FULLY LOADED CLIPS

It’s not going to be pretty from here on out. The Clippers just have to keep on winning. The playoff race is going to be played on the razor’s edge for the rest of the way and CP3 realizes the Lakers, Grizzlies, and even Vinny Del Negro need not stand in his way. The Clippers are luckily flying under the radar and could be a very sneaky team in the 1st round of the playoffs. Unfortunately however, the Lakers and Grizzlies (their likely opponents) don’t show signs of letting up either. The hottest teams in the Western conference may be the Lakeshow, Memphis, and our very own Clippers.

Next up the Clips face off against the 1st place Thunder on Monday night. It’s a real shame the Clippers have to have a game that tough when they’re pushing for the 3 seed, but as we’ve seen before the Clippers tend to play up or down to their opponents. So perhaps the Clippers will be hardened into playoff steel by the time the season comes to a close. The Clippers certainly have to feel good about being one win from clinching a playoff spot. Playoff tickets are incredibly rare in these parts, so convincing me that we’re actually in the playoffs is going to be a difficult enough task. 

As for today’s game I was impressed in the starters’ resilience, but the bench really left a lot to be desired. Nick Young needs to raise his game now that Mo Williams is back from being injured. Nick Young doesn’t have the pressure to score that he was saddled with while Mo was on the shelf. I really hope he learns to relax and just let the game come to him. The giant red flag in this game was the 12th technical foul Blake “earned” by shooting his mouth off. Blake is a truly great player, but he continues to hurt himself by insisting on berating the refs after nearly every possession. With Blake’s next tech he will be force into a mandatory one game suspension. The Clippers have ABSOLUTELY no room for error, and Blake’s screwing around with the refs. Hopefully CP3 and even the injured Chauncey Billups will sit Blake down and explain to him that he’s hurting the team. Maturity is not this team’s greatest quality, but if they plan on making noise in the playoffs they have to learn to play smart. Right now the smartest thing they can do is keep Blake’s mouth shut.

Next up:

Lakers play Dallas tomorrow

Memphis has Utah tonight

Clippers face Thunder on Monday

Let the chaos ensue, go Clippers!

The final minute of the game told the whole story of the Clippers’ inadequacies. The Clippers couldn’t stop the Grizzlies and they couldn’t create high quality shots on the other end. The Clippers were down 5 with less than a minute to go and Randy Foye had the ball at the top of the key. In this situation the ONLY shots that should be attempted are 3 pointers and very high percentage lay up range 2’s. Randy dribbled around wasting precious seconds, then penetrated the lane, then retreated and fired up a fade away 19 footer. EVEN if the ball goes in, he wasted 10 to 15 seconds. The Clippers would be down 3 and forced to foul. Most NBA players can make at least 1 out of 2 from the line, which would again make the game a two possession ball game and the Clips would find themselves in the exact same situation they were in but with half the time on the clock. 

High school and college coaches talk about leadership and basketball IQ all the time in their most cliched sort of way. I’m not really sure what sort of leadership you’re expecting to get from a junior varsity sophomore, but in the NBA it could actually make a difference. The NBA is the top of the top when it comes to athletes, so usually quickness and skill can be neutralized to some degree. That’s where leadership and intelligence can trump the lock down defenses of the 4th quarter. Chris Paul is one of the best if not the best in the game at finding a way to get a quality shot down the stretch. His mixture of penetration kick outs and dribble drive lay ups confound the defenses and really open the floor for his teammates. The good part of success is that it breeds confidence. The bad part of success is that it gives confidence to guys that shouldn’t be playing the leadership role. Randy Foye is an asset. But he is only and asset on the wing knocking down clutch 3’s when the clock is running down. 

Randy Foye and Eric Bledsoe have really raised their levels of play lately, and we’re all very pleased. Yet, time and time again we find them taking the game into their own hands and recklessly driving the lane. These drives typically result in a wild shot or an offensive charging foul. The idea of closing your eyes and running into the paint praying for a foul is not what I’d call smart basketball. Chris Paul makes dribble penetration look easy because he’s so good at it, but effectively driving the lane at his height is something that only 4 or 5 guys in the entire league can do. 

The Spurs are successful year in and year out because their coach makes sure that every player knows their roles. When roles are defined players don’t get confused. When players aren’t confused, they end up in the proper positions. When players are in the proper positions, high quality possessions ensue. Lots of fans look at Spurs players thinking, “if only we had that guy, our guys never make that shot”. Truthfully, it’s not that Spurs players are any better than the guys on the Pistons, but that they know their roles and their positioning has given them open looks at the basket.

The Clippers on the other hand have become a two faced offense. They are calm, under control, and effective when Chris Paul is running the point. But the few minutes per game that Paul has to rest on the bench sends the team into their “oh, FUCK!” offense. The OF offense usually involves point guard or two guards isolating until the end of the shot clock then heaving an ill advised 20 footer or passing the ball with 1 second on the shot clock and letting Kenyon Martin miss another line drive 18ft shot. The Clippers have gotten better at the OF offense in late March and April with the emergence of Eric Bledsoe, the revitalization of Randy Foye, and the chipping in of Nick Young and Bobby Simmons, but it’s still not a pretty thing to watch.

The next game is a potential blow out loss @ Oklahoma City. Clipper fans are still waiting around to see when they’ll get Mo Williams back to add a little more punch to the offense and to give CP3 a few more minutes on the bench. Coach VDN has to find the delicate balance of making sure his team is healthy and rested going into the playoffs as well as securing home court advantage in the 1st round. Mo’s going to need a couple of games to get back in the flow before the playoffs begin and the Grizz don’t seem to be going away. So look for the Clips to lose on Wednesday but frantically pull it back together in Minnesota for the final playoff push.

