FULLY LOADED CLIPS

All you need to know is that Dick Cheney thinks this guy is a fucking asshole.

Today he crawled out of his lair to announce his “faith” in coach Del Negro. Why you ask? Because he’s cheap. He is a miserly cheap bastard that has done to the NBA what he’s done to countless tenants of his real estate empire. He continues to make money or save money without putting a quality product on the market. This year was supposed to be his great olive branch. This was the year he pries open his pocketbook and after letting the moths out and brushing the cobwebs away he’d spend some damn money on some damn talent. It appeared like this was happening. He stole CP3 from the Lakers. He upgraded at the 3 by signing Caron Butler. He picked up Chauncey Billups from and amnesty deal. Things started to feel like they were coming together. But he just sat there staring at Vinny Del Negro. Sure, he knows Vinny sucks, but the buyout cost of his contract, PLUS paying another coach a million+ dollar salary was just over the top. 

So now the team is falling apart (don’t get me started on the last two wins), he crawls out of the slime to publicly announce Vinny’s his guy. Vinny’s own mother doesn’t think Vinny’s the guy. Time and time again analysts have discussed that in this shortened season the entire NBA title is WIDE OPEN. Particularly in the Western Conference where the difference between finishing 4th or 10th is 3 games. 

A lot of guys look back on their lives and remember a time in high school, college, their 20s, whatever, when the girl of their dreams hinted at them that she may have a connection with her admirer. It kills each one of us because we never took that chance to ask the girl out. We were chickenshit. We thought there would be more time. There would be a better time, place, environment, etc. We blew it. We didn’t lose the girl, because that would imply that we had her at one time, we never even found out if we had a chance. It still haunts us all.

The Clippers are staring the girl of their dreams right in the face. Of course, it’s likely that she turns us down and we go home broken hearted, but is it really worth not taking that shot? Our only move at the trade deadline was for Nick Young. Not as bad as doing nothing, but still not earth shattering either. Now we desperately need a leader to coach these young men through the playoffs and the Sith Lord, er I mean owner, is too chickenshit to pay his fucking severance and hire someone with talent. 

Far too often in life men pussy out because of the thought of being rejected only to spend years and years of their life alone with a bottle of Jergens and a box of Kleenex. Judging by the way Mr. Sterling is handling this year, my wrist is already starting to cramp.

Next up: Phoenix. 

There are games of what could’ve been, what should’ve been and what is. This game is what it is. The Clippers are an inexperienced team (save for Chauncey) and 4 quarters of boring (yet intense) playoff basketball is foreign to them. The Lakers were fully prepared to give the Clips their best shot. Kobe has been pissed off all week. Pau was complaining about not scoring. Mike Brown was starting to hear rumbles about his hiring being a mistake. The Lakeshow couldn’t survive a “home” loss to the Clippers on Wednesday night. All of that being said, the Lakers still got lucky. The Lakers shot the ball at a percentage in the 4th quarter that will be hard for them to repeat. Pau got hot. Kobe got real hot. Metta World Peace made his trademark “NOOOOO, YES!” 3pt shot in front of his nervous home crowd. Derek Fisher came back from the dead for 10 minutes or so. For one quarter, everything broke right for the Lakers.

Where do we go from here?

The Clippers have a very difficult February road schedule and they’re going to need to show that they can weather the storm. In truth, the Clippers are in a very good position to make the playoffs and will make many teams nervous in the process. The league seems to be evolving and from what I saw last night teams like the Lakers are getting left behind. The Lakers are tall slow and old. The Lakers’ Jimmy Buss appears to have pushed all of his chips to the middle of the table on the oft-injured Andrew Bynum. Early returns suggest that fast, skilled teams are the look of the future. Kobe can probably beat you in the 4th quarter if you let the Lakers stay too close, but over a 7 game series they won’t be able to out score you. The Mike Brown, defense first experiment will ultimately fail.

As for the Clippers, they NEED flight time. Chris Paul HAS to stay healthy for the remainder of the season. Coach VDN needs to try a little coaching so this team will appear to have an actual half court offense. Blake took a huge step forward last night abusing Pau and continuing to use his low post game to dictate to the defense. Mo Williams has been the most impressive Clipper of the last two weeks, but I’m concerned the Clippers offense is becoming a game of “who’s shooting it well, gets the ball.” Caron Butler had his turn of being the hot shooter last night, and Chauncey launches up 3 to 5 heat check 3’s per game. Chris Paul’s health will be the most important factor this season, because right now the team looks like 5 talented guys that don’t know what they’re supposed to do. Talent can only get you so far. Miami showed last year that without a true offense and a strong coach, the players can get lost in the 4th quarter. With the addition of a hall of fame caliber PG like Chris Paul, the team should eventually figure it out, but it’s gonna take time. The good news is, the Clippers will be a much better team in April then they are in January (if they can stay healthy).

So don’t kill yourself quite yet Clipper fan, but consider it if they lose to the Grizz tonight.