Other, Less Sarcastic, Observations on Clippers-Mavs

by Steve Perrin on Jan 12, 2008 11:27 PM PST in News

Tim Thomas has been outstanding for two games now. In fact, he has hit 75% of his 2 point shots in the last two games (18 for 24). He's 0 for his 5 three pointers in those games. Prior to the last two games, he had taken exactly the same number of two pointers as three pointers on the season - 149 of each. But he's a totally different player when he is taking the ball aggressively to the basket. I'm probably the 8 millionth person to observe that about Tim, starting with a bunch of high school basketball fans in New Jersey, followed by college fans in Philly and elsewhere in the Big East, and NBA pundits from New York to Milwaukee to Phoenix. By the way, Thomas even did a respectable job guarding Nowitzki in this game.
Was it just me, or did the refs have an astoundingly bad game? I get particularly frustrated when refs are suckered into calls by players acting. In the fourth quarter alone, Jason Terry fell down on a Tim Thomas follow shot. What should have been two points and possibly three (since Terry in fact had grabbed Thomas' arm) turned into 1 point for the Mavs on the subsequent technical foul. This was not a difficult call to make.
Seconds later, Juan Jose Barea bated the ref into calling an offensive foul on Dan Dickau.
But there were other strange calls. On a Maggette shot, the original camera angle was right over the shoulder of Jim Clark, the most experienced member of the crew, who had his hand in the air on the shot clearly indicating that the he was awarding the continuation. But no, the other ref waved it off - although I fail to see how one ref versus another can more accurately decide what is ultimately a judgment call. Wouldn't you expect the most experienced guy to make the call? Whatever.
The goal tend called on Dampier was a horrible call - and again, not a difficult call to make.
And exactly how many steps did Nowitzki take before making his pass for the Dampier dunk with 1:48 left in the game? That was a huge no call - it cut the lead from 4 to 2. And I'm sorry, but that was an obvious travel, even by NBA standards.
Not a well-officiated game on either end. Just sloppy.
I guess they really only want Guillermo Diaz as a practice player. I mean, one of two shooting guards on the roster gets poked in the eye 2 minutes into the game, and Diaz still doesn't get off the bench. Of course, Blanket did play 45 of the 46 minutes after Q was hurt.
Speaking of Q, I hope he's OK. We never really got an update on him.
I guess Brevin Knight's leg must be feeling better. He played 24 minute tonight, including all 12 in the fourth quarter. With Sam Cassell breaking out of his slump by hitting 4 of his 8 shots, maybe the Clippers could have used him in the fourth quarter. Just a thought.
Chris Kaman had 5 blocked shots, but missed his double double by one rebound. As I implied in the recap, I sure would have liked to see him get the ball some more (or at all) in the last five minutes.
Those fourth quarter Mobley isos sure worked great against Golden State in the first game of the season and against Chicago in the third game. But for the last 30 games, they've been somewhat less effective. Maybe the team needs another play.
The Clippers actually caught a break for once this season, with Josh Howard unexpectedly missing the game for personal reasons. Fat lot of good it did them.
This game was almost the exact opposite of the Orlando game. The Clippers built a lead. The Mavs came back to tie it. The Clippers immediately run off 14 straight to build the lead back up. The Mavs come back to take a 2 point lead - the Clippers go on a 13-2 run to take a 9 point lead. Of course, the end result was the same for each game.

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still angered at the clippers' so called defense

with a 2 point lead and only seconds left in the game why isn't anybody guarding the 3 point shooters. I mean common, both Jason Terry and Stackhouse were wide open and nobody was even nearby. I know Dirk is there go to guy do you really double him in that situation and leave other 3 point shooters wide open? And please don't get me started on Tim Thomas' missed shot with 7 seconds left on the shot clock or the 2 Maggette missed free throws. What's the point of having Sammy on the team if he's not there to close a game? I just feel much better about the clippers' chances of winning with Cassell on the court in the closing minutes rather than Knight, even if Sammy goes 0 for 25 from the field. It looks like the Clippers are getting ready to trade Sammy by the all-star break.

I think the bottom line is that the clippers are making a sincere effort to try to compete in games but yet at the same time trying to tank games.

by laclipperfan42 on Jan 13, 2008 1:26 AM PST reply actions

Dear small forwards

Please stay with your man if you are defending weak side, especially if they are in the garden spot. Kaman's got it. You can't possibly help. You can only hope to foul them. You open up the most obvious release valve for the play.

You will lose to Phoenix by 40 if you do this tomorrow night.

Stay put.

