One of the maxims of NBA basketball is that no matter how heated things get on the court, punches never find their intended target. Players dance around, jaw at one another, but relative peace prevails. Tonight, Zach Randolph flouts that unwritten law, and connects with a left-handed jab to Louis Amundson’s face.
Randolph and Amundson get tangled underneath the Clippers basket as the two big men battle for position. As Ricky Davis’ 3PA falls through the basket, Randolph shoves the Phoenix reserve to the floor, then stands over Amundson, taunting him. When Amundson gets up and confronts Zach, Randolph pops him one.
The timing couldn’t be worse. The Clippers are without Marcus Camby and Brian Skinner — their only two passable interior defenders. Chris Kaman is still a couple weeks away, and the Clips waived Cheikh Samb yesterday after acquiring another marginal Piston, Alex Acker. Zach and DeAndre Jordan qualify as the only legitimate bigs available to Mike Dunleavy to contend with Shaquille O’Neal and Amare Stoudemire.
It’s doubtful Zach Randolph considers this when he acquaints Amundson’s jaw with his fist. At no point during his career has Randolph given off the impression he considers much of anything outside that small space around the low right block. Within the confines of the post area — stretching out toward the perimeter — and the ball in his hands, Randolph is a stinking genius. Get him outside his little fiefdom, and he’s Zach Randolph – an oblivious lug who can’t be bothered defensively, can’t create a shot for any teammate, and detracts from any semblance of his team’s class or collective character. Fortunately, this Clippers team at this moment in the organization’s history has little class or character to lose. Randolph will always be able to carry the scoring load on a bad team, but that’s the extent of his function in the NBA.
It wasn’t Zach Randolph’s fist that cost the Clippers the game – the jab at Amundson might have sealed it – but actually his first quarter defense. The five most terrifying words to a Clipper fan: “O’Neal will work against Randolph.” Ten seconds into the game, Randolph all but surrenders to an Amare Stoudemire back screen along the baseline, which gives O’Neal an easy two. [1st, 11:50] On the very next PHX possession, he never leaves his feet to help on the Stoudemire drive; he merely sloughs off O’Neal at 15 feet, goes to a spot beneath the basket, and watches Stoudemire throw it down. It’s laughable. [1st, 11:28]. Then once O’Neal checks out for his first breather, there’s the vaunted Nash/Amundson S/R at [1st, 2:44]. The Clippers correctly trap Nash on the perimeter. But Randolph stumbles behind Nash, who has already turned the corner and taken off for the hoop. By clumsily lurching between Nash and Fred Jones, Randolph is actually an impediment to his teammate, who is trying to recover on the play. Nash drives unbothered toward the rack, with Amundson on the drag to Nash’s right. Easy pass to Amundson, easy uncontested two.
There’s little else to say about a game in which the Clippers trail by 52 with two minutes remaining. We see the first of Alex Acker as a Clipper, and the Wisconsin Badger Pepperdine Wave shows off his range with a trio of long-range bombs. Steve Novak has one of his poorer shooting nights of the season. Eric Gordon picks up where he left off Friday night on the same hardwood.
The two teams will go at it again tomorrow night, almost certainly without Zach Randolph. Unless Camby has recovered from his ear infection or Brian Skinner can suit up, the Clippers’ front line will once again be reduced to DeAndre Jordan.
26 Responses
man, I told people that Z-bo needed to play defense but he doesnt. This whole team really cant compete for anything if none of them play any defense! Sigh
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Posted on February 17th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
just play the young guys who want to compete. i am so tired of watching these overpaid veterans that have NO HEART!!!!1
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Posted on February 17th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
I paid $100 to witness that beat down in person.
Wow. And Clipper Darrell was there and could be heard early but was silent once we got down by 30. He even wears those pajamas on the road!
I’m thinking maybe I should sue the Clips as well.
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Posted on February 17th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Acker went to Pepperdine. It looks like KA’s forays into the WWL are coming at the expense of Clipperblog. Uncharacteristic errors and infrequent posting.
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Lawler's Law Reply:
February 17th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
can’t blame him for the infrequent posts on a cellar dwelling team when he’s got bills to pay and the evil 4 word network is willing to pay him…
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Posted on February 17th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
I say we go for the record and lose by 80 points tomorrow night. What’s the NBA record for a blowout loss? 73 or something?
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Posted on February 17th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Worst lost I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to imagine a more lack-luster or classless performance. It may be an all-time low for the Clips, and that’s saying a lot. I know they lost by more points in 88. But Zach’s open-hand punch followed by the compete lack of effort made this team impossible to root for tonight. Their defense throughout the game reminded me of the last few possessions of the All-star game when everyone on the West stood outside the arch to clear the way for Lebron to give a preview to next year’s dunk contest. Fun in the all-star game (sort of), but not tonight.
