certainly wrong. It only cost the team cap space, and they had no other good options for using it.
Acquiring Zach Randolph was a bad idea - debatable, possibly correct, but we don't really have any way of knowing right now. It only cost the team two guys that didn't figure into their future plans and (this part hurts) 2010 cap space. So it's a risk, and there's no data right now on whether it will pay off.
They played bad defense against the Spurs on the last play and then ran a bad play themselves - true. However, I'm not sure how a player's defensive mistake can be blamed on bad coaching. In the post game press conference MDsr said Ricky and Marcus didn't play it the way he told them to. These things happen. As for the Clippers' final play, that was a train wreck. I won't debate that.

So for me, his argument boils down to one poorly designed play. I hardly think that in and of itself qualifies MDsr as "the single most destructive coach/executive in the NBA right now." But what can I say? It's Simmons.

Clippers vs. Denver - Game Preview and Open Thread

2008-11-26T13:00:06Z

	vs.
2-12		9-5
Staples Center
November 26, 2008 - 7:30 PM
TV: FSN Prime Ticket
Probable starters:
Baron Davis	PG	Chauncey Billups
Eric Gordon	SG	Dahntay Jones
Al Thornton	SF	Carmelo Anthony
Marcus Camby	PF	Kenyon Martin
Chris Kaman	C	Nene

The Big Picture:

In the second game of the season, LA blew a 18 point halftime lead over the Nuggets and lost in overtime. Of course this game will be different - it will feature Carmelo Anthony, and Chauncery Billups, and Marcus Camby, and a full game of Baron Davis (who was injured in the first quarter of the earlier meeting). And one other guy. The Clippers will (for reals) play their first game with Zach Randolph tonight. Although the trade that sent Cat Mobley and Tim Thomas out of town at first seemed to leave a hole at the shooting guard, Eric Gordon served notice Monday against New Orleans that he's ready to fill the void. If indeed Randolph is in the lineup tonight, it's hard to imagine a more talented 2-12 team. I've supported really bad Clippers teams. Teams that had no business winning any games. Teams that Lamond Murray led in scoring. This team does not suffer from a lack of talent. Something else has them mired in misery. But after the pre-season injuries, and the changes, and the tough schedule, and now more changes, the excuses are eventually going to run out. They have to start winning some time, or there needs to be some accountability. There's just too much talent out there to be stuck on two wins. By the way, since Washington won Tuesday night, it's now once again the second worst record in the NBA. Thank the FSM for the Thunder (or should I thank Thor?)

The Antagonist:

Like the Clippers, the Nuggets pulled off a major early season trade. But in stark contrast to the Clippers, the Nuggets trade made sense on every level. Don't get me wrong - the Clippers had very little to lose, and it may work out for them. But the one thing the Nuggets have needed for years is a point guard. They gave the Iverson-Anthony experiment plenty of time, it didn't work, and acquiring all star Chauncey Billups for Iverson was a great move. The results so far have been impressive - the Nuggets are 8-2 with Billups at the helm, and suddenly one of the spots at the playoff table that everyone thought was empty may be filled again. The opposition hasn't been the best during Denver's 8-2 run - there have been some really bad teams in the mix - but they do have a win in Boston in there. With Nene playing the best ball of his career, the Nuggets high paid front line (perhaps the only set of three front court players in the league making more than Camby, Kaman and Randolph) is impressive. And Billups is a much better choice for getting them all involved.

