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.
16 Responses
Probably one of the worst losses of the season. Sacramento is bad and we’re worse. Yes Boston thumped them by 46 last game and they were embarrased, but we’ve got blown out three games in a row by struggling teams. Al played one of the worst games of his pro career and wasted a great performance by Gordon. Baron’s FG % is falling every game though I suppose that it has to end at 0 as it’s not possible to go negative %…though at this point, I won’t be surprised anymore at how low he can go.
I think we all agree that the playoff is pretty much impossible at this point. So when Zach returns, what should we look for? Should we look to trade Camby so the poor guy won’t waste his prime on our dead end squad? I suppose we can score some wins and finish the year 22-60 and chalk it up to another year marred by injuries. But the truth of the matter is; good teams like the Spurs win even with injuries to Ginobli and Parker. And we are not a good team.
Tomorrow’s game against Philly will be very interesting. Guys like Al should be embarassed after the game tonight and should bounce back. If Philly blows us out at the Staples Center, and Al plays another game like tonight, then it should be a sign that Al is not a piece that we can build the team around. I think we should use the rest of the season to evaluate which players we should keep.
Posted on December 30th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
“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%.”
Tangentially, why the hell don’t NBA boxscores include a TS% column? I am tired of mentally multiplying things by .44.
Posted on December 30th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
wat is true shot percentage?
Posted on December 30th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I can’t believe that lineup actually happened. I think if I tried playing with that lineup in NBA2k9 my playstation would explode.
Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 12:36 am
“wat is true shot percentage?”
PTS/(2*(FGA + (.44*FTA)))
It’s basically a way of factoring FT’s and 3-pt shots into shooting percentage. It’s the simplest way of summing up how efficient a scorer someone is.
Gordon’s 78.3% tonight means he was picking up over a point and a half for every time he attempted a shot, which is very good, of course.
It belongs in the boxscore, but no one has seen fit to put it there yet.
—–
And since we’re on the topic, it’s worth noting that Baron Davis’s TS% this year of 45.8% is by FAR the lowest of his career. He’s never even come close to being this inefficient a scorer.
Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 2:05 am
Baron Davis not seeming disinterested and walking the ball up the court allowing the defense to set every time was also a moral victory. If the Clippers can get into some sort of rhythm for next year, that would also be something to watch for. This is basically a new squad. Hopefully by the end of the year, Clips can at least identify what pieces are needed for next year. At this point, I’m thinking an athletic wing to start or back up Thornton.
On a side note, considering the Clips spending habits, I’m betting RDavis doesn’t get cut after his drug suspension.
Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 7:41 am
Baron is great when he knows he has a chance to win. Right now, the teams is not even close that he doesn’t show up.
Ricky Rubio or Blake Griffen, Time for scouting the NCAA and Europe leagues
FireDunleavy.com Reply:
December 31st, 2008 at 9:24 am
Rubio isn’t going to enter the draft now.
Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 8:51 am
Baron Davis complains about Dunleavy’s offense being too slow and that not enough shots are taken, putting too much pressure on each shot.
I looked at the box scores for last night’s 9 games. The Clippers took 84 shots. Only the Knicks (85), Dallas (85) and Indiana (87) took more shots than the Clippers last night. Atlanta had the most points with 110 on 82 shots and only made 3 more foul shots than the Clippers.
The key is to make more of the shots you take (obviously). Baron is one of the worst shooters going and now has proven he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I’m no fan of Dunleavy’s static offense, but it would be nice to have some guys in the line-up who can really stroke it when they get a good look. That isn’t BD, Thornton or Gordon (at least not consistently yet). It isn’t Camby or Kaman. Ricky Davis, ha… Taylor or Hart, not a chance… Randolph is the only guy who seems to be a good NBA quality shooter on the perimeter.
The Celtics have Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. We don’t have a shooter that approaches their levels. We don’t have an outside shooter as good as Kobe, Vujacic, Radmonovich or Fisher. We don’t have a shooter as good as Nowitzki or Terry. It goes on an on…
Since I became a Clipper fan in the 80′s, we’ve never had guys who could really shoot on an NBA level. This team has always struggled to score and always will.
The real Clipper problem, however, starts at the top with Sterling and will never change so long as he’s around. The only sound decision that guy has ever made was to bring in Larry Brown and that lasted all of two years. Elgin Baylor was a 20-year disaster, blowing draft after draft, Olowakandi, Bo Kimble, Darius Miles, Wilcox, Livingston and Korolev.
It’s the owner’s job to hire the right GM. We’ve had two and Dunleavy isn’t shaping up to be much better than Baylor.
I thought Isaiah Thomas was incompetent, making trades in desperation in hopes that a team of fools will somehow jell into something worthwhile… Look at the fools we’ve brought in (two of them ex-Thomas players in fact) and Dunleavy even tried to bring in Steve Francis, who’s having a great year, by the way. What’s Marbury up to? Golden State grabbed up an ex-Knick and that franchise has really been rejuvinated. Ricky Davis was another desperation grab, a player who’s been a looser everywhere he’s played. Al Thornton is young enough to go either way, but there’s nothing I’ve seen from him that tells me this guy is going to be a leader and a positive force wherever he goes… Frankly, I’m thinking Maggette was better than he will ever be and I was not a huge Maggette fan.
The only real veteran pro who’s worth his money this sorry unit has is Marcus Camby.
You simply can’t build a good team by taking the rejects from bad teams, even if they were scoring points.
Well, that’s my vent for the day.
Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 9:48 am
Eric Gordon looks like he will be really good. The guy has a great outside shot and enough strength, speed, and explosiveness to get to the hole if people close out on him. He also has the physical tools to be a good to great defender and has been solid in that area especially for a rookie. He was a terrific pick; the only guys playing better than him (Mayo and Rose, and maybe Beasley and Westbrook) were picked ahead of him.
As for the rest of the team, the only guy really bringing it has been Camby. I wish the whole league were as professional as that guy.
Given his physical limitations, Paul Davis has developed into a fine player. Seeing him play before this year I wondered if he would be able to stick in the league, but he looks like he should be a solid third stringer who can step up when the inevitable injuries happen.
Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Clippers suck. I turned it off when the score was to 12-27
Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 1:16 pm
You know your team is hurting when Paul Davis is the only guy deserving of praise after a game.
Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Is Kevin a season ticket holder or does he TiVo the games?
Kevin Arnovitz Reply:
December 31st, 2008 at 4:11 pm
I’m a masochist…I’m *both* a season-ticket holder *and* a Tivoer.
Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 2:00 pm
BD shot 3 for 17.
3 FOR 17!!!!
If he had at least shot 5-17 we would have won the game. Is that asking too much?
Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 3:02 pm
In other news I like the fred jones pickup. Although i hate that he couldn’t even finish that alley-oops near the end of the game. i guess he’s lost some hops since being slama jama dunk champ. he lookin kinda husky.
Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 3:07 pm
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