I'll bring the oranges if you bring the Capri Sun.

Whether it is Magic, Larry, Michael, Hakeem, Duncan, Wade or LeBron, the teamw with the best players do the best.

The Clippers, even when healthy, fall slightly short of this.  Without EB, forget it.  Maggette is not a playmaker.  His success is contingent on so many variables, including the mood of the guys in stripes.  That is not a good place to be.  

And as far as Kaman goes, even Tim Duncan would struggle offensively if he had NOBODY to kick it out to when he is doubled.  

2005-2006's success came down to EB being one of the best players that year, and Sam being a playmaker who could hit big shots.  The Clippers have not had that two man combo healthy since then.

As for me, I sure prefer when the Clips win, but all I really ask for and can expect is a good effort.  Because as any longtime Clipper fan knows, that may be all you get.

--Richie Frahm.  Great start, solid finish.  Not sure what happened to him at the start of the 3rd quarter, when it would have been helpful for him to get a few shots and hit them.  But it may be that Toronto realized that somebody should guard him.

Frahm's presence on the court and in the starting lineup raises a few questions.  With Calderon seeming pretty dangerous and MD not quite ready to make Dickau the starting PG, at least MD recognizes that he can't start Knight and Ross together.  This is a pretty big problem.  And it should be noted that starting Frahm worked out pretty well.  

It seems like a logic game, and the weird part is that it starts from a negative proposition:  it seems like MD would prefer to play Knight-Ross, but he knows it won't work.  So you end up with Knight-Frahm and Dickau-Ross.  It's only after 20 minutes with a total of 7 baskets in the second half that he goes to Dickau-Frahm.  Just an observation, and of course Calderon hit a big basket driving on Dickau.

With the Frahm necessity/experiment off to a quick start, MD played him until deep in the 2nd period (maybe he thought he was Mobley).  By not taking Frahm out earlier, he wasn't going to go back to him in the latter half of the second period.  I'm trying to keep in mind the fact that we're talking about Richie Frahm her, but he seemed to be a guy who could actually hit a shot.

That gets us to the other rotation.  Thomas/Maggette go out, and Davis/Thornton come in.  You know I want to see Davis get minutes instead of Thomas, although Davis has looked horrible 80% of the time he has been playing, so even I am losing faith.  But I don't think it's helping that he comes in with Thornton and Maggette goes to the bench.  I'm not exactly excited about Thornton's recent play either.  I know he needs to play and he's going to make mistakes, but in the past couple of games he doesn't even look like he has the potential to be any good.  He's obviously athletic and energetic, but his shot seems pretty funky and he's not producing.  Oh well.  At any rate, should both these guys, who are iffy propositions, be coming in at the same time?  Can't you take out Thomas and go with Kaman-Davis-Maggette for a couple minutes, then bring in Thornton, and then bring back Thomas and give Kaman his 2 minute rest?  Part of the problem is that Kaman-Davis-Thornton puts extra scoring pressure on Kaman, which he doesn't need at this point.

And then, in the 2nd half, all of these factors leads to classic Clipper comedy in the performance of Josh Powell.  It's actually refreshing, because when you see Powell on the court it shows just how bad and beat-up the Clippers are at this point, and it's like he's a throwback to the old days of the Clipper Follies.  Powell's energetic and thoroughly hapless minutes were old school Clipper funk.  As he kept tipping the ball or getting his hands on it but never quite grabbing it, Ralph commented that he did that a lot during the preseason, he would get his hands on a lot of balls but not really come up with them.  Like so many other things this year, it makes you appreciate Kaman and his ability to grab actual rebounds.

And so, for the second game in a row, somehow when the game was tight in the fourth quarter, MD decides that now is the time to throw deerlike Josh Powell out in front of the headlights.  I have to mention that I take back everything I ever said about the Clips not needing Aron Williams on the team, although it's pretty amazing that he's injured too.  What happened to him--how did he hurt his wrist?  Not having Williams available was a pretty significant problem last night.

MD also doesn't seem to realize that he can play Thomas at SF and Maggette at SG.  Rather than Davis/Thornton/Ross, it is at least theoretically possible to play Davis/Thomas/Thornton/Maggette.  What I'm trying to say is that there are definitely options, and it's not absolutely necessary for Josh Powell to play his first significant minutes of the season in the 4th quarter of games that the Clippers have a chance to win.

At any rate, Maggette and Kaman were both subpar and then some in the 2nd half last night.  As good as Kaman has been, Maggette keeps failing to take advantage of his opportunity to step up and play his best basketball.  As we now have new Kaman and old Kaman, there's good Corey and bad Corey, and new Kaman is wearing down and pressing while playing alongside bad Corey for too many stretches.  Last night Maggette looked very little like the corporal trying to hold the fort until EB gets back, and much more like the guy who can't wait to get away from Dunleavy.  With all of the injuries (crucial Aron Williams injury!) none of this is surprising.  

Welcome back, Follies.        

            G GS MIN   FGM-A  FG% 3PM-A 3P% FTM-A FT% OFF DEF TOT STL BLK TO  PF   AST PTS
Season 25 25 33.4 156-320 .488 39-92 .424 84-98 .857   1.0  4.8  5.7 .96  .24 1.80 2.36 3.2 17.4