RD 1 GAME #6: LAC [2-3] @ MAVS [3-2]—FRI 5/3 6:30 PM, ESPN

[Scoundreldays]

Let PG walk please he will fit perfectly choking with Embiid

[PeteyPablo]

Resign Harden ?

Pick up a free agent big man ?

[esqtvd]

Ty [and Kidd] leaving their starters in until the nubs for a gentlemen's blowout. We were never in this one.

[esqtvd]

Let PG walk please he will fit perfectly choking with Embiid

Embiid actually scored 39/13 last night.

[MartinToVaught]

At this point of time, how does anyone ask why Lue is not making sensible coaching decisions?

Nobody bothers because when they try, he just says "I don't know" or "I forgot" or "I just felt like it." And then he keeps his job, because this franchise doesn't care enough about winning to hold anyone to a standard.

[LamarWho]

New FO, new coaching staff. Until then good luck turning this franchise around.

[NickP]

New FO, new coaching staff. Until then good luck turning this franchise around.

I’d be perfectly fine with a rebuild. There’s no point crying over the OKC trade anymore. It’s done. See what we can get for PG in a sign and trade and what other pieces we can move. Get a decent guy in the FO and start with a whole new coaching staff.

[KL2]

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[HardenGoat]

Would have won with a healthy Kawhi. Losing your best player is just too much to overcome in the playoffs. Unfortunately you have to take the injury risk he represents, every team would sign him given the chance. I think he’s in the top 3 when healthy. I hope you keep Harden. Not sure how many years he has left in him but he looked healthy all year. Still an elite passer that can win a couple games.

[LamarWho]

New FO, new coaching staff. Until then good luck turning this franchise around.

I’d be perfectly fine with a rebuild. There’s no point crying over the OKC trade anymore. It’s done. See what we can get for PG in a sign and trade and what other pieces we can move. Get a decent guy in the FO and start with a whole new coaching staff.

Not crying about the OKC trade at all. We'll never develop any young players under Lawrence Frank and Ty Lue. They will keep on bringing in old washed players like PJ Tucker.

[nickhx2]

Obviously a disappointing game because it's not like the game was unwinnable. But after coming to life in the 2nd, the team pretty much sealed its own fate in the 3rd with self-inflicted wounds, just like in the previous game.

Disappointing end to the season because of how much hope we had early on, and one can't help but wonder how things might have turned out if injuries didn't send this team off the rails by the ASB.

Personally, for me, i can't say i'm too, too miffed about it all because i quietly lost faith in the team some time ago based of how many silly losses we accumulated despite having superior talent (even on nights our guys weren't so injured). And if you can't beat who you're supposed to, how are you gonna beat the best teams in the league? But on top of that, we struggled against the upper tier teams way too often to make me ever think "nobody will stand in our way with good health."

...and as it played out, it was all moot anyway. You just aren't gonna achieve big things with your best player not just out, but also sinking your team in two PLAYOFF games. you aren't gonna achieve anything at all with your role players not even remotely resembling what they did earlier in the season. And you certainly aren't gonna achieve anything when your top two guys aren't turning on the flamethrowers the way they needed to just to keep us in the series.

I feel for paul george because in the past he's expressed issues with not being fully locked in because he's in his own head about things, and mental health is just as important as physical health. And from a competitive standpoint i know what it's like to feel like you're drowning when things aren't going right. But if your 2nd best player folds too easily under pressure, you're not gonna get a lot of things done.

And i say that with my eyes on harden as the team's best player (sans kawhi), but he wasn't all there, either. As i was watching the game i was just thinking "the system isn't looking very system-y" and while i want to give credit to dallas for their terrific defense and their commitment to taking paul george out of his comfort zone, the team just looked out of sorts for most of the game on offense and james harden wasn't doing a lot to make things happen. I won't blame that solely on him though, as the team piled up way too many killer mistakes and i think that took the wind out of their sails. Dallas's defense did work, i think both straight up and psychologically (way too many times we had guys throwing time bombs to each other hoping to bail each other out), and the "system's" offense never found its way.

WIth both those guys pretty meh the last two games, you're not gonna do well, but that's where the rest of the team comes in with stellar defense and role players stepping up (ideally). But, man, that just did not happen at the level we needed it to. Meanwhile all i ever heard on the broadcasts was "lively this, washtington that, jones jr this" lol. Dallas made great additions at the deadline and while i thought our guys were pretty good during the season, they fell off while the mavs role players ramped up. I mean, russell westbrook and mason plumlee were supposed to give us some super depth and they were horrible. Norm powell never entered normal power mode once. Amir coffey's supposed to be someone who's typically solid all around and he just didn't have impact. So what are you gonna do when your critical subs don't do anything good?

I'm sure plenty of people will disagree with me on PG and/or harden coming back next season but given we have kawhi for 3 more years, i think we need both those guys back. Like, we don't have assets, we don't have money to do anything, so we kinda need to keep going all in, and it is what it is. But we can revamp the guys around them by integrating bones/brown, moving away from westbrook or at least minimizing his role, and maybe a couple other things that could give us some extra juice. But harden can't be the only playmaker. PJ tucker cannot be playing in any games for us, let alone critical playoff games. Playoff kawhi would have changed just about everything, at least i'd like to think. but he wasn't there and it's not his fault (one wonders how things might have changed if not for joe ingles crashing in to kawhi on a random foul), but my optimism for him being a valuable playoff performer just continues to dwindle.

I suppose the good news is the org cares and is willing to make changes to be competitive. Ballmer's obviously willing to spend the money and this is not an organization that scapegoats and misplaces blame on the wrong people (look at the lakers with vogel/ham despite them continually surrounding lebron with ill-fitting trash). We have a little bit of wiggle room if some of the young guys can improve (of course that'll be on lue to actually play them, if he even returns), and the team has typically found ways to make resources appear out of nowhere so, maybe good things happen?

We'll see. Until then, time to start rebuilding hopes (like always) that we get a fully healthy kawhi et al. next season!

[KL2]

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[Bobbymcgee]

As soon as Leonard went out with injury the remainder of the season became pointless.

Everyone gets another free pass because Leonard was injured again and unavailable for the playoffs. The good old proverbial "what if?" that has become synonymous with the 213 era Clippers.

Better yet, the Clippers are going to reward all of them with new contracts this off-season because why the hell not. They already gave Leonard his early for whatever reason.

A minimum of three more years of this to look forward to as Clippers fans. Are we having fun still?

[KL2]

It’s not rocket science. Sweet mercy. Health goes a long way sure but you gotta have balance too.

You can’t expect to win with the oldest team in the league and not have some athleticism and youth to compliment the vets.

The FO and coach have such disdain for it though. Talk about not reading the room and understanding how the game has changed.

We have some decent pieces to work with in Jones, Brown, Miller, Bones, and Boston. But they can’t sniff the floor because reasons.

[KingCrimzzon]

Would have won with a healthy Kawhi. Losing your best player is just too much to overcome in the playoffs. Unfortunately you have to take the injury risk he represents, every team would sign him given the chance. I think he’s in the top 3 when healthy. I hope you keep Harden. Not sure how many years he has left in him but he looked healthy all year. Still an elite passer that can win a couple games.

Isn't that why you have 4 HoFers? One goes down and 3 are left what is the league going to do? It's almost as if those other 3 guys are more washed than in their HoF primes. Or maybe they're playing to their HoF form in the playoffs? Remember when LAL boasted all their HoFers (Melo, Westy, LeBJ, AD) didn't make the playoffs.

[KingCrimzzon]

New FO, new coaching staff. Until then good luck turning this franchise around.

I’d be perfectly fine with a rebuild. There’s no point crying over the OKC trade anymore. It’s done. See what we can get for PG in a sign and trade and what other pieces we can move. Get a decent guy in the FO and start with a whole new coaching staff.

I remember when they traded for PG I was like "why did they give them SGA too"? He would have just what 213 needed. But the again he may have been stunted by them and the org probably trades him away at some point. I need a rebuild. I want some picks and I want to see some young players get a real chance. I would blow it all up. Get a war chest of picks, get some hold me over vets to trade at the deadline for more picks would be great. Tank 3-5 years, draft well, payoff the OKC debt and maybe one day have something that doesn't feel like the franchise is being held hostage by washed vets and a lame veteran cowtowing coach.

[esqtvd]

Would have won with a healthy Kawhi. Losing your best player is just too much to overcome in the playoffs. Unfortunately you have to take the injury risk he represents, every team would sign him given the chance. I think he’s in the top 3 when healthy. I hope you keep Harden. Not sure how many years he has left in him but he looked healthy all year. Still an elite passer that can win a couple games.

Exactly. Having watched/enjoyed/been appalled at Beard's stay in Philly, it was clear he came here to be #3. #2 was too much pressure--in Philly, and here in LA.

Look, the Mavs still had their #1 in Luka. We didn't have ours in Kawhi. The Luka-Kyrie experiment was under far more pressure and beat PG-Beard.

Kyrie had a superstar game.

Code: Select all

42min   11-19   5-9 3pt    3-5FT   6 reb   4 asst   2 stl   2blk      +22   30pts

And despite holding Doncic to 9/26 shooting, he still went for 28/7/13. No Clipper scored more than 18, even with the Mavs giving us garbage points in the 4th.


Don't even talk to me how playing Tucker killed us or the G-Leaguers would have played any better than Mann or Coffey. The answer was not at the bottom of the roster.

Their #1 and #2 beat our number #2 and #3. End of story.

[Clemenza]

I know Teflon Kawhi will get his usual pass and everyone will rip PG and Harden to death, but really... PG and Harden got locked the f*ck up out there. DJJ, PJ Washington locked down on PG and if he got past them Gafford and Lively were waiting in the paint to snuff his sh*t. I know they're supposed to be stars and they're paid like it and whatever, but it was too much for them to really compete out there. Of course they needed Kawhi, that goes without saying. But they needed some power forward play, an athletic big to help them out, some more scoring from the guard position outside of Harden.

Not sure where we go from here. If Philly is offering PG the max I would take it if I were him. Of course LA is the destination, but playing the security blanket and scapegoat for Kawhi sitting out every post season has to enough at this point. Take the max and play 3rd option backing up Embiid and Maxey in an easier Eastern Conference. I guess Harden resigns. If PG is out would Kawhi want out as well? He'd have to take on all the heat and face the fire without his shield PG around. I like Russ but has to be out. There's no way he's playing over Bones next season if he's still on the team. Zu needs to demand for more touches and more looks in the offense. He deserves it. Not sure what to make of Coffey at this point. I think Norm gets moved if PG stays. I see BBJ getting resigned on a cheap team friendly deal. Kobe Brown and Kai Jones might can become something. Jordan Miller, Moussa, not sure. It was fun, but not really.

[nickhx2]

I know Teflon Kawhi will get his usual pass and everyone will rip PG and Harden to death, but really... PG and Harden got locked the f*ck up out there. DJJ, PJ Washington locked down on PG and if he got past them Gafford and Lively were waiting in the paint to snuff his sh*t. I know they're supposed to be stars and they're paid like it and whatever, but it was too much for them to really compete out there. Of course they needed Kawhi, that goes without saying. But they needed some power forward play, an athletic big to help them out, some more scoring from the guard position outside of Harden.

Not sure where we go from here. If Philly is offering PG the max I would take it if I were him. Of course LA is the destination, but playing the security blanket and scapegoat for Kawhi sitting out every post season has to enough at this point. Take the max and play 3rd option backing up Embiid and Maxey in an easier Eastern Conference. I guess Harden resigns. If PG is out would Kawhi want out as well? He'd have to take on all the heat and face the fire without his shield PG around. I like Russ but has to be out. There's no way he's playing over Bones next season if he's still on the team. Zu needs to demand for more touches and more looks in the offense. He deserves it. Not sure what to make of Coffey at this point. I think Norm gets moved if PG stays. I see BBJ getting resigned on a cheap team friendly deal. Kobe Brown and Kai Jones might can become something. Jordan Miller, Moussa, not sure. It was fun, but not really.

you make a lot of good points that i agree with. i'm not one of those "bUt tHeY hAve To bE bETTer" guys and i think we're gonna see that a LOT over the coming days/week/months. but both those guys were bombarded from start to finish, and the reason it worked, as you say, is because we didn't have enough reliable help to give to them. they got pressured from series start to finish and the mavs gameplanned them well. PG wants to be coming off of screens, pin downs, curls, and instead he was the one finishing possessions with 5s left on the clock which is like the opposite of that. james harden wants to be throwing sick passes every which way and using timing and moves to take really confident step back 3's, and he didn't look comfortable tonight doing much except driving the paint.

if harden/PG stay, the team needs some major reshaping and that involves integrating the youth while almost certainly moving away from westbrook. here's hoping that at least one of those guys turns into something reliable.

[nickhx2]

btw i would anticipate the team being curfewed up and responsible and everything for today, but with PG's birthday being yesterday i do wonder if maybe they were out doing things they weren't supposed to be doing.