The Subplots

Marcus Who? When the Nuggets traded Camby to the Clippers for nothing this summer, they were taking a gamble that Nene would come back strong from his bout with testicular cancer. The fact that Nene had a history of other injuries as well, and that the Nuggets literally had no other options at the time, made it all the more risky. To say that the Brazillian has responded does not really convey his resurgence. He's shooting 64% from the field, compared to a career percentage of 53% and a previous best of 57%. He's shooting 75% from the line, compared to a previous best of 69%. He's blocking twice as many shots as at any time in his career. He's averaging career highs in... well... everything. In short - if anyone in Denver says they expected this level of productivity from Nene when they moved Camby, they're lying.
The Disconnect. Yes, the Nuggets are 8-2 with Billups and 9-5 overall. Yes, they're leading the Northwest Division, ahead of the Jazz and everyone's darlings the Blazers. But truthfully, they're not playing very well. Aside from Nene and Kenyon Martin, the entire team is shooting poorly. Carmelo Anthony is shooting a career low 39% from the field. JR Smith, who signed a big contract in the off-season, is shooting a career low 38% from the field and 29% from the three point line - and for JR Smith to shoot a career low, it has to be pretty low. Of their six leading scorers, three of them are under 40%, and Billups is at 41%. So it's actually pretty surprising that they're 9-5.
Zach Randolph. (I get to reuse this bullet since he didn't play Monday.) Who knows what's going to happen with this? The guy's a monster on offense. And his best play (which also happens to be a favorite of MDsr) is 'Gimme the ball.' So how much practice time do they need for that?
Shooting Guard. In this space Monday I said that 19 year old Eric Gordon wasn't ready to be the full time starter. And then he went out and scored a team high 25 points, while defending Chris Paul, in his first start as a pro. Shows what I know. Gordon has unlimited range on his picture perfect jump shot, the quickness and athleticism to get to the rim, and the ability to create his own shot. He's going to be very, very good before the season is over. MDsr has already surprised me once this season, recognizing very quickly that Mike Taylor was outplaying Jason Hart and demoting the veteran to third string behind the rookie. Will he act just as quickly and decisively with EJ, and make him the permanent starter ahead of Ricky Davis? UPDATE: Missed this last night: the Pest says the Ricky is doubtful tonight. So EJ will likely start again, but we may have to wait to see if MDsr is making it permanent, or just resting Ricky's knee.
Kaman Rumors. In the wake of the Randolph trade, we now get to deal with more rumors about Kaman trades. Look, I get it. Charlotte has already inquired about Kaman. The Clippers need a shooting guard. Baron Davis and Jason Richardson had a very successful run as teammates in Oakland. Kaman for JRich is a rumor made to order. But there are a couple problems. First of all, MDsr adores Kaman. Second, I just don't see the Clippers bringing in a shooting guard owed $40M over the next three seasons when their lottery pick just went for 25 in his first start. What does JRich do to EJ's development? I'm not going to say that there's no way this trade is happening, because we all know what happens when I do that. In fact, I guarantee you this trade WILL happen. And very soon. There, that should take care of it.
Camby's Revenge. Marcus was not happy about being traded for nothing. He felt that he was being made the scapegoat for Denver's playoff struggles. He missed the earlier meetings (including one pre-season game) between the teams, so this is his first chance to show his former team that they made a mistake. Of course, with the Clippers at 2-12, one would think that he'd have plenty of incentive to play hard, but if this give him a little more focus, I'll take it.

Knicks may be seeking pick as Cuttino Mobley physical hits snag

2008-11-25T19:54:34Z

Knicks may be seeking pick as Cuttino Mobley physical hits snag

OK, this is actually pretty funny if you ask me.

- The Knicks made this trade for one reason - cap space in 2010.

- Cat Mobley, whose heart has not impacted a single day of his 11 year NBA career, will provide them with cap space in 2010 whether he plays or not.

- The Knicks have ZERO leverage in this. Call off the deal, Donnie. You're not getting a pick. You can have Z-Bo and his big fat contract back.

The good news is that this will be over soon.

Funny that two old Gamecocks are staring each other down. Hat tip to Citizen CTGN for finding this.

New Orleans 99 - Clippers 87

2008-11-25T08:00:56Z

Near the end of the game, I turned to Jeff and asked "What are the Clippers shooting? Other than Gordon and maybe Kaman, I bet no one is over 40%." Well, I was not 100% correct, but I wasn't too far off. Camby managed 3 for 7, and Paul Davis was 1 for 2. But Baron Davis (6 for 16) and Al Thornton (5 for 18) by themselves easily brought the team percentage down to 38%.

In fact, given the shooting percentages (49% vs. 38%) and the rebounding discrepancy (48 to 37 in favor of the Hornets), I'm hard pressed to understand how the Clippers were within 6 points in the fourth quarter of this game. Seriously... how is that possible? Weird.

I alluded to this in the preview, but the Hornets are a matchup nightmare for the new-look Clippers. Neither Chris Kaman nor Marcus Camby really wants to stay home on David West. West is in fact maybe the worst matchup in the league for the 'let's play two centers and see how it goes' Clippers. The guy is just automatic from 17 feet, and he's fully capable of blowing by guys if they overcommit on the closeout - which in fact he also did several times. Looking at the box score, I'm shocked that he actually missed 9 shots (he finished 12 for 21, a mere 57%). I remember two meaningless misses at the end after the game was decided, but it seemed like he made absolutely everything in the second and third quarters. He's always been a Clipper-killer and tonight was no exception.

