Game 31

6:30p PT

Fox Sports Prime Ticket

KSPN 710

Any Baron Davis-Paul Davis high screen/roll with :18.3 remaining and the Clippers trailing by two will invariably draw a double-team to Baron.  That much is certain.  Paul Davis is not a threat outside of 15 feet and, besides, it’s safe to assume that Baron will take the final shot even if Paul Davis rolls off the screen to a spot five feet from the basket.

Sure enough, Bobby Jackson and Brad Miller trap Baron with the ball as he moves to his right along the arc.  At :06.1, Baron turns the corner and blasts by Jackson.  Miller is doing a decent job staying between Baron and the hoop.  Looking at this possession a few more times, it appears that Baron has a step on Miller and an opportunity to finish.  But Baron now has a wide open Paul Davis at the top of the circle.  As he reaches the paint, Baron throws a pinpoint pass across his body to Paul Davis.  Bobby Jackson tries to close, but Paul Davis’ right-handed 19-foot jumper is uncontested.

It’s also no good.  Sacramento 92, Clippers 90.  Final.

Should Baron finish here?  It’s a tough call.  Paul Davis is shooting 34% from beyond 17 feet this season [12 for 35 FGA], most of the shots uncontested.  On the other hand, Baron can’t count on a foul call, and the finish will almost certainly result in contact.  Ideally, Baron would have more options on the play.  But Sacramento does a nice job of staying at home on both Al Thornton — who’s behind Baron on the strong side wing — and Eric Gordon, who’s cut off from Baron way out on the weak side perimeter.

The last set aside, there’s only so much a team can do when its two primary scorers combine to go 6-29 from the field with only seven FTAs.  Thornton misses an open slam with nobody around at [4th, 2:00] in a tie game because he tries to flavor the dunk with a needless double-pump.  Al’s game has regressed dramatically over the past couple of weeks and his instincts on both ends of the court have been baffling.  Baron’s shot is creaky and imbalanced.  He looks awful, though he didn’t appear disinterested as he did against Dallas.  The problems tonight are mechanical.

The Clippers open the second quarter with a lineup of Hart-Jones-Collins-P. Davis-Skinner.  You know what?  Hyphens just don’t do it justice:

PG  Jason Hart
SG  Freddie Jones
SF  Mardy Collins
PF  Brian Skinner
C   Paul Davis

Incredibly, this unit finishes +1 in its 2:46 of action.

Though all he’ll remember is that final miss, Paul Davis plays a solid game on both ends, working himself five trips to the line by attacking the rim against the soft Sacramento front line.  He’s less helpful on the boards and the Clippers, once again, collect fewer than two-thirds of the available rebounds on the defensive end — only 30 defensive boards to the Kings’ 18 offensive rebounds.  It’s hard to win basketball games with a DRR of 62.5%.  As a frame of reference, the league’s worst defensive rebounding team, Golden State, has a defensive rebounding rate of 67.1%

Eric Gordon is the best story of the night for the Clips.  He finishes with 24 points and a true shooting percentage of 78.3%.   His massive driving slam at [2nd, 3:02] was ungodly.  For a team that was slumbering on the pine, the Clippers’ bench ecstatically jumped up  in hysteria when Gordon exploded to the hole.

Until Randolph returns — and until Baron Davis finds his shot — this team is going to have trouble beating anyone.  To weather this stretch, continue to watch EJ’s development and see if Thornton can reboot his game.

Game 30

7p PT

Fox Sports Prime Ticket

KSPN 710

From Lisa Dillman at the Los Angeles Times:

Warriors swingman Stephen Jackson spent some quality time with Davis, his buddy and former teammate, over the weekend in Los Angeles, bonding and talking about old times.

Jackson said that Davis wants to return to the Warriors.

“That’s all we talked about. . . . He wants to come back. And if he wants to come back, I want him back,” Jackson told the Contra Costa Times.

Davis denied that he is ready to bail off the listing 8-21 Clippers ship.

“No, I don’t want out,” he told The Times on Monday at practice. “I don’t know what Stephen Jackson got from my conversation. That never came out of my mouth.

“I’m here. I’m here doing the same thing I did at Golden State. The first year I got to Golden State it was rough. It was a tough season. We were figuring each other out, figuring out the system. That transition year is always a tough year.”

