We’ll have a video breakdown of the Clippers’ big first half run for you tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s something I filed for TrueHoop on the Clippers’ big exhale:
If ever there were a team and a head coach in desperate need of a win, the Los Angeles Clippers and Mike Dunleavy were it.
Last Friday, ESPN.com’s Marc Stein reported that, “[O]ne source plugged in to Clipperland insists owner Donald Sterling has already flirted seriously with the idea of dismissing Mike Dunleavy immediately.”
Despite the popular perception that Donald Sterling would never pay a coach not to work — particularly one still owed nearly $10 million through the summer of 2011 — it appears that the rumors are real. Warren LaGarie, Dunleavy’s agent, made a trip down to Los Angeles last week, surfacing in Playa during a Clippers practice, and was at Staples Center on November 13 watching two of his clients, Dunleavy and Toronto coach, Jay Triano, square off.
The Clippers are now without their most efficient offensive and defensive players, and the consequences of those absences are on full display tonight at the Pyramid. The Grizzlies finish the game with 106 points in their 93 possessions (114.0/100) and they do it by brutalizing the Clippers within 15 feet of the basket and by luring the Clippers into a series of bad defensive decisions.