So, given the combination of big nights for West and Chris Paul (who recorded a triple double), the rebounding edge for the Hornets and the Clippers poor shooting, the outcome was inevitable.

But there was still something to cheer about.

Eric Gordon scored 25 points on 9 for 18 shooting and 4 for 8 threes. He took the ball to the hole strong, and maybe he'll get some calls when the refs learn his name. (Anybody out there have a visceral hatred of Steve Javie, or am I the only one?) He also had 4 steals and drew the defensive assignment of Chris Paul. (Contradiction alert - wasn't it just a couple of weeks ago that MDsr was talking about protecting EJ's fragile ego but not playing him against the likes of Kobe and other top shooting guards? So now he puts Baron on Rasual Butler and sticks the rookie on CP3. Does this mean we're not worried about his confidence any more?) Gordon was terrific, and is going to be a very good shooting guard in this league, and may indeed be able to play some point. I think it would be wise to hand the starting job to him now, with or without Ricky Davis' tendonitis. Let's get through the learning curve sooner rather than later, and oh by the way make some shots along the way.

Mike Taylor also displayed his talents, and although he got out of control at times, his talent and hustle are welcome additions to this team. His ability to pick NBA point guards clean one-on-one is uncanny. I'm more and more convinced that he's going to be a good pro. He's going to mature and figure out when to use that speed of his and when to slow down the pace. Even DeAndre Jordan got his first non-garbage minutes of the season. Too bad CP3 sniffed out that lob play - but glad to see the Clippers reaching deeper into the playbook, even if it didn't work out.

The rebounding is an enigma and quite troubling. New Orleans is not a particularly good rebounding team, and this was supposed to be the Clippers forte. I realize that all the misses on the Clippers' end helped the Hornets pad their defensive rebounding stats, but still. Kaman did not have a very strong rebounding game with 7, but it's the team outside of Camby and Kaman who have to do a better job. Thornton, 4 rebounds - Peja Stojakovic, 9. Not good.

But the biggest concern has got to be Baron Davis. Although he finished the game with a statistically acceptable 19 points and 8 assists, he isn't giving the Clippers the big time offensive option that he was supposed to bring. Maybe it really is the MDsr system holding him back. Maybe Baron is still bothered by his finger. I don't know. What I do know is that the Clippers will continue to lose with this mild-mannered guy with the beard running the team.

Randolph, Collins won't make Clippers debuts tonight - Press-Telegram

2008-11-25T01:44:24Z

Randolph, Collins won't make Clippers debuts tonight - Press-Telegram

I was told by someone with the Clippers that the hold up is on the Knicks side. I can't say what happened. I can say that it kind of sucks that the Knicks would drag their feet on the physicals, if indeed that's what happened. They don't play tonight, but the Clippers do. So the team will be short-handed for the third straight game.

Clippers vs. Hornets - Game Preview and Open Thread

2008-11-24T19:39:44Z

	vs.
2-11		7-5
Staples Center
November 24, 2008 - 7:30 PM
TV: FSN West
Probable starters:
Baron Davis	PG	Chris Paul
Ricky Davis?	SG	Morris Peterson
Al Thornton	SF	Peja Stojakovic
Marcus Camby	PF	David West
Chris Kaman	C	Tyson Chandler

The Big Picture:

The Clippers will play their first game with Zach Randolph tonight, but with so little practice time, who knows how it will go. While the trade of Cat Mobley and Tim Thomas for Randolph and Mardy Collins clearly gives the team an upgrade of top tier NBA talent, it just as clearly makes their front court very crowded while leaving a big hole at the shooting guard. Yes, there are lots of minutes for three big men and 30+ for each of them would theoretically be fine. And maybe they can actually play all three of them together some as MDsr maintains, although I'm dubious about that. But the simple fact is that having three bigs making $10M+ each is not usually a recipe for success. So we'll see. At the same time, the team was 2-9 at the time of the trade (they're 2-11 now after two short-handed losses), so what they were doing wasn't working and the Clippers are trying something different - which is reasonable. The trade asks a whole slew of new questions - we'll begin to find out the answers tonight.

