Wow.
Look, I'm sure it's really tough to get motivated to play against a Warriors team with three guys who were in the NBDL, two 20 year olds, one guy who wasn't supposed to make the team and Baron Davis. But c'mon. Lack of motivation is one thing - giving up 109 points to these guys is yet another.
The Clippers got a career game from Quinton Ross on BOTH ends, had EB go 11-13, saw Sam make 3 third quarter threes and STILL only won by six.
This team is in more trouble than I thought. I don't know what it is. But the team is just not good. Consider this: the Clippers are 18-21 and five of the wins (tonight, Boston, at NOOCH, at Miami and at Houston) just flat shouldn't count because the opposing team was decimated. So they're 13-21 against, you know, NBA competition.
I'll tell you this much - if I were facing the Clippers any time soon, I'd play a zone against them. Cuttino Mobley can't make a jump shot, Corey Maggette can't make a jump shot... if the Clippers didn't have 'the unstoppable Quinton Ross' tonight, where would they be? The Clippers attack against the zone appears to be approximately as sophisticated as the one me and the other schlubs use down at the Jewish Community Center Sunday mornings. Pass the ball around the perimeter and somebody shoot.
I don't want to talk about this game anymore.
I do have a couple of broadcasting notes:
- During the analyst swap in the third quarter (like some sort of sick key party in the commentator suburbs), Jim Barnett described Q as the best defender in the NBA at staying in front of his man. I sometimes wonder if we over value Q because we see him every day, and we hear the glowing quotes from MDSr, and perhaps Ralph and Mike aren't objective, etc. But it certainly seems to me that Q is worthy of Bowen-esque superlatives on the defensive end, and it was nice to hear it coming from an objective observer who watches a lot of basketball.
- I'm working on a drinking game for Clippers broadcasts. It will involve chugging whenever Ralph says 'Bradley Brave'. You don't want to be playing this game the next time the Clippers face the Warriors (if O'Bryant is still with the big club) or the Raptors (and Bradley Brave Anthony Parker). Or maybe you do.