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Posted on February 17th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
It only took a few months for the real Zach Randolph to reveal himself. No defensive effort, and complete and total selfishness on the court. Just a dumb, amateur, typical Zach Randolph move we saw tonight.
All you guys who have said they wanted to build the team around Zach Randolph and blindly defended that trade…are you so sure now?
Are you so sure you want Zach on the books until 2011 on that outrageous contract? You sure you want our young guys in the same locker room as him? You sure it was a good idea to trade two of our most valuable expiring contracts to only get Zach in return?
This is only the beginning with him. Tip of the iceberg.
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Stian Reply:
February 17th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Chill, dude.
The only obscene contract we have on the books is Baron’s.
As much as Zach bitch slapping that little cretin Amundson wasn’t the smart thing to do – it tells me that Z-Bo is at least passionate about what’s going on out there.
Contrast that to Baron’s pathetic display. After we lose by 40, he STILL has the audacity to smirk, have a laugh with Nash after the game, and high 5 people on the way to the dressing room. Who does that?! This guy has no pride, no shame, no nothing. Just a gutless, sackless, heartless, justpaymemymoney loser who makes all-star coin and plays like a D-league bench player.
Too bad Zach didn’t slap the living fuck out of Baron instead. That’s who really needs a beating here.
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Dj Reply:
February 18th, 2009 at 3:50 am
Ha! Zach Randolph for 14+ million for the next 3 years is a good contract in your mind? Fun fact- there are only 21 players in the NBA who get paid more than him. Is Zach Randolph a top 20 player in your mind? Top 50? It’s an AWFUL contract.
Punching another player when your team is especially dependent on you as one of it’s only big guys is not “passionate”. It’s dumb. Now he’s probably going to be suspended for at least 10 games. Again, dumb. If he gave a crap about his teammates he would have shown some restraint.
It’s not like he was sticking up for a teammate or anything- he was taunting and ended up throwing a completely unecessary punch.
Keep lying to yourself and believing that Zach Randolph is a passionate player who the Clippers can really build a franchise around. Go post that on a Blazers fan board and see what kind of response you get.
No defense and no character wins championships, right?
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Posted on February 17th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Well, I, for one, am glad we have Baron Davis and his “I don’t pride myself on playing defense” attitude on this team. He is showing us all what we can look forward to for the next 4-something years if we play his preferred style of basketball. If tonite is any indication, the rest of the guys seem to have taken to his philosophy like a barrel of fish to water. All is well in Clipperland.
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Dj Reply:
February 18th, 2009 at 4:06 am
You’re right, Baron has been god awful. But you get what you pay for. Baron Davis is a fast break, free-wheeling point guard. He has been known to clash with coaches who micro manage, and also is much less effective in a half-court setting. So we teammed him up with Dunleavy, a micro managing coach with a giant playbook and a slow-down offense.
OF COURSE this happened. We all should have saw it coming. We wanted the Golden State Baron, but we should have known that was impossible. Of course he’s dogging it. He’s dogged it in the past when he was teammed up with Byron Scott and now he is doing it again.
These aren’t excuses for Baron. He’s shown a considerable lack of effort, and that’s on him.
But we, as Clipper fans, shouldn’t have been foolish enough to expect things to be all rainbows and butterflies. Big contract + losing team with a losing history + coaching issues + personnel issues + too high of expectations = Baron Davis’s 2009 season.
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Stian Reply:
February 18th, 2009 at 10:30 am
“You’re right, Baron has been god awful. But you get what you pay for.”
Is this a joke?! We are paying this asshole 13 million bucks a year and you call that “you get what you pay for” (and you have the nerve to call out Randolph who is having a career year stats-wise and only makes slightly more than BD)?! This guy makes top 30 money or better and he sucks worse than Branson and Dickau COMBINED. Only those 2 guys actually gave a shit out there. Baron doesn’t. And he didn’t from the first game on. This has gone way beyond what Dunleavy does or doesn’t do to cater to this piece of shit. This is simply one of the most insufferable primadonnas in the history of the NBA doing what he does best: Be a cancer. And that cancer needs to be cut out ASAP.
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Dj Reply:
February 18th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
If you read the rest of my post you’ll understand my point. We expected the Golden State Baron Davis, when in reality we all should have realized that we were going to get something entirely different. If you look at his past, it all makes sense.
I’m not sure what we’re arguing about. He’s been awful and has played with very little effort. I’m not arguing that. I’m arguing that we should have saw this coming.
Just like we should have saw Zach Randolph playing absolutely no defense and punching people out in games coming.