The Antagonist:

The Hornets were Western Conference Semi-Finalists a season ago, and with a young and improving core - in particular MVP candidate Chris Paul - expectations are very high for this team. Viewed through that prism their 7-5 start has got to be considered a disappointment. You think we were disappointed around here to lose a home game to the Kings playing without Kevin Martin? How do you think Hornets fans felt when the same thing happened last week? (By the way, props to Reggie Theus for having that Kings team playing hard.) I always questoined the Hornets' depth last season, and it seems to be an ongoing issue. The off-season addition of James Posey helps - but wasn't that the one position where they already had some depth? With Mike James deep in Byron Scott's doghouse, the backup point guard is Devin Brown - not a point guard, in other words. The first big off the bench is Hilton Armstrong. And although hopes were very high for second year player Julian Wright coming into the season, he's actually averaging FEWER minutes in the first 12 games than he played as a 20 year old rookie. Byron does get down on guys who don't play his way - witness his J.R. Smith - but the Hornets really need to develop a bench if they expect to move deeper into the playoffs. Still, the starters are terrific. Paul and David West are coming off all star seasons. Peja Stojakovic can still shoot the three (although his overall percentage is actually lower than his three point percentage so far this season) and Tyson Chandler is a terrific defender and rebounder at the center. The two guard remains a little bit of a weak link, something the Clippers now know well. It doesn't help that Morris Peterson has missed the last couple of games with a sore knee, though he is supposed to be back tonight.

The Subplots

Boom Dizzle and CP3. In the Q&A I did with At the Hive earlier today, they reminded me about some nasty battles between Baron Davis and Chris Paul in the past. Maybe Baron is just pissed at his former team. Maybe it's something else. But look for some fireworks between these two elite point guards.
Defending the Screen and Roll. Yikes. Camby doesn't really thrive showing on the screen and roll. Kaman's not bad, but it's not an ideal situation for him either. And good defensive rotations tend to require a lot of team practice and togetherness - not really the 2008-2009 Clippers profile. So we could see a whole lot of Tyson Chandler dunking lobs and David West drilling wide open 17 footers on the pick-and-pop. CP3 could get 20 assists. And if all that happens, it won't end well for the Clippers.
Zach Randolph. Who knows what's going to happen with this? The guy's a monster on offense. And his best play (which also happens to be a favorite of MDsr) is 'Gimme the ball.' So how much practice time do they need for that?
Shooting Guard. Ricky Davis is 2 for 14 in his two starts at the shooting guard - he managed to be worse than he had been earlier in the season, which was not easy. Eric Gordon hasn't been nearly as bad as Buckets, but he's looked very much like the talented 19 year old rookie he is, replete with rookie mistakes. The good news is that with either Peterson or Rasual Butler on the other side, the defensive assignment is pretty straightforward - defend the three point line. So maybe it's an opportunity to start the rookie without fear of getting lit up. And no, Mardy Collins is not the answer.
Shots for Kaman. Today's LA Times talks about the need to get Chris Kaman more shots. That's a combination of things - more touches for the guy, and more willingness to shoot on his part. Of course, his problem is his tendency to overthink things, and talking about the problem isn't really going to help there.
Coaching Changes. Worst record in the league - Thunder. Coach PJ Carlesimo - fired. Second worst record in the league - Wizards. Coach Eddie Jordan - fired. Third worst record in the league - Clippers. MDsr isn't likely going anywhere, for several reasons. Donald Sterling still owes him real money, which is not something he usually parts with easily. The fact that MDsr was made the GM about a month ago only complicates things further. But it's worth noting that no one expected anything from the Thunder, and the Wizards are missing their franchise player, which was MDsr's 'Get out of Jail Free' card last season. The Clippers on the other hand had fairly high, if possibly unrealistic, expectations. So in a normal world, MDsr's seat would be very, very hot, if not already in flames. But Clips Nation is not a normal world. GM Dunleavy is no doubt convinced that Coach Dunleavy just needs some time to work with his new personnel before the team turns their season around. We'll see.

Clips Nation Q&A with Hornets blog, At the Hive

2008-11-24T17:27:30Z

Last season we tried to do Q&A sessions with bloggers from upcoming opponents whenever possible and they were always interesting and informative. So in advance or tonight's game against the Hornets, I exchanged some questions with the terrific SB Nation blog, At the Hive.