He did confirm some elements of Jackson’s account.

“We talked about how I miss playing with him. When you see people, you miss what you had,” Davis said. “Obviously, in no way shape or form am I ready to jump ship.

“That’s not why I came here. That’s not why I committed to come here. I’m committed here to turn this thing around. I like the talent on this team, I like the promise.

“The team is going to get better. My job is to continue to get better and make this year as positive and productive as we possibly can.”

Clippers General Manager and Coach Mike Dunleavy was asked whether Davis had asked to be traded. The relationship between Dunleavy and Davis often has been uneasy.

“I haven’t had any of those kind of conversations with Baron,” Dunleavy said.

Dunleavy said he did not plan to speak to Davis about Jackson’s comments.

“You read about guys saying stuff all over the place and you never know what’s true and not true, and how it’s perceived or not perceived,” Dunleavy said. “From our standpoint, he’s our player and we’re trying to make the best of our situation.”

The truth probably lies somewhere in between:  Baron Davis clearly isn’t all that happy as the Clippers starting PG.  He’s also savvy enough to realize that he’s here to stay and that there are enough attractive personal diversions, be they business opportunities or proximity to family, to keep him comparatively satisfied as a human being.

From the Los Angeles Times:

The Clippers’ Ricky Davis has been suspended for five games for violating the NBA’s drug program, the league said Monday. No additional details were immediately available.

Though the suspension won’t affect the Clippers on the court — Davis has been out because of a sore left knee — it could cloud his future with the organization. Davis, 29, a 6-foot-7 swingman making $2.3 million this season, had been considered a disappointment before the knee injury sidelined him. In 13 games with the Clippers he has averaged 4.3 points.

As Dillman suggests, Davis was unlikely to see any action over the next five games.  This matters only insofar as it might save the Clippers a few shekels, cost Davis a few more and, as Dillman states, possibly “cloud his future with the organization.”  So to speak.

From TrueHoop:

How much of Baron Davis’ homecoming to Los Angeles was predicated on Elton Brand’s presence on the left block remains a mystery.  Davis has been politic when asked about whether Brand left him in the lurch by signing with the Sixers after Davis inked his deal with the Clippers.   On the court, Davis has struggled.  He’s shooting below 37% from the field, and his rebounding and FTA numbers are down precipitously.

Now there’s word from Davis’ former teammate, Stephen Jackson, that the Clippers’ point guard would love nothing more than to press rewind on the past six months and return to Oakland.  From Marcus Thompson II at the San Jose Merc:

The Warriors came to Hollywood a day before Sunday’s game, giving Stephen Jackson a chance Saturday to hang out with former teammate Baron Davis. And discuss the possibility of Davis rejoining the Warriors.

“That’s all we talked about,” Jackson said. “I went to his house, spent some time with his mom and his grandmother. He wants to come back. And if he wants to come back, I want him back.” Davis opted out of the final year of his Warriors contract in July and signed a five-year, $65 million contract with the Los Angeles Clippers, who are 8-21.

It is feasible that the Warriors and the Clippers could pull off a deal. It would have to involve Warriors forward Corey Maggette (for salary-cap reasons) and/or guard Jamal Crawford (to make room in the backcourt).

Clippers owner Donald Sterling said last season that he had wanted Maggette around long term.

“I think that would be great for us,” Jackson said. “Coach (Don Nelson) loves him. Him and (guard) Monta (Ellis) have good chemistry. If they could work that out, that would be great for the organization.”

From Davis’ body language, it’s clear he’s unhappy in Mike Dunleavy’s system.  But it’s also clear that the Clippers have little interest in reacquiring Corey Maggette.  Hypotheticals have a funny way of flourishing when you’re visiting with old friends over the holidays.  Once the soft lights come down and the world resumes its workaday rhythm, those conversations recede pretty quickly.

This was always the hazard with Baron Davis — that he was a temperamental time bomb who would mentally check once the reality of the situation became apparent.

It’s hard to challenge the idea that Baron would like to be elsewhere.  But if that’s Baron’s goal, he’s creating a very impractical problem for himself.  His apathy is taking a toll on his numbers. And those numbers are gradually making Baron Davis one of the most untradeable contracts in the game at 5 years/$65M.