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Posted on February 17th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
[...] trade for Shaq has left nothing but disarray in its wake. Last night’s Suns obliteration of the hapless, helpless, and hopeless Clippers was a welcome treat. It’s nice to see the Suns out and running. They’re a treat to [...]
Posted on February 17th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
I know I’ve rambled way too much in this thread, but it would have been nice for someone to do for the Clippers what Presti is doing with the Thunder. He made shrewd trades for lots of draft picks, focusing on the future. He’s building around an incredibly solid young core of Durant, Westbrook, Green and Chandler. He’s keeping salary extremely low and not signing any bad contracts.
That is how you rebuild. Instead, we’re looking at 5 years of Baron, 3 of Zach, 4 of Kaman, little to no cap room in the future and basically only our own picks. Let me remind you that with these current pieces, we are 13-41. On top of everything, management has said 34 year old Marcus Camby, probably our most valuable trading piece, is untouchable.
I’ve got to think about something else, this is getting depressing.
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Posted on February 18th, 2009 at 4:16 am
DJ, that is everything that I have been writing all season. DUNCELeavy is trying to get us to believe that there is a future with a 34 year old center who is only signed for one more season—-like there is any chance he will resign with us—-and the horrilbe twin fatso’s Baron and Zach. This is the most ineptly ran franchise and now we can’t even blame it on Donald.
Season ticket holders unite…we have the power of the purse….refuse to renew unless DUNCE is fired….that is a bigger financial loss then paying him off for two more seasons…WE HAVE THE POWER.
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neiljphx Reply:
February 18th, 2009 at 6:49 am
can’t see any possible way i renew next year. it was an experiment, and i’m sure my nephew and his boys at csun had fun with the tix. but the $$$$ will be better spent just grabbing more tix for each game off stubub vs. the teams the kids really want to see like cavs, magic, celts, etc…. oh well.
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Posted on February 18th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Dumbloony put this team together. He was praising Baron when they signed him, not realizing as many of us did that Baron’s style wouldn’t work with Dumbloony’s coaching style. His negligence contributed to the EB defection, and he was always interested in acquiring Randolph after Brand bolted, not realizing that he’s let players such as Wilcox go for not playing defense, and that Randolph is a poster child for no D.
Isn’t it time for the Dumbloony to be let go? Had Terry Porter even come close to the the damage done by the Dumbloony?
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Stian Reply:
February 18th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
This is stupid.
You cannot seriously blame Dunleavy for Brand going back on his word stabbing us in the back (thank God for David Falk or we would be stuck with that 80 mio. dollar cripple now). There was no negligence on our part – there was only betrayal on Brand’s end.
And Baron was only brought in because Brand promised he would keep his buddy in check. Dunleavy knew Baron could be a problem -I’m sure he got the full 911 from MD2 – but once EB left the Clippers could ill afford to slam the door in Baron’s face even if they had their doubts. Going from 2 all-stars to ZERO within 48 hours = PR from hell and mass season ticket holders defecting. We were stuck with Baron – for better or worse. Sadly, it turned out to be the latter.
And hopefully that FA mistake will be corrected in the coming days.
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Section 113 Reply:
February 18th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Yes Stian we can blame DUNCEleavy, he was talking to Brand directly, cutting out Falk. This is a direct violation of the CBA which caused Falk’s wrath and him ultimately doing whatever necessary to get EB out of Clipperdom. And yes Brand is a cripple now, but it’s not like DUNCEleavy was prescient on that point. And EB keeping Davis in-line, please…noone keeps him in line…so now we have Baron and Fat Zach, we can look forward to 2-3 seasons of them getting fatter and lazier w/their untradeable contracts.
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kirbs Reply:
February 18th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Gee how many times to we have to bring you back into check with crap you cannot substaniate.
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Posted on February 18th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Baron Davis is a douchebag.
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Posted on February 18th, 2009 at 11:16 am
The man behind one of the most exciting Clippers team ever assembled has returned to unleash his wrath upon his former team.
Porter was a halfcourt offense/defensive-minded coach. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Gentry is a run and gun, uptempo type of coach. It may not win championships, but it is exciting to watch in the mean time. For all I know, this is suppose to be entertainment and that’s what we’re paying for. So, why are we suppose to watch this horrible display of entertainment headed by the Dunce?
I’ve been a fan since ‘92, and this is very disappointing!
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Posted on February 18th, 2009 at 11:17 am
I stayed up studying last night; I flipped on the game via the internet to check out the score. I saw the Suns had 81 at the half, and I literally had to double and triple take to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind. I live in Michigan and just invested some hard earned money for Pistons-Clippers tickets. I pray they at least make it competitive. Come on fellas; please give me some effort!
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Posted on February 18th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
The Clippers have a chance to redeem themselves today but it is unlikely. At least don’t get beaten by 40 something points.
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Posted on February 18th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
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