ClipperSteve: How's the James Posey thing working out?

At the Hive: About as well as Hornet fans could have hoped. He's played some terrific man defense on the likes of Kobe, LeBron, and McGrady, and has already drained a ton of clutch three point looks. Recently, he's been in something of a slump- coinciding with the team's poor play. But the thing with Posey is that the constant hustle and effort is there every game. So even on a night where he goes 0-4, his pursuit of loose balls and his relentless defense make him worth having out on the floor.

ClipperSteve: I don't think the David West story gets nearly enough play. Here's a guy that averaged about 4 points per game as a rookie and 6 in his second season. And he was a four year college guy - not some 19 year old. Have you watched him this whole time? What did he do to go from 6 points a game to the All Star Game? I mean, it doesn't usually happen that way for 23 year old pros.

At the Hive: Yeah, I've been lucky to watch his entire career thus far. West has always been one of the hardest working guys on the floor. His first couple years, he didn't have a good offensive game by any stretch of the imagination. He was semi-undersized (6'9", 225-230) for his position. But he earned his playing time by working hard on the glass. His rookie year, he posted an offensive rebound rate of 14%. That might not mean anything at first glance, until you consider that Dwight Howard's career offensive rebound rate is 11.8%. Tyson Chandler- who led the league in offfensive rebound last season- has a career rate of 12.7%. Basically, West was working his butt off, night in and night out, for an 18-64 team. He wasn't promised extra minutes, he really wasn't promised anything. I don't think you'll find too many guys in the NBA willing to work like that, with so little to play for. Byron Scott noticed that.

He encouraged West to develop a midrange jumper, in the 10-12 foot range. West took him up on that challenge, and by his 3rd year- 2005-2006- he could stroke it from about 17 feet. That year, New Orleans drafted the perfect player for West- a guy who could penetrate easily and find West for that midrange jumper. In recent years, West has become pretty fluent at an isolation game as well. But it really took his work ethic and for the team to take a leap of faith on him. I know the media loves to talk about how Chris Paul "created" David West, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

ClipperSteve: There's no way to ask this delicately.... Chris Paul has got this choir boy image, but when I watch him, I see a guy that will take every advantage he possibly can. It's not accurate to call him a 'dirty' player; but he's old school sneaky, like John Stockton or Larry Bird. Am I way off base? Do you see what I'm saying?

At the Hive: Hahaha, no, you're not too far off on this one. Chris Paul on and off the court is like Jekyll and Hyde. The biggest thing with Paul is that he hates to lose. I know that sounds ridiculously cliche. But Paul takes on a whole other level of intensity when the team starts to trail, or team effort isn't there. He'll rip his own teammates as easily as he'll get in opponent's faces. And it's when he's in that angry/intense space that he'll try those sneaky plays. So I wouldn't put him in that Matt Barnes/Bruce Bowen category of cheap shotting opponents wily nily. You have to get him pretty riled up before he retaliates. That said, Paul's chippiest games have come against Baron Davis. It's not even close- Davis gets him fired up like no other. During his time in Charlotte/New Orleans, I always found Baron one of the better trash talkers in the league. Not so much in the Gary Payton sense, but more the "humorous jab, then walks away laughing while his opponent fumes" type of talk. So I wouldn't be surprised to see some fireworks.

ClipperSteve: A very Clips Nation specific question - I saw that Jared Jordan was one of the last cuts for the Hornets this year. Although he was never actually a Clipper, LA drafted him, and I always thought he might make a decent pro. Did you get to see him at all in training camp? How did he look? And who's the third string point guard in the Big Easy?

At the Hive: Didn't see him nearly enough, maybe a couple minutes towards the very ends of games. For some reason, Byron Scott didn't play either of the two roster invites at all during preseason. So I can't really say on Jordan. As far as third string point guard... well, good question. Byron Scott despises Mike James. Devin Brown had a pretty bad ankle sprain last night. So the better question might be who is our second string point guard? We might see Julian Wright or even James Posey bring up the ball tonight.

Thanks to At the Hive for these great answers. Check over there between now and game time for my answers to their questions. I'm glad that I'm not crazy on the whole Chris Paul thing. Let's be clear - it's not a bad thing. Michael Jordan was the most competitive guy in the world, and consequently not a super nice person on the basketball court. I see that total focus in CP3, which is why he's got a chance to win an NBA MVP and some rings before his career is over. By the way, not having been focused on Baron Davis earlier in my blogging career, I had forgotten about the chippy history with CP3. That could be interesting to watch tonight.

