Game #14: PELICANS (8-7) @ LAC (6-7) FRI 11/24, 7:30 PM

KL2 · Post #61 » by **KL2** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 5:34 am

Falling apart in the 4th. Yikes.

HardenGoat · Post #62 » by **HardenGoat** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 5:35 am

I hope I didn’t jinx with the Zion comment. My bad :oops:

KL2 · Post #63 » by **KL2** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 5:37 am

I’d feel better with Leonard and Harden back in but need to buy a few more minutes of rest.

KL2 · Post #64 » by **KL2** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 5:40 am

Zu should be fined every time he passes to PJ.

Oh well. They tried but took the foot off the gas to start the 4th. Rest up for tomorrow cause it could get ugly too.

esqtvd · Post #65 » by **esqtvd** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 5:43 am

KL2 wrote:Cripes. I appreciate the effort Leonard but please dont dive on the floor like that please.

Playoff mode?

Gotta show it ONCE IN AWHILE if the regular season is to mean anything.

And this is an IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT GAME, lol. An extra HALF-MILLION dollars for all our G-Leaguers on the bench.

Leadership. Teamwork. :wink:

ERClips · Post #66 » by **ERClips** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 5:44 am

Hated Russ’s minutes tonight. He blew it in the 4th and earlier too

esqtvd · Post #67 » by **esqtvd** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 5:50 am

KL2 wrote:Zu should be fined every time he passes to PJ.

Oh well. They tried but took the foot off the gas to start the 4th. Rest up for tomorrow cause it could get ugly too.

Yah. That was pathetic. But he tried.

Both Zu and PJ clustered together one foot from the basket. Spacing. Maybe we can fit another body or two in there. Like the olden days. 10 guys in the paint lol.

KL2 · Post #68 » by **KL2** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 5:53 am

Leonard (1-7), PG (4-11), and Hardens (1-6) 3 ball tonight was stinky.

That’s twice PG tried to poster someone.

nickhx2 · Post #69 » by **nickhx2** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 5:56 am

what a defensive sequence that resulted with our own bucket at 3:17. everyone was engaged and moving on defense, including harden (even if it looked a bit wonky).

nickhx2 · Post #70 » by **nickhx2** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 5:57 am

pg flying too close to the sun and comes up short on the dunk. that's unfortunate

KL2 · Post #71 » by **KL2** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 5:59 am

That was unfortunate and ball game.

The good? Guys fought back when down.

The bad? Took the foot off the gas and Lue with some questionable combos. Shot distribution too.

HardenGoat · Post #72 » by **HardenGoat** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 6:02 am

Painful loss. Ouch

esqtvd · Post #73 » by **esqtvd** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 6:11 am

KL2 wrote:Leonard (1-7), PG (4-11), and Hardens (1-6) 3 ball tonight was stinky.

That’s twice PG tried to poster someone.

Everyone deferring to PG as the off-the-charts scorer. 14-30 for 34 points. Not great, but not why we lost.

I think you're right that it's still the 3-ball. We were #3 38% or so but we shot 31% tonight, and were lower than that most of the game until we hit a few late.

I DO think a lot of them rattled out. We're still a little tight. They are NOT having fun yet. When you're having fun, shtt goes in. :wink:

esqtvd · Post #74 » by **esqtvd** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 6:30 am

HardenGoat wrote:Painful loss. Ouch

Pels worked harder and did their best. We did neither. They deserved to win.

The stats were very equal. Sobering slap in the face. We lost the 4th quarter, 31-23. WINNING TIME. I don't want to hear about stats or coaching.

Anyone in the Clippers rotation should be able to step up and win a game for us at any time. That's the whole point of having 4 HOFers and the highest payroll in NBA history.

Scoundreldays · Post #75 » by **Scoundreldays** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 6:35 am

Win tomorrow and I'll forgive

LamarWho · Post #76 » by **LamarWho** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 6:37 am

ERClips wrote:Hated Russ’s minutes tonight. He blew it in the 4th and earlier too

It's hard to play a guard who can't shoot and blows 90% of his layups in today's league. We were lucky that Norm had a good shooting game tonight.

esqtvd · Post #77 » by **esqtvd** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 6:46 am

nickhx2 wrote:i don't at all see how pj tucker is doing anything good for us right now

He's space-filler and hopefully a minutes-eater. A disappointment so far but a team-high plus+7 and filled 22 minutes tonight.

T-Mann has no stats to speak of either, but his role is the same. The only numbers that matter for these guys are Minutes Played and Plus/Minus. Same as Batum. Theis [21 minutes, 3 points, 4rebs, plus+5] too. That's what "role player" means.

I don't think Tucker will crack the playoff rotation, and no way after once Plumlee makes it back. But if you're going to pay a guy $22 million over the next 2 years as some sort of player/coach to mentor Theis, Diabate, and Kobe Brown, he's gotta see the floor now and then to preserve his NBA cred.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/tuckepj01.html

Roscoe Sheed · Post #78 » by **Roscoe Sheed** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 8:10 am

LamarWho wrote:
ERClips wrote:Hated Russ’s minutes tonight. He blew it in the 4th and earlier too

It's hard to play a guard who can't shoot and blows 90% of his layups in today's league. We were lucky that Norm had a good shooting game tonight.

Sorry to say it because he is busting his ass, but I think Westbrook should be out of the rotation entirely- Bones deserves his minutes

Clemenza · Post #79 » by **Clemenza** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 8:51 am

Just an old team. No athleticism and no youth is being played with the Big 3/4. With 4 games in 6 nights, is Ty going to open up that bench or is the AARP Gang going to get ran into the ground?

Dynamix · Post #80 » by **Dynamix** » Sat Nov 25, 2023 9:33 am

As I said before, Russ still does things out there that I appreciate, and obviously he had to make the biggest adjustment after the Harden trade (other than you know, Bones being completely out of the rotation), but if he keeps forcing shots and missing layups, we're going to start seeing John Wall comparisons really soon.

Actually thought PJ looked good in the first half, he can definitely bother some larger guys more than Terance, but that offense is so rough with him and Zu (who was also quite decent) sharing the floor. He had an ugly miss from 3 when we were still up by 6, and it was all downhill from there.

And say what you will about Norm's value around the league, but the guy looks like our most consistent/efficient scorer right now, despite coming off the bench. This would've been a blowout from beginning to end without him stepping up.

We simply need at least 2/3 stars to bring it every night if we want to compete with playoff teams. At least we keep fighting back in most of our losses, so it's not all bad, but at some point you have to start winning these.

I already had our next game against Portland (12/12) circled on my calendar since the previous losing streak started. In all seriousness, we have that and two other somewhat winnable games for the rest of the year, the frisky Hornets and the Grizzlies, who already beat us and will have Ja back by then. Maybe we could also split that early December two-parter against Golden State, beat the Knicks at home or outscore Indiana on the road. But that's still just 6/15 games, with all the rest sending shivers down my spine. And then January won't get any better.

Whatever questions there are about this team, they're probably going to be answered within the next two months, one way or another.

And this also happens to be the healthiest we've ever been to start a season in the 213 era. Talking about the main rotation, no offense to Plumdog and BBJ. I still want to sleep at night, so maybe it's best not to entertain any (very likely) scenarios about Kawhi/PG/Harden missing significant time.

Take away all the billions, and I really wouldn't want to be Ballmer right now, because you know he thinks about all this too from his courtside seat. Add the new arena, uncertainty about the contracts for the three stars plus coach, several other younger teams on the come up, some of which even own our picks, and yeah, I'd be pretty bummed out.

But hey, it's always darkest before the dawn, right? Let's just hope it's not an Alaskan night.

Go Clippers!