A few notes from the 97-92 loss to the Kings:

• The story of the first half was all about transition. It may be tough to stop some of the Kings ballhandlers like Evans and Casspi when they get their forward momentum hurling towards the rim, but there really isn’t an excuse for allowing a guy like Beno Udrih to go uncontested for a relatively easy two points. The Kings 14 first half fast break points sparked their 56 point half and put the Clippers in a big hole early. The Kings finished with 22 fast break points while the Clippers were only able to manage 6 points from their transition opportunities. If nothing else, tonight just further proved that saying you want to run and actually having the personnel and desire to do so are two completely different things.

• The Clippers usually aren’t going to shoot as poorly (37% from the field) as they did tonight. That being said, are the right players taking the right shots? After nearly two years of seeing Baron in a Clippers uniform, isn’t it safe to say that he should probably never lead the team in shot attempts? Baron’s 5 for 17 performance tonight coupled with 1 for 9 shooting from outside of 15 feet dooms the Clippers offensively. On the year Baron shoots 31% from outside of 15 feet, so it’s safe to say those 9 shots could have been better used elsewhere. To be fair, Baron is often stuck with the ball in his hands with the shot clock winding down. Still though, it’s not hard to assign some of the blame for that to Baron, as many times the shot clock is already down below the 14 second mark before the first pass is even made. Tonight Baron just seems to make the degree of difficulty on the offensive end much harder than what it needs to be against the Kings who are far from a stout defensive unit.

Game 59

6p PT

Fox Sports Prime Ticket

980 AM

The Clippers get everything they want offensively Friday night:

• Craig Smith dominates in isolation, taking Phoenix defenders at will on strong dribble-drives to the rack. Smith also plays the pick and roll, running a beautiful set with Eric Gordon at (2nd, 9:54). It’s nice to see Eric making plays, because he’s had a hellacious couple of months handling the ball.
• Gordon gets himself going with a couple of aggressive drives early, two of them in transition (1st, 9:12; 1st, 7:53), then stretches his game out to the arc, as Phoenix is unwilling to chase shooters off the line.
• Travis Outlaw also takes advantage of the Suns’ generosity on the perimeter. He drains a 3-pointer in the second quarter when the Suns inexplicably overload on a Steve Blake-Craig Smith screen/roll, even after Blake has reversed the ball away from the action (2nd, 7:29). This leaves Jason Richardson accountable for both Baron Davis and Travis Outlaw. Richardson is slow to close and Travis drains his first of four 3-pointers on the night. Outlaw picks up another bomb from beyond the arc in transition a couple of minutes later.
• Drew Gooden has some offensive skills, which shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise when you look at his career efficiency numbers. He can run the pick-and-pop (though he doesn’t tonight), has a good enough handle to put the ball on the floor and drive (2nd, 8:50; 4th, 10:42), and though he’s not the master Marcus Camby is, Gooden will get his share of tip-ins at the rim (3rd, 5:58).

Despite putting up an efficiency number of 115.5, the Clippers hemorrhage at the defensive end, surrendering 125 points in 97 possessions to Phoenix (128.9/100). As is often the case with bad defensive efforts, the Clippers cannot defend the Suns’ pick-and-roll, a problem made worse once Kaman is ejected at the beginning of the third quarter for excessive kvetching:

The Clippers aren’t unique here. There isn’t a defense in the league that’s consistently and effectively taken away this part of the Suns’ game. Play Nash straight up (as in the first clip), and he’ll find the angle on the roll. Trap him (as the Clippers do in the second possession above) and you better rotate more quickly than the Clippers do on Friday night. If Amare Stoudemire pops off the screen (the fourth possession above), you have an awful choice to make: Step out on Stoudemire, and he’ll put the ball on the deck and drive past you; play off Stoudemire to protect against the drive, and he’ll drain that face-up jumper from 20 feet.

And here’s the kicker. Once you adjust against the pick-and-roll by sending weak side help, the Suns will swing the ball to the open man vacated by the help.  Take a look:

The bloodletting can’t be blamed entirely on pick-and-roll defense. The Clippers give up far too many baskets in transition to a team that finishes the break as well as any. The Suns convert 22 of 25 shots at the basket Friday night, many of them courtesy of run-outs. Whether it’s Jared Dudley’s trailing tip-in at the third quarter buzzer off Goran Dragic’s missed layup, or Grant Hill beating the Clippers’ transition defense down the floor to receive Steve Nash’s gorgeous 30-foot outlet pass for a layup, the Suns find easy baskets all night amid the chaos.

Game 58

6p PT

Fox Sports Prime Ticket

980 AM

From NBA.com:

Varun Soni, dean of religious life at USC, describes how his devotion to the Clippers has made him a better Hindu:

For me, being a Los Angeles Clippers fan for over twenty years has taught me firsthand about the spiritual dimensions of faith and suffering, and has helped me better understand my own Hindu tradition. According to the Bhagavad Gita, a pan-Hindu theological text, we should act righteously in each moment and relinquish attachment to future rewards. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna counsels Arjuna on the battlefield and instructs him to act in the present moment without being attached to the fruits of his labor. In this context, Hinduism shares an Indian philosophical worldview with Buddhism that focuses on the process as opposed to the goal, the present as opposed to the past, and the journey as opposed to the destination…

…Yet there is an infectious joy in being a Clippers fan and rooting for the ultimate underdog with unbridled optimism. For Clippers fans, every meaningful victory resembles a mystical experience, a transcendent and ecstatic moment of redemption. In my case, being a Clippers fan brought me into a kindred community of passionate and knowledgeable fans who are the antithesis of the bandwagon and fair-weathered variety (check out real Clippers fans here and here). Rooting for the Clippers taught me firsthand about the Indian philosophical doctrines of causality and non-attachment, and I now have a permanent mantra – “next season!” In all these ways, being a Clippers fan has made me a better Hindu.

The full post is here at the Huffington Post.