GAME #54: LAC (36-17) @ OKC (37-17) THURS 2/22 5PM

[KL2]

Disappointing loss. Lose the tiebreaker. Lose ground in the standings.

[og15]

I have very little confidence in this team when Leonard is on the bench.

PG and Harden need to wake up and make things happen.

The minutes with Leonard on the floor were surprisingly tough in this one, OKC had some runs, and of course there's shooting variance from both teams that factors into all this.

George had some nice playmaking, but struggled with his shooting.

The double teams took Harden's playmaking out of the equation, and that's an area the Clippers will have to have a better counter for in the future.

Russ lost the battle with the rim and OKC was all over Zubac when he got the ball, smacking and poking the ball away.

Definitely a nice defensive game plan to throw off the Clippers, but Clippers also didn't stop them enough.

[jengmann3]

I agree disappointing game. I think Lue should think about tweaking the rotation again/lineups. They really haven't played well this month. Defensively they took a step back but even offensively they haven't been that great. Maybe it is time for Bones and PJ, especially if Russ plays as poorly as he has recently. But its an inesacapable point, u really need a lot of people playing well to win big. Russ has to play well. PG has to play well.

[esqtvd]

Russ lost the battle with the rim

lol


You'd like to get more than 107 points, but the fact remains you just can't be giving up 129. We finished about even in rebs and TOs but they shot 55.6%/48.6%--the key stat probably being 30 fast break points to our 10.

[Bobbymcgee]

The Clippers are talented enough to beat the teams they should beat but lack of size and poor defense have them struggling against the elite teams with size in the west. They need to get this figured out because they are going to have an early start to their summer if they don't.

[wakelaunch1]

PG not coming up big against good teams is a trend. He gets all of his points against the bad teams and then shoots a poor percentage against the good teams. I bet if someone did a stats breakdown it would be eye popping. Theres no way I am giving him anything close to a max contract.

[NickP]

PG not coming up big against good teams is a trend. He gets all of his points against the bad teams and then shoots a poor percentage against the good teams. I bet if someone did a stats breakdown it would be eye popping. Theres no way I am giving him anything close to a max contract.

Exactly this.
I've been bringing this up a lot lately. We get one good game followed by many stinkers from PG.

[esqtvd]

Down 6 when KL-Coffey-Mann-Westbrook-Powell lineup begins in 3rd quarter
Down 14 by the end of the quarter, game over--never closer than 12 after that

you can blame Ty for going small, but Plumlee was minus-12 in only 8 minutes
that wasn't working either


3:54 Amir Coffey enters the game for Ivica Zubac 77 83
3:54 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander out of bounds bad pass turnover 77 83
3:44 Kawhi Leonard makes 14-foot two point shot 79 83
3:26 Aaron Wiggins makes driving layup (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander assists) 79 85
3:26 Kawhi Leonard shooting foul 79 85
3:26 Terance Mann enters the game for Paul George 79 85
3:26 Aaron Wiggins makes free throw 1 of 1 79 86
3:10 Josh Giddey blocks Terance Mann 's 5-foot layup 79 86
3:07 Kenrich Williams defensive rebound 79 86
3:05 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander makes two point shot (Cason Wallace assists) 79 88
3:05 Clippers Full timeout 79 86
2:41 Russell Westbrook misses driving layup 79 88
2:39 Cason Wallace defensive rebound 79 88
2:33 Josh Giddey bad pass (Kawhi Leonard steals) 79 88
2:27 Terance Mann lost ball turnover (Cason Wallace steals) 79 88
2:21 Josh Giddey makes 23-foot three point shot (Cason Wallace assists) 79 91
1:55 Norman Powell misses 26-foot three point jumper 79 91
1:54 Thunder defensive team rebound 79 91
1:43 Aaron Wiggins out of bounds lost ball turnover 79 91
1:22 Amir Coffey lost ball turnover (Aaron Wiggins steals) 79 91
1:18 Aaron Wiggins lost ball turnover (Amir Coffey steals) 79 91
1:13 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander blocks Amir Coffey 's 3-foot layup 79 91
1:07 Norman Powell offensive rebound 79 91
1:05 Norman Powell misses layup 79 91
1:05 Josh Giddey defensive rebound 79 94
1:04 Kenrich Williams makes 22-foot three point shot (Josh Giddey assists) 79 94
45.0 Terance Mann misses 23-foot three point jumper 79 94
42.2 Josh Giddey defensive rebound 79 94
35.2 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander makes 12-foot pullup jump shot 79 96
23.0 Russell Westbrook misses 5-foot two point shot 79 96
20.1 Terance Mann offensive rebound 79 96
20.1 Norman Powell makes three point jumper (Terance Mann assists) 82 96
20.1 Thunder Full timeout 81 96
20.1 Chet Holmgren enters the game for Josh Giddey 82 96
20.1 Jalen Williams enters the game for Aaron Wiggins 82 96
20.1 Isaiah Joe enters the game for Kenrich Williams 82 96
2.1 Jalen Williams misses two point shot 82 96
1.1 Kawhi Leonard defensive rebound 82 96
0.0 End of the 3rd Quarter 82 96

[donemilio21]

PG not coming up big against good teams is a trend. He gets all of his points against the bad teams and then shoots a poor percentage against the good teams. I bet if someone did a stats breakdown it would be eye popping. Theres no way I am giving him anything close to a max contract.

