Magic 110 - Clippers 88

by ClipperSteve on Mar 12, 2008 8:13 PM PDT in News

The 22 point margin of victory is about what I expected in this game when I found out that Chris Kaman was not going to be able to play. But the game took something of a circuitous route to get there.

I predicted a 30/20 for Dwight Howard in the absence of anything resembling a center on the Clippers' roster. And indeed Howard opened the game with 14 points and 9 rebounds in the first quarter. And then he only managed 8 points and 4 rebounds the rest of the way. He also turned the ball over 7 times. By the way, he's got some of the worst footwork this side of Michael Olowokandi. He travels pretty much every time he makes a move, not that the officials call it. The guy is one of the most dominant players in the league already - if he ever develops a game he's going to be unstoppable.

So it wasn't really Howard making the difference after the first quarter. So then you figure it's three point shooting, since the Magic are near the top of the league there. Well, they did get white out from beyond the arc in the third quarter, making 7 threes in that quarter alone. But despite the barrage, the Clippers actually won the third quarter by a point. And the Magic only made 4 others threes on the game, and finished a lackluster 11 for 30. So that wasn't really the difference maker either.

Rebounding would be another area where you expect the Clippers to get killed without Kaman. But a 38-32 margin isn't that big a deal - especially when you consider that the Clippers missed a lot of shots that turned into Magic rebounds.

In the end, although the Magic were anything but today, the Clippers were nowhere near good enough to win. Aside from Cat Mobley, no one had a particularly good game on offense. The team shot 41%, Maggette scored 20 in the first half but managed only 2 in the second, and Thornton was 8 for 24 - 24 shots in 35 minutes!

The Clippers have two wins in 11 games this season without Kaman - they beat Atlanta when Thornton went crazy and scored 33, and they beat a Miami team that was marginally more pathetic than they. And that's it. And that seems about right.

He needs to be able to play on this trip if the Clippers want to be competitive.

0 recs | Comment 6 comments

Story-email Email | Print |

Comments

Nice site

I found out about it today... like the layout.

Anyways, I think you're too hard on Howard. He dominated early, we proceeded to double team him and send a ton of defenders at him, and he struggled some. I thought the Clips defenders got away with a lot of contact on Dwight, and on a couple of his travels he was fouled numerous times and the refs didn't call it. He doesn't have a polished offensive game by any means, but he's certainly not in Candy Man land there, either. He can score the rock (hence the 21.8 PPG average).

I think Orlando is an intriguing team because they have two 6'10 shooters in Lewis and Turkoglu, who can also post up and have excellent low post games. You of course have Howard as well, who is just a flat out stud and commands the attention of every defense he faces. PG play and lack of depth could hurt them, but I think they'll win a playoff series before bowing out.

As for the Clips... well, things should get much better next season. I healthy Brand and Kaman, combined with a top draft pick and the return of Livingston, and I can't wait to see what this team is capable of. A Brand/Kaman front court is as good as any in the league, Thornton is only going to get better, and so on and so forth. Personally, I think this team, if everything falls into place, is a 50 win team next season.

by ClipsFan85 on Mar 12, 2008 9:32 PM PDT 0 recs

Welcome

Thanks for stopping by.

Don't get too attached to the layout... it's going to change in the off-season (along with lots more functionality). Stop by Athletics Nation for a preview - that's the first SBNation site to switch over.

BTW, don't judge me by that game recap. We're 63 games into a pretty tough year, and there's just not a lot to say, especially without Kaman last night.

As for Howard, obviously I'm using hyperbole to compare him to Kandi. He's a monster of an athlete, probably the best athlete at that size ever. BUT, his basketball has a lot of room for growth. His footwork is poor, he has no face up game at all. It's all good news for Magic fans - by all accounts he's a hard worker, so he should be able to develop. If Patrick Ewing can teach him a few things, he's just going to get better and better.

And I LOVE Turkoglu. When I first saw him with the Kings, this is how I thought he'd perform. I'm not sure why it took him so long to have this season, but I'm not surprised.

by ClipperSteve on Mar 13, 2008 8:43 AM PDT up 0 recs

Halos Heaven...

I frequent the Angels blog too, and they have also converted. I was going to ask when you were going to switch over too, but you beat me to the punch. Can't wait to see the new look!

BINGOOOOO!!!

by Clip Show on Mar 13, 2008 12:00 PM PDT up 0 recs

Shows how much I pay attention...

I knew Halos Heaven was on the short list, but I didn't know it had happened yet. The goal is to get all the baseball blogs over before the season starts. NBA works the other way - they'll wait until the season is done.

I haven't said anything about it since software releases are always later than you expect. But it's all pretty cool. How do you like the new functionality at HH?

by ClipperSteve on Mar 13, 2008 1:44 PM PDT up 0 recs

The New format...

is a lot easier to work with. There are also a lot of added features that were long over due..such as one account for ALL the blogs you want to be on (instead of one for each blog you want to be on). I am still getting used to it, but I am positive it is a definite upgrade over what we have now...just another thing to look forward to in the off season.

BINGOOOOO!!!

by Clip Show on Mar 13, 2008 2:39 PM PDT up 0 recs