The book being drafted by most of the league on Chris Kaman instructs teams to swarm the Clippers’ big man with double-teams when he catches the ball at 15 feet. But Spurs coach Gregg Popovich’s reading list is self-authored and it reads something like this: “We’re the San Antonio Spurs. We deploy a stay at home strategy. If a guy like that has a big night and his team loses by double-digits, then so be it.” The Spurs will cheat ever so slightly, and if Kaman spins middle, they’ll certainly collapse, but by and large this has been their strategy against most post scorers for as long as we can remember, and it rarely fails.
Archive for December, 2009
San Antonio 103, Clippers 87
On December - 21 - 2009
Game Thread: Clippers at San Antonio
On December - 21 - 2009
The Transformation of Al Thornton
On December - 21 - 2009
Only 26 games are in the books, but Al Thornton has already endured a full season’s worth of drama. After shooting an abysmal 12 for 36 from the field in the Clippers first four losses to start the season, the third-year pro was demoted to the bench for the first time since becoming a starter late in his rookie season. Thornton would soon see his playing time decrease dramatically (21 min, 18 min, 16 min) in three straight Clippers wins with his coming off the pine. After the last of those three games, a 113-110 win against Memphis on November 7th, Thornton was asked if he was growing comfortable with his new role off the bench, and he answered with an emphatic “No.” Struggling on the court and brooding off of it, Thornton desperately needed to catch some sort of break. Luckily for him it wouldn’t take long, as Eric Gordon’s hamstring injury would result in Thornton’s unheralded return to the starting lineup.
Clippers 112, Philadelphia 107 (OT)
On December - 19 - 2009
We speak abstractly about the razor thin margin between winning and losing in basketball, but rarely do we get such a lucid illustration. I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen a game in which a team has been resuscitated the way the Clippers are Saturday evening.
With the game tied 99-99 in regulation and 0:11.1 remaining, the Sixers have possession:
Most hardcore basketball fans are programmed with the ability to instinctively determine the legality of a buzzer-beater most of the time. Watching it initially, I thought Iguodala hit it. Did you?
Game Thread: Clippers at Philadelphia
On December - 19 - 2009