Sincerely
Clipper Nation

by John R on Jan 14, 2008 10:40 AM PST reply actions

Maybe

Clipper Nation should suggest that MDSr explain that to them. Reality-the Mavs have too many weapons. I wonder how it is that TT didn't know how much time was left. I wonder what the coach had told them . . .

by Jax on Jan 14, 2008 9:09 PM PST up reply actions

Well, he did

Maggette leaving his man open in the corner, and not bothering to close, is not a new situation. He does it constantly. I'm pretty sure I've written about it before here. As I noted at Clipperblog during the game, MDSr got in his face about it. He still did it again. How old is Corey? Didn't he go to Duke? At some point one would expect a basketball player to pick up the basics and display a minimum of situational awareness.

I guess Al Thornton has an excuse in that he's new. He'll be a fitting replacement for 50 indeed.

Its funny, you blame MDSr and accuse me of blaming the players. I think that goes back to that possible racism I mentioned also at Clipperblog. I expect NBA players to be grown men with a minimum level of understanding of their profession. You expect their coach to have to tell them anything. I have wracked my brain to understand why you hold the collective intelligence of the NBA player in such low regard and only one answer keeps coming up.

You say potato, I say potato I guess.

by John R on Jan 14, 2008 9:22 PM PST up reply actions

I guess I hit a nerve

Now I'm a racist, and everything is Corey's fault, blah, blah, blah.

Based on your posts, I'd peg you for a 52-55 year old, angry, disaffected WM. I feel sorry for you.

Didn't say it was MDSr's fault, rather that I was just wondering.

by Jax on Jan 14, 2008 10:34 PM PST up reply actions

Some questions

...since I completely missed this game.

Apparently the Clips played their best game of the year, until the final collapse. What was so great about it? They've been playing well at times, so I'm assuming that they were just doing more of the same, plus Sam Cassell actually made a few shots.

The rotation? In the excitement of Tim Thomas both playing great and also managing to give away the game, it appears he took back his starting spot. Not happy about this. Do we think that MD wanted TT on Dirk because TT is such an awesome defender? It seems Thornton didn't do much--was Thornton bumped down to subbing for Maggs? Is there any hope that Thornton will go back into the starting lineup?

What do we think about Kaman? 6-10, 13 pts, 9 rebounds: I'm sure he played well enough, with his 5 blocks, but he's been below his averages pretty consistently during this stretch of tough games.

On top of that, did anybody read and/or understand the short LA Times story today about Kaman's ADHD misdiagnosis, or did anybody see the Behind the Lines segment that discussed it? The LAT (Abrams) story said that rather than having ADD (scatter-brained, unable to focus, brain moving too slowly?), Kaman's issue turns out to be that his brain is moving too quickly. And so he started doing work over the summer to slow things down, while getting over the problem of feeling like he needed to take a pill (ritalin?) to be normal. The misdiagnosis was clear enough, but the article was very short and didn't describe in any meaningful, intelligible way what is actually going on with Kaman and what he's doing about it.

I remember a mention in one Kaman story going into the season that one of the problems last year was that he was dealing with a personal issue that he wasn't talking about it. Perhaps this psych diagnosis thing is it. At any rate, he seems healthy and vastly improved and he's been playing great.

by zhivclip on Jan 14, 2008 5:48 PM PST reply actions

Answers...

Thomas in the starting lineup, first and foremost, is MDsr's (bad) habit of feeling compelled to allow the other team's personnel to dictate his lineup. He decided that Al could not guard Dirk, therefore he went with Thomas. As you point out, there was no real reason to expect Thomas to handle Dirk, but inexplicably he did a great job on both ends. Go figure.

Continuing the matchup issues, Thornton was indeed reduced to backing up Corey pretty much exclusively. Mobley played 45 of 46 available minutes at the 2 after Q left the game. I think it's entirely possible that Thornton will be the starting 4 against smaller 4's. The irony in this case of course is that Dirk is susceptible to smaller defenders. But not rookies, I suppose.

Thomas has played incredibly well for two games in a row. It won't last. He's been in the league for 10 years. He played well enough at one point to get a maximum contract. But he is who he is, and he'll revert. It's a shame. When he is aggressively taking the ball to the basket, and focused on defense, he's a pretty damn good ball player.

TureHoop posted an ESPN.com video of the Kaman OTL thing. I don't know if it's the entire thing. I've set the TiVo to record the upcoming OTL's, but I don't know if they'll show it again or not.

Kaman's been off the Ritalin for awhile because he didn't like the way it made him feel. This doctor, Tim Royer, used biofeedback to allow Chris to see when his brainwaves were accelerating too much, so he could learn to control them. Chris seems pretty much sold on what it's done for him, to the point where he is advocating strongly.

by Steve Perrin on Jan 14, 2008 6:36 PM PST up reply actions