Apologies for not having a game thread up for this one, and thanks to Citizen Swagmeister33 for posting one in the FanPosts. I'm nursing a cold and a bad back, and after getting out of bed before 7 to coach ClipperZoe's AYSO team to victory in an 8 AM game, I went back to bed and slept until 5.
I listened to the last three quarters on the radio. Basically, you can't commit 28 turnovers and allow your opponent to shoot 54%. If you do either one of those things in a game, you're usually going to lose. No way you can do both and expect to win.
I don't have much on this game. I will say this... seems like, from Milph's call, that Blake Griffin had a tough game. But you would never know it from the box score, which shows 17 points and 14 rebounds in fewer than 35 minutes. That's a bad game? And in fact, this is why he's going to be so very good. He will never not rebound, no matter what else is going on. He missed at least two dunks in this game - how often is that going to happen? If he makes those, he's at 21 and 14 on 10 for 16 shooting; and he was struggling. It just tells you how high the ceiling is on this guy, when the floor is that high.
One last note: I'd been reading that the NBA was going to track down on the pre-dribble travel, and call it more like they do in FIBA (and how it is in the rule book for that matter). Watching the Spurs game from Mexico City, I felt like there were several times that Chris Kaman should have been called for that - at times he'll do that Texas two step when he starts his move. The didn't call it that night (though they did call it against Rasual Butler at a crucial moment late in the game, when ironically I don't think he actually did it). Chris got called at last twice tonight. If they are truly planning on calling that this year, and they carry through to the regular season, he's going to have to clean up that piece of his footwork. Overall, his footwork is excellent, so I think he can do it, but it's something to watch.