At Least it's Over

by Steve Perrin on Apr 17, 2008 11:40 AM PDT in News Comment 15 comments

During the All-Star Break, I asked in a poll, what you thought the Clippers' record would be in the final 32 games of the season.

At the time, we naively thought Elton Brand would be back for the majority of those games (remember, he had been cleared to run and jump three weeks BEFORE the All Star Break). We also thought Chris Kaman, who had suffered nothing more than a bout with the flu in the first 50 games, would play in all 32. We even hoped that Shaun Livingston would make an appearance in April.

Instead, Livingston played zero games, Brand played a mere 8, and Kaman played in only 11, suffering through calf, back and ankle injuries. In short, a bad injury situation got worse. Add to Brand, Kaman and Livingston various injuries to Tim Thomas, Cat Mobley and ~~Cuttino Mobley~~ Corey Maggette, and the fact that Sam Cassell played only a single game after the All Star Break before being bought out, and you can see that the Clippers, shorthanded though they were in the first 50 when they won 17 games, would think back fondly to the time in the first half of the season that they could field a team that included mostly NBA players.

When I made the poll, with choices of 20 wins, 16, 12, etc, I almost didn't include the final option - fewer than 8. It didn't really seem like a realistic possibility. If the team had managed to win 34% of their games so severely depleted, surely they would win more after the All Star Break, when their injury situation could not possibly become worse!

Well, instead, they won 6. 6 and 26. And, by the way, in case you've forgotten, they won their first two games directly after the All Star Break, including their best win of the season over Utah. Since that Utah win (which, coincidentally was the last game before Kaman went out with back trouble), the Clippers have won only 4 out of 30 games. And the wins could not really be less impressive - Miami (worst record in the NBA); Seattle (second worst); Memphis (tied for third worst); and Sacramento, playing without their two best players.

In fact, no team in the NBA fared worse over their final 30 games. Miami, playing most of that time without Dwyane Wade, managed to win 6 games. Seattle won their final two to drive their total to 6 as well. New York and Memphis each managed 8 wins in their final 30. Minnesota was positively torrid with 11!

So, although it was not without good reason, we should recognize that the Clippers finished the season as the worst team in the NBA. There is clearly much work to be done.

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A Magnificent Tank

You're right, none of us imagined the potential scale of the Clippers' tank job, but all of the planets aligned and it was truly epic.

I feel bad for Brand, who said something like "I really didn't think it was going to be like this." EB's not the kind of guy who takes coming back for 8 games and losing 7 of them, including 6 in a row, very lightly. EB has a ton of pride, as Turiaf and now TMac will tell you.

The key to the epic tank was keeping Brand out for an extra month, which meant he was never on the floor with Kaman. Now is the time to add up those quality losses.

The record is even more impressive when you get off to a quick start with a bunch of victories in the first couple weeks, as we've pointed out before. You think the Warriors would like to trade their first two weeks for our first two weeks right now? All the more reason to create the Warriers/Clippors superteam! Go Warclips!

by citizen zhiv on Apr 17, 2008 12:37 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

And yet, not enough

Despite losing 26 of 30, the Clippers managed to pass exactly no one in the lottery standings. They were 6th at the All Star break - now they're tied for 5th. They got within a single game of third... which would have been pretty sweet.

They really needed to lose that Grizzlies game on 3/29. One loss there would have moved them from a tie for 5th to a tie for 3rd. From 75 ping pong balls to 135.

by Steve Perrin on Apr 17, 2008 1:31 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Seems okay

Call it a make-up for the Clips 06-07 mini-tank so that they could play Denver in the first round, which came at the Grizzlies' expense, I believe. I can live with it, out of respect for that memorable march into the 2nd round--and unless I'm mistaken, the Clips had a "quality loss" against the Grizz earlier in the season, giving away a game that they had no business losing.

So the monumental tank was fruitless and will be unrecognized. Typical. And kind of a huge bummer for us fans, who are presumably at this point down to those of us with a very unhealthy interest in the Clippers. And we didn't get to see players like Fazekas or Williams get significant run, which would have been fun.

What's there on the plus side? Kaman's first half, the whole 2.0 experience. Thornton. Maggette was entertaining for the most part. And we got to see Josh Powell play pretty well. For those of us who were skeptical about Q Ross, we got to see him fail to make a salary/free agent drive, despite regular encomniums from Milph. (Just going to go with that word, not bothering to check. Don't think I have the spelling quite right, and could be completely misusing it. No guts, no glory.) For whatever reason, Josh Powell is not a very exciting or inspiring player, and he's not even that good. Hard to be psyched about shoring up the 14th spot on the roster, but now that it's over there's a pathetic beauty to the whole thing.

And speaking of Milph--we do have that, a superb, instant classic, new shorthand nickname, which contains the amazing potential that they might even start referring to themselves that way at some point, especially since they came up with it themselves--and their encomniastic (!) style, I would have liked to have heard Mike talk to Ralph a little bit about the joys of yet another losing, lottery-bound season of spectacular futility. Ralph went through endless seasons of sheer hapless helplessness, and he perfected the art of jaunty minimalist survival. It used to be fun. Now, with Dunleavy, losing isn't so fun anymore. Josh Powell isn't fun. Fazekas is fun, and Dunleavy didn't play him enough. I suppose Mike paid his Clipper futility dues as a player, but it seems that the team has been evolving within the basic credibility range during his broadcasting tenure. Maybe if I had just accepted Tim Thomas all along as the best the Clips could do, I would have enjoyed the season more, and could have had a good time knowing through the second half that EB was healthy and able to play, but the goal was for the Clips to be brutally bad.

Still, 60 ping pong balls is a lot.

by citizen zhiv on Apr 17, 2008 3:00 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

encomium

yeah, spelled it wrong. damn. "High praise, as in a eulogy"--for Q Ross?

by citizen zhiv on Apr 17, 2008 3:05 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Zepellin covers...

My expectations were pretty high for a Zepellin tribute album featuring the likes of Henry Rollins and Cracker. The presence of Hootie and the Blowfish and Duran Duran had the potential to go either way. I suppose I couldn't help but be disappointed. Still, Tori Amos' version of Down by the Seaside is pretty cool.

by Steve Perrin on Apr 17, 2008 7:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs