Game 32: Clippers (10-21) vs Magic (22-14)

[SD2042]

These tight games are a bit nerveracking and yet are interesting thrillers.

[ClipperDomination]

Hedo makes both FT's. 11-106 with 12.2 seconds left. Coach Eyen has been doing a great job, so maybe he'll come up with some creative play.

[mkwest]

Game.

[SD2042]

111-106 12 seconds left in play.

[ClipperDomination]

Yet another poorly executed inbounds play, and that is an understatement.

111-106 with 6.2 seconds left. Clipps gave it a good effort.

[SD2042]

That they did with the exception of shooting badly in the first half. hey have to find a way to get over these close game losses. Enough is enough. It's time to grab a win.

[mkwest]

Magic win 113-106. Definitely a game with ups and downs. Turkoglu (a player on 3 of my fantasy teams) was too much for the Clippers tonight 28 points 7 rebounds & 7 assists. Countless times the Clippers demonstrated poor shot selection, careless mistakes that were momentum breakers and changers. Kaman got into foul trouble and sat out much of the 3rd, picked up most of his rebounds in the 5th. Most of the guys had a stretch of strong solid play and a stretch of poor play and decision-making. In the end they came up short but it was entertaining in the runs and comebacks.

[ClipperDomination]

The game comes to an end and the Magic end up winning their first game of the new year winning 113-106.

Anybody notice the trend of how the Clipps tend to go on their runs when a certain someone is not playing? (*cough*maggette*cough*)

Jim Eyen, even though not seeming like he did anything coaching wise, must have done something to change the Clippers attitude during the game. Hell, he did a way better job than Dumbleavy.

Poor shot selection got to the best of us, as always. Mobley and Maggete with their fall away contested 15-20 footers is really starting to irritate me. If you play in LA, don't take that type of shot unless you are a guy named Kobe Bryant.

Mike Smith put it best. They didn't make the right plays at the critical moments. Kaman's foul trouble, poor shot selection, and stupid turnovers, such as Maggete's bad pass to a wide open Knight, kill the Clippers chances of winning games.

Thornton was great, but why didn't he get crunch time minutes?

This is a loss I cannot settle for. We should have had this game, and we were not even in the game in the third quarter.

[JJ LoDuca]

Weird thing is...we lost tonight, and we actually played well overall. We're just not good enough right now to execute and win tight ball games. We had ample opportunities down the stretch to take the lead and build on it, but we didn't. We're just not that good.

[mkwest]

Yep. We had our opportunities late in the game to chip away their lead, take the lead, etc. but bad plays followed. It's like they didn't want to get over the hump. On a positive note the game turned out better than it looked in the first quarter.

[JJ LoDuca]

How frustrated must the players be after battling back from 18 down TWICE only to lose the game in a horrific fashion? Now I know what Sammy Cassell means when he says he's not having any fun. Neither am I.

[adiedanny]

How frustrated must the players be after battling back from 18 down TWICE only to lose the game in a horrific fashion? Now I know what Sammy Cassell means when he says he's not having any fun. Neither am I.

I know he is clutch but when you are in a slump give the ball up to somebody else. Kaman should have had at least 6-8 more touches.

[mkwest]

Sam needs get out of the poor shooting slump that he's been in. He's 3-23 in our last 3 games. He 8 assist or so but the team seemed to do better when he was on the bench and Knight was in.

Richie Frahm's name was still on the active roster, which was the clerical error. That's just embarrassing.

[loflin3hree5ive]

12 page game threrad? nice.

we put up a fight which is all i can really ask for as a fan. this game came and went with corey. he played great and got us in position to win. but down one with about 3 minutes left in the game, a bad 3 point attempt early in the shot clock and a terrible pass over brevin knight's head put a ceiling on what we could accomplish last night.

just like the spurs game, late 3 pointers killed us at the end. one night those 3's aren't gonna fall and we'll beat one of these division winners.

[adiedanny]

We were doing better when B. Knight and Dickau were running the point and Cassell was sitting.

[OMPunk]

I was very surprised by the Clips in this game, you guys played very well.

More surprised by how good Kaman really is. I'll admit to being fairly ignorant to him due to my team being on the complete opposite side of the country, but he was very impressive last night. His offensive footwork was phenomenal for someone of his size and his defense was great as well. You guys have probably a top 5 center in the league.

I didn't want to open a new thread for this question, but how do you see Kaman and Brand working together when Brand returns from injury? Seems like you guys will have one of the best defensive frontcourts in the league to go with the very good defense you already have.

If it wasn't for a few rookie mistakes from your young guys and Hedo putting the Magic on his back in the fourth quarter, the Clips could very well had won that game.

[loflin3hree5ive]

I was very surprised by the Clips in this game, you guys played very well.

More surprised by how good Kaman really is. I'll admit to being fairly ignorant to him due to my team being on the complete opposite side of the country, but he was very impressive last night. His offensive footwork was phenomenal for someone of his size and his defense was great as well. You guys have probably a top 5 center in the league.

I didn't want to open a new thread for this question, but how do you see Kaman and Brand working together when Brand returns from injury? Seems like you guys will have one of the best defensive frontcourts in the league to go with the very good defense you already have.

If it wasn't for a few rookie mistakes from your young guys and Hedo putting the Magic on his back in the fourth quarter, the Clips could very well had won that game.

thanks man. to answer your question about kaman, when he and brand pair up i myself expect similar results statistically as they had together in 05-06 when the clippers made a playoff run. its likely once brand returns he'll be a little worse than he was that year and kaman will be a little better and aslong as the two of them are surrounded by the right guys, our front court hopefully can leads us back to the playoffs.

[ClipperDomination]

-= original quote snipped =-



thanks man. to answer your question about kaman, when he and brand pair up i myself expect similar results statistically as they had together in 05-06 when the clippers made a playoff run. its likely once brand returns he'll be a little worse than he was that year and kaman will be a little better and aslong as the two of them are surrounded by the right guys, our front court hopefully can leads us back to the playoffs.

Agreed. Kaman's having the year he's having due to Brand's injury. Clipper fans know that, and he's doing a fantastic job as the go-to-guy. When Brand comes back, I expect you will see a lot more of high/low plays for Brand and Kaman.

[mkwest]

I didn't want to open a new thread for this question, but how do you see Kaman and Brand working together when Brand returns from injury? Seems like you guys will have one of the best defensive frontcourts in the league to go with the very good defense you already have.

If it wasn't for a few rookie mistakes from your young guys and Hedo putting the Magic on his back in the fourth quarter, the Clips could very well had won that game.

I can't wait until Brand and Kaman are back together in the frontcourt. They'll provide solid complimentary play on both sides of the court. If we can combine them with some young talented youth in the backcourt, we'll be onto something good.