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.  More...

Today’s game tickets feature the likeness of  Jason Williams, who retired before ever playing a game for the franchise.  Despite the cognitive dissonance, the Clippers’ current state of affairs has a familiar air.  Key players have suffered injuries with no certain timetables for their returns.  Marginal pros like Freddie Jones, Mardy Collins, and Jason Hart are seeing meaningful minutes. With the exception of Marcus Camby, the guys left standing for the Clippers appear either disengaged [Baron Davis] or overeager [DeAndre Jordan].

Al Thornton, who has an opportunity to fill the Clippers’ scoring vacuum with Zach Randolph on the shelf, plays an ugly, immature 40 minutes today.  At [3rd, 4:58] off a deflection on the Dallas end, the Clippers get out in transition.  Al fills the lane on the near wing ahead of Freddie Jones.  Jones leads Al with a pretty bounce pass at the arc that Al collects en route to the hole.  At full speed as he reaches the paint, Al spins away from Jason Kidd, but toward James Singleton, with Erick Dampier rumbling into the play.  As Al goes up for the layup, Dampier appears to draw contact from behind.  Al’s shot clanks off the very front of the rim and bounces toward the far side.  Al beats Dampier to the ball on the far side.  Because the Clips were out on the break, it’s just Thornton and Dampier one-on-one.  Whatever foul, assault, or incidental contact may or may not have transpired a second ago, Al could take Dampier right now off the dribble and rectify the miscarriage of justice.  But Al’s too busy kvetching to the officials to see that he’s got only a hulking Erick Dampier between him and the basket at 18 feet.  Instead of exacting revenge, Al continues to petition the ref as he backs the ball out to the perimeter.  Only then does he begin his left-handed dribble drive between two defenders.  He ultimately draws the foul and hits both free throws.  It’s an amateur display of petulance from guy who should be looking to lead with his team’s two best post scorers out of action.

The Clippers once again get brutalized on the glass, allowing Dallas 14 offensive rebounds, while collecting only 28 on that end of the floor — even as the Mavericks go with only one pure frontcourt player in their starting lineup.  Baron Davis, Eric Gordon, and Al Thornton combine for only 11 rebounds.  After his commanding block of Jason Terry’s attempted layup in transition about midway through the first quarter, Baron Davis essentially checks out.  Over his last nine games, Baron has shot 40% only once.

James Singleton was back at Staples Center, in a Dallas uniform.  The Clippers denied Singleton’s third-year option after the 2006-07 season. Singleton spent the 2007-08 season in the Spanish league, winning the ACB title with TAU Cerámica  [The Basque are not to be screwed with].  Singleton has logged double-digit minutes in each of the past five games with the Mavs.  Given that the Clippers are in dire need of depth on the wing and some perimeter defense,  Jumpin’ James would be more indispensible to the Clippers today than he ever was during his two-year stint in Los Angeles.

Game 29

12:30p PT

KTLA 5

1260 AM

Note [per LAT]: “Despite the rest period over the Christmas holiday, Randolph is listed as questionable for today’s game and practiced sparingly Saturday.”

I have a post up at TrueHoop that lays out what I believe is a fair characterization of the debate over the Randolph acquisition:

When considering ‘desirability of location,’ we might also want to look at the organization itself.  When the Clippers traded Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas (both of whose contracts expire in 2010) for Zach Randolph (whose contract expires in 2011), a debate ensued in Clipper Naçión.  Some felt that the Clippers, as a traditionally dysfunctional franchise, would never attract a top-tier free agent in 2010. That being the case, wasn’t it smarter for the Clips to give up the fantasy, and instead acquire one of the league’s only 20-10 guys for a couple of spare parts?  More...

Statistics are still an emerging science in basketball.  Several new systems have been introduced in recent seasons to measure a player’s offensive and defensive value.  Now that we have this interwebby thing, we can do cool stuff like sort by offense, defense, this metric, that metric.  What’s interesting about the Los Angeles Clippers is that when you start playing around with these numbers, Marcus Camby invariably appears at the top of any list.  Which Clipper tops Hollinger’s PER rankings?  Marcus Camby.  What about the Roland Rating, which measures how the Clips perform when a player is on the court vs. when he’s off the court?   Marcus Camby.  Offensive Win Shares?  Camby.  Defensive Win Shares?  Camby.  Exotic Asian Character Tattoos which may or may not mean anything?  Camby.

The death of Camby’s father means that the Clippers are without their most statistically useful player Monday night against an angry, cagey team whose two most potent offensive weapons operate down on the block.   The Clippers are forced to start Brian Skinner at C.  The results are disastrous from the outset, as we can see from the first few Toronto possessions:

• The Raptors immediately go into Bosh on the right block.  Bosh breezes by Brian Skinner with his patented left handed dribble-drive.  The Clips catch a break when Bosh misses the bunny.
• This time, it’s Jermaine O’Neal on the right block.   He backs in Zach Randolph with ease.  Once he’s in the paint, he pivots with his right, elevates, and hits an easy 8-footer over Randolph, who never actually challenges the shot.
• After the Raptors collect the miss off of Jose Calderon’s open PUJIT, collect another rebound off a Kapono miss, they wisely hand it off to Bosh underneath.  He goes up, gets fouled, and hits both FTs.  On the first two possessions, the Clippers miss Camby in the interior; here, they miss his rebounding.
• Right back to Bosh, this time a little farther out at the right elbow.  Bosh’s ballfake gets Brian Skinner in the air.  Bosh pulls a Cassell, and goes to the line where he drains both FTs.

Toronto’s interior attack continues like this for the entire first quarter.  The next 11 Raptor points all come from shots inside of 10 feet, including an embarrassingly simple layup from Calderon off a high S/R that never would’ve seen the light of day had Camby been patrolling the paint.

Bright spots?  Eric Gordon continues to attack the rim, and takes only one truly bad shot — a contested 20-footer early in the shot clock at [1st, 7:05].  As a rookie, he’s not yet getting the calls around the basket on every finish [2nd, 0:42], but that will come with time.

DeAndre Jordan sees 29 minutes of action.  He finishes with eight points, eight boards, and three blocks while staying out of foul trouble and turning the ball over only once.  The Raptors test him on seemingly every possession and Jordan buckles down and gives it his best.  Give him this — he’s more effective than Skinner, but by the fourth quarter, he’s part of the roadkill in Chris Bosh’s tracks.  Bosh is playing a different game underneath tonight.  His footwork is balletic; his command of his shot is near-perfect.  When the Clippers assault him, he gladly takes his FTAs and pads the Raptor lead.  There’s a gorgeous play at [4th, 7:48] when Bosh gets the ball off the low right post.  He faces up in triple threat position one-on-one against the 20-year-old Jordan. Bosh takes a single dribble with his left along the baseline, then pivots right.  When his little upfake gets Jordan in the air, he goes underneath Jodran, banks the layup off the window, and draws the foul.  I realize Bosh’s powerslam from the first quarter makes all the dunkporn reels this morning.  But there are 75 players in the league who beat their guy off the dribble and throw down a jam.  But there aren’t a dozen guys who can do what Bosh does here in the post.

Toronto is the league’s most confounding team.   On paper, they have everything you’d want in a winner:  Two complete post players, a dynamic point guard, a deadly perimeter shooter to spread the floor, a solid wing defender, and an athletic rebounder.  Depth is a problem, as is Andrea Bargnani’s dwindling prospects.  But Toronto’s starting unit should be cruising through the bulk of its schedule, and they shouldn’t be in the Atlantic Division cellar or losing to a team like Oklahoma City.