New Jersey 112 - Clippers 95

2008-11-23T08:11:46Z

In case anyone was out there asking the question, "Is there any downside to trading away your most reliable shooting guard without getting one in return?" this game is exhibit A.

When Cat Mobley was traded, Ricky Davis was shooting 29.9% on the year coming off the bench for the Clippers. Since the trade as a starter, he's 2 for 14. In the course of those two games, he's lowered his shooting percentage to 27.2%. And mathematically speaking, it's not really easy to lower your percentage when you're already under 30%. It's obviously in Ricky's head now; early in the third quarter he missed a wide open three by about 2 feet to the right of the rim. It seems hard to believe that he won't bust out at some point, but how can you continue giving all these minutes to a guy making about 1 in 4 shots on the season, and much much worse lately?

Eric Gordon is a major talent, but also a rookie, and a 19 year old in the deal. In the first half of this game he threw not one but two passes to people wearing blue shirts in the crowd. He played a better second half; I love the way he takes the ball to the rim, even if he did run over Devin Harris on the way once. But he's just not going to be a productive and effective NBA shooting guard on a consistent basis any time soon.

With Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins still in street clothes pending the standard post-trade physical, it stands to reason the Clippers bench is going to struggle in this game. But it's as if the bench extends to the starter at shooting guard, and the Clippers are playing 4 on 5 when the other team has their starters out there. In this game, Baron Davis, Al Thornton, Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman combined to shoot 32 for 54 and score 82 points. The rest of the team shot 4 for 23, 17.4%.

It would have been difficult to win this game regardless. The Nets made 9 of their first 11 three point baskets. For the game, the Clippers were outscored by 18 from the three point line and 7 from the free throw line (this despite the Nets shooting very poorly from the line - the actually took 17 more free throws. You have to make an awful lot of two pointers to make up that deficit. And the Clippers didn't make nearly enough.

So it's back to LA to start the Zach Randolph era - Zach to the Future. Of course, there's still no one to play shooting guard. Does anybody see a problem with that?

Clippers at New Jersey - Game Preview and Open Thread

2008-11-22T20:14:10Z

Sorry Citizens. Soccer tournament time - I'm coaching three games today. Clippers are at New Jersey. A win would be nice. It starts at 4:30 on KTLA Channel 5. Talk amongst yourselves.

Philadelphia 89 - Clippers 88

2008-11-22T09:33:50Z

Well, it's been a long day.

I just finished watching the game on the TiVo at 1 AM. I probably wouldn't feel so tired if the game had come out a little differently. At any rate, I don't really have the energy to do a proper recap, so you're stuck with bullets.

Here's what I got:

The Clippers took some body blows from the Sixers early - the Sixers like to jump on teams, get steals, get run outs and put you away. But the Clippers, to their credit, battled back, and controled the game for most of the final 3 quarters. So that's good.
The defense was once again pretty good. It wasn't really the defense that let them down in the end.
The offensive execution for the final 5 minutes was nightmarish. I knew it was bad, but I didn't realize until I looked at the play-by-play just how bad. The Clippers got one field goal and a total of three points over the course of the final 5 minutes. And the one field goal was an insanely difficult Baron Davis fadeaway. He had no business taking it, as evidenced by the result the next time down the floor, when he took it again and hit the side of the backboard. They also committed four turnovers in those final 5 minutes.
So let's go back and say that the defense was better than pretty good. It was easily good enough to win. Especially when you consider that Philly's last 5 points were highly unlikely: an Andre Miller three (the guy makes about 5 a SEASON) and the game-winner from Brand on a horrible possession where Iguodala almost lost the ball about 5 times.
Mobley's absence clearly hurt tonight. Eric Gordon and Ricky Davis were each 1 for 5 (though Gordon did do a good job of getting to the line where he was 5 for 6). Gordon, rightly, got the lion's share of the minutes even though Ricky got the start. But defensively, although EJ shows a lot of promise, he's still got a long way to go. He's way to anxious, which shows in the way he bites on pump fakes. And Andre Iguodala schooled him a couple of times in the game, including for a crucial and-one with 2:30 to go. He's going to get better - but the Clippers win this game if Mobley is there.
Thaddeus Young is a monster. I find it fascinating when Mike Smith kept talking about how they don't run plays for him. Here's an idea - RUN A PLAY FOR HIM! He's really good. They're clearly underutilizing him.
Marreese Speights looks pretty special too. So it's interesting - the Sixers spent, what? $200M or something on Brand and Iguodala and Lou Wiliams this off-season. And the guys who look like they might actually be pretty good are a couple of rooke contract guys.
I'm not sure why MDsr has gone to Hart ahead of Taylor again at the point. Maybe, with Gordon getting so many minutes, he just can't bear to have an all-rookie backcourt. Maybe given Philly's desire to run, he didn't want Taylor - whose strength is pushing the tempo - playing into their hands. But Jason Hart is terrible. His jump shot is painful both in the mechanics and in the results. He missed a 12 footer by 3 feet in this game. Hart was minus 9 in 10 minutes of play. And the Clippers lost by 1. Ouch.
By the way, that's two seasons in a row that MDsr has said that he wants to be a running team, and then come out and done nothing remotely resembling up tempo. I'm beginning to think he's misleading us on that one.
Al Thornton was really good in the game. I didn't notice until I looked at the box score, but Al played all 48 minutes. I was wondering about the three spot in the wake of the trade. If Ricky's already getting more minutes than he deserves at the two, the who gets the backup minutes at the three? I guess the answer is, no one. At any rate, one wonders why the Clippers didn't get him the ball down the stretch.
Baron Davis is still not right, for whateer reason. He had seven turnovers in the game, and was unable to provide what we said he was brought here to do: create scores down the stretch of close games. Like I said, he made one insanely difficult fadeaway, but the ball was in his hands five straight possessions, and the Clippers never once got a good look out of it.

That's three games now this season that have come down to a final possession in regulation, and the Clippers have lost all three. Lost opportunities.

Mobley and Thomas for Randolph

2008-11-21T21:55:39Z

The details, according to Ramona Shelburne, are more or less as we suspected. Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas to the Knicks in exchange for Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins.

When you begin the season 1-9 and are scoring 90 points a game, it's not unusual to make a move. It's what most franchises would do, and frankly, there's a part of me that's very happy that the Clippers were unwilling to accept their slow start. You don't want to panic, but as a long time Citizen of Clips Nation, panic is preferable to their usual ineffectual complacency.

Having said that, I think that the trade value would only have increased for Mobley and Thomas as 2010 got closer. And I'm just not sold that the team got maximum value in this deal. I was pretty convinced that the Knicks were going to have to package the guy with a pick or an asset like David Lee to get rid of him. They said over the summer that they thought they could raise his value by showcasing him in D'Antoni's offense. If that was their plan, it worked perfectly, with the Clippers playing the part of 'yokel rube.'

Zach Randolph is a statistical monster. But he's never been a winner. Of course, Elton Brand's never been a winner either. EB managed to miss the playoffs every year but one, but he was a nice guy, volunteering in the community and making movies in the off season. Z-Bo spent most of his time volunteering in strip clubs.

Here's what's really interesting: the Clippers now have four players on their roster that have, at one point or another, put up all star worthy numbers. In addition to those four, they have second year player Al Thornton and rookie Eric Gordon who both appear to have star potential. There's no lack of talent on the roster.

Obviously we were concerned about chemistry before. There are two ways to look at this trade in that context. Maybe it makes the chemistry experiment all the more likely to blow up in the test tube. Or maybe the situation was already so volatile, that it doesn't much matter that were tossing in another radioactive element. Only time will tell on that one.

Mardy Collins? They guy who laid out JR Smith setting off the Knicks-Nuggets brawl? Really? Why is he in this deal?

Last thought: bearing in mind, as Citizen John R has always pointed out, that mega super stars (like LeBron James or Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire) are unlikely to sign with the Clippers - partly because of their reputation, deserved or not, partly because they are unlikely to look much like a title contender as soon as 2010 - maybe this isn't such a bad idea, even from a forward looking standpoint. Before, you had Thomas, Mobley, Camby, Ricky all expiring in 2010 - you get a ton of cap space, but can you use it? Now, you still have Camby and Ricky (combined $13M in salary) expiring in 2010, and Z-Bo ($17M... ouch, that hurt just typing it) expiring the next year. Basically, you've got major trade chips for a year longer.