Prediction: OKC 114 Clippers 99

SO THERE WAS THAT.

A word on “The Dunk”

A lot of times people get too excited about the Slam Dunk in basketball as it only counts for two points. Boring, efficient-shooting teams lulled the high flying Clippers into submission last year in route to another playoff-less season. Last night didn’t fall into that category. Sometimes dunks count for more than two points. Sometimes dunks can change the ebb and flow of a game. Sometimes dunks can change the confidence of a player. Sometimes dunks can get a player noticed. And sometimes a Blake Griffin Dunk can disturb the rotation of the earth on it’s axis. Last year when Blake set his testicles on Timofey Mosgov’s head and threw the ball through the cylinder, his career was forever changed. That dunk paved the way for the rookie of the year award, the all-star birth, and eventually a deal to jump over a Korean car during All-Star Weekend. Last night, something happened again. Around 4 minutes into the 3rd quarter CP3 sent a bounce pass to Blake as he had a full head of steam. Seconds later, Blake Griffin and Kendrick Perkins became forever linked. Perkins was widely known and respected around the league as a “tough guy” and many people have blamed the Celtics’ woes on his absence. So when Perkins pushed a airborne Blake Griffin away from the hoop, the natural reaction would be too assume two shots at the foul line and we’ll move on with life. Blake Griffin dunks don’t work that way. To borrow a horrible line from Yakov Smirnoff, “In Soviet Russia, you don’t dunk, Blake dunks you”. Again this was only one play, but the importance of this play has not fully been realized. Is this the play that gels the Clippers team to go on a serious playoff run? The Clippers have been searching for that moment that sheds the Charlie Bucket moniker of “we’re just lucky to be here.” Does Blake finally transform into the hybrid of Karl Malone and Charles Barkley we’ve been hoping for? What happens to Kendrick Perkins? Do Durant and Westbrook not trust their team to the point that they try to score 80 every night and ruin the chemistry? Who knows? We’ll find out as time goes on. Now to the games…

Lots of Billups Left in Clippers Gun: Clips 109 ShitNuggets 105

Sometimes it’s hard for television networks to find something to hype about a late game on a Sunday night in the middle of January, so they come up with some mundane  plot line about a “player’s homecoming”. I guess Chauncey Billups went to Colorado, so it was his turn to hear the fake hype. I’m not sure if the television audience bought it, or even the play by play guys, but the only guy it surely mattered to was Chauncey. Billups scored 32 points and electrified the game with his reckless, yet effective shooting. At times Chauncey can go into “fuck it” mode and just start launching shots from anywhere on the court at anytime on the shot clock; Sunday night was one of those times. Lucky for the Clippers, Billups was on fire. Billups acquired some of that can’t miss mojo that Mo Williams has been walking around with for the last week and proceeded to shoot the will out of the Denver team. This was a huge win for Los Angeles, as the have struggled on the road mightily thus far, and Denver is definitely a team they will be hearing from again. It was another nervous game that Clippers fans never felt good about until the final horn sounded, but a win is a win and Chauncey ain’t done yet.

“Welcome all my friends to the show that never ends, I’m so glad you could attend, step in side, step in side.” -Blake Griffin 

Clippers 112 Thunder 100

I truly don’t believe it would be hyperbole for me to write that this was the single best game I’ve seen the Clippers play this year. The Clippers came out firing on all cylinders, shooting hot and playing good defense, and then settled down to weather the storm. Clippers teams in the past, particularly last year, have made the big highlight reel plays and made runs to get giant 1st half leads, but they’ve never had the intestinal fortitude to hold it together. My mother (a Clips fan) always jokes that the Clippers need to have a 25 point lead going into the 4th quarter to win, because she’s so used to them pissing it away. 

This game was a GREAT game for the Clippers. It will forever be remembered as a Blake Griffin game, but it was a more important game for the rest of the team. This was the game that Caron Butler started to figure out his role and find his shooting touch. This was a game that could vault Mo Williams into winning the 6th man of the year award (he’s got my vote). This was the game that further proved Chauncey could become the perfect 2 guard for the Clippers as his career winds down. And this, THIS, was the beginning of complete CP3 dominance. I’ve made note of the Clippers record this season and been completely pleased and overwhelmed by not staring up from the bottom of the standings, yet I’ve been troubled by the lack of the “wow” factor from CP3 this year. Don’t get me wrong, he’s been brilliant, and he’s played better than any Clipper PG I’ve EVER seen, but where’s the guy some have said is one of the best PGs in HISTORY. Last night, I got to find out. 26 points, 14 assists, and 35 “Kobe” or “Jordan” plays where he wills his team through a possession. In the NBA, plays break down, shots don’t go in, momentum swings, but certain players have the salmon-like ability to swim upstream and drag their whole team with them. Last night, Durant and Westbrook were “on”, but every time the Thunder mounted a charge CP3 took it upon himself to make sure this was NOT going to become a close game. Chris Paul has already changed the culture of losing on this team to such a degree that Ralph Lawler (voice of the Clippers) claimed the game was over with 8 minutes left in the 4th. Mike Smith pleaded with Lawler that the Thunder was the best team in the Western Conference and it was a bit too early to be confident. Lawler persisted: The game was over.