Exactly this.
I've been bringing this up a lot lately. We get one good game followed by many stinkers from PG.

HE actually has shot 52/50/71 in 3 games against Thunder.
But you might have a point wen you look at the points against certian teams.
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/paul-george-shooting-splits-against-every-team-this-season

[Roscoe Sheed]

PG not coming up big against good teams is a trend. He gets all of his points against the bad teams and then shoots a poor percentage against the good teams. I bet if someone did a stats breakdown it would be eye popping. Theres no way I am giving him anything close to a max contract.

he scored 38 points the last time they played OKC

[esqtvd]

PG not coming up big against good teams is a trend. He gets all of his points against the bad teams and then shoots a poor percentage against the good teams. I bet if someone did a stats breakdown it would be eye popping. Theres no way I am giving him anything close to a max contract.

he scored 38 points the last time they played OKC

20 points or more in only 3 games since January 17. Obviously struggling/slumping/playing hurt. Something.

[Roscoe Sheed]

PG not coming up big against good teams is a trend. He gets all of his points against the bad teams and then shoots a poor percentage against the good teams. I bet if someone did a stats breakdown it would be eye popping. Theres no way I am giving him anything close to a max contract.

he scored 38 points the last time they played OKC

20 points or more in only 3 games since January 17. Obviously struggling/slumping/playing hurt. Something.

true- my point was that he is capable of playing well against good teams. He isn't just a "bottom feeder"

[Roscoe Sheed]

The Clippers got thoroughly outplayed- mainly on the defensive end.

However, I thought the refs allowed way too much contact at the rim for OKC's defense- particularly against Zubac. They fouled him almost every time he got the ball and blatantly so on many occasions.

[MartinToVaught]

The Clippers are talented enough to beat the teams they should beat but lack of size and poor defense have them struggling against the elite teams with size in the west. They need to get this figured out because they are going to have an early start to their summer if they don't.

It's pretty much the exact same spot we've been in most years since the original CP3 trade. A pretender that's both too flawed to seriously win and too depleted of assets to fix it. That's consistently been our ceiling. And yet we'll still keep the same people in the front office who squander insane amounts of assets to build these mediocre teams.

[rocketsfan100]

Can anyone explain why harden was benched for almost the entire third quarter when Russ and George were awful?

[Roscoe Sheed]

The Clippers are talented enough to beat the teams they should beat but lack of size and poor defense have them struggling against the elite teams with size in the west. They need to get this figured out because they are going to have an early start to their summer if they don't.

It's pretty much the exact same spot we've been in most years since the original CP3 trade. A pretender that's both too flawed to seriously win and too depleted of assets to fix it. That's consistently been our ceiling. And yet we'll still keep the same people in the front office who squander insane amounts of assets to build these mediocre teams.

Some of their failures have been due to bad luck though- many injuries in the post-season during the Lob City era and they had a strong chance to win the title in '21 if Kawhi didn't tear his ACL.

Nobody knows how this season will turn out. All teams have their ups and downs.

Even the top 1-2 seeds must not be too confident as they will likely have to play a tough team in the first round- the Lakers or Warriors could give any team trouble

[Roscoe Sheed]

If Westbrook plays like this in the playoffs, Lue better yank him out quickly. How on earth can an NBA player miss so many point blank lay ups and dunks?

[NickP]

PG not coming up big against good teams is a trend. He gets all of his points against the bad teams and then shoots a poor percentage against the good teams. I bet if someone did a stats breakdown it would be eye popping. Theres no way I am giving him anything close to a max contract.

Exactly this.
I've been bringing this up a lot lately. We get one good game followed by many stinkers from PG.

HE actually has shot 52/50/71 in 3 games against Thunder.
But you might have a point wen you look at the points against certian teams.
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/paul-george-shooting-splits-against-every-team-this-season

What are those numbers?

[esqtvd]

Can anyone explain why harden was benched for almost the entire third quarter when Russ and George were awful?

PG was getting a blow. He still played 36 minutes. Harden left at the 7:36 mark with the Clippers down 4. They were down only 6 until Mann came in for George with 3:26 left.

Then the spit hit the fan. OKC went on an 11-3 run to close the quarter and we never recovered.

Harden started the 4th quarter and would have played the rest of the way [33 minutes total] but Ty waved the white flag with 3:53 left and subbed him out.

Not sure Ty could do much else. Basically the problem was defense and Beard is not the cure. OKC got 30 fast break points and we got 10. The problem was too many cheap baskets.

[Captain Ballmer]

PG not coming up big against good teams is a trend. He gets all of his points against the bad teams and then shoots a poor percentage against the good teams. I bet if someone did a stats breakdown it would be eye popping. Theres no way I am giving him anything close to a max contract.

Exactly this.
I've been bringing this up a lot lately. We get one good game followed by many stinkers from PG.

I wonder what type of extension offer he received last month that didn't signed. I assume it was a statement that 213 days are over, it clearly separates Kawhi from him based on the number(well deserved) and frankly the guaranteed sum total might not even enough to consider calling him a part of big trio with Harden.

I really wonder the offer bc he plays like he's fragile mental set up got up after that.