With Eric Gordon assigned to Steve Nash for the bulk of the night, both Jason Richardson and Grant Hill are eager to post up Baron Davis and give the Clippers’ guard a little taste of his own medicine. That’s what Hill does at about the 7:40 mark of the third quarter in a half-court sequence that illustrates the Clippers’ poor decision-making at the outset of the second half. The Clippers give up 39 points in 24 possessions to Phoenix (162.5/100 possessions). You begin to understand why when you see Drew Gooden leave Amare Stoudemire to double Hill. Davis is ceding a bit of ground to Hill, as the vet backs him down off the left block, but it’s not a Defcon 4 situation. As Gooden comes over, Rasual Butler rotates onto Stoudemire.
Now facing a double-team, Hill kicks the ball to Nash out along the perimeter. Butler leaves Stoudemire to return to his original assignment on the possession — Jason Richardson along the weak side arc. And Gooden reacquaints himself with Stoudemire at the foul line.
Here’s where the breakdown occurs: Hill re-posts against Davis and Nash feeds him again. And, again, Gooden darts over with the hard double-team — but this time, there’s no one to pick up Stoudemire. Butler is at home on Richardson (probably not a bad idea since Richardson drained a 27-footer on the preceding possession), while Chris Kaman guards Robin Lopez beneath the weak side glass. Hill has been playing professional basketball since the merger, and he delivers a smart bounce pass through the lane to a diving, unguarded Stoudemire, who finishes untouched with a slam.
The Clippers get beat in the third quarter on the defensive end in every conceivable way:
- They fail to get back on the break (Hill, 3rd, 10:07) or pick up shooters who trail then spot up (Richardson, 3rd, 8:02), or trailers who dart to the rim untouched (Stoudemire, 3rd, 6:22).
- The Clips’ smaller guards get beat by Jason Richardson in the post (3rd, 10:23; 3rd, 0:43).
- They get abused by Stoudemire on dribble-drives that start inside of 15 feet (3rd, 11:25; 3rd, 9:33; 3rd, 3:44).
- They fail to provide help on the most potent pick-and-roll combo in the game (3rd, 2:51).
- They unwittingly slough off the best 3-point shooting center in the game, even though there’s nothing worth protecting below the foul line in this particular sequence (3rd, 4:22).
- They give up easy points on turnovers (3rd, 0:21).
- They also foul with impunity, sending Phoenix to the line for 14 free throws in the quarter. Some of those trips to the stripe materialize because the Clips have no other recourse in transition (3rd, 2:19; 3rd, 1:29) and some of them occur because the Clips have no recourse against Stoudemire down low (3rd, 1:46; 3rd, 1:14).
It’s really too bad because the Clippers do a lot of positive things in the first half. Most notably, they creatively generate some nice looks for Eric Gordon — a flare screen (1st, 9:47) and a pin-down from Kaman (1st, 6:53) are my two favorites. It’s high-grade, well-executed offense that not only delivers the ball to Gordon where he can do some serious damage, but also lowers the likelihood of a turnover.
Wednesday is the kind of game that tempts you into believing that Marcus Camby would’ve made a difference — especially when you examine the 50-30 rebounding deficit — but the Clips haven’t defended the Suns all season.
12 Responses
3rd quarter meltdown by BD. I’m glad steve blake’s here to lay some foundation for this team to keep pushing forward. with his threes that he knocked down in the 4th, I see more heart from steve than BD.
is it just me or does Amare look like a Terminator? T-100 model. Not the Arnold version.
Posted on March 3rd, 2010 at 11:49 pm
I was there. Maybe it was just those empty purple seats (though it was a fairly decent turnout), but it seemed like there were way more Suns fans than Clips fans in Staples.
Juicebox Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 8:59 am
Yup. I was there too and it definitely felt like there were more Suns fans.
clippafan4life Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
I don’t think it’s just for this game, this is the case most nights. We are the team you go see to watch lose against your favorite team. It’s hard work being a clipper fan and putting up with other people, I think you have to be partly crazy most nights. Either that or some kinda masochist…
Posted on March 4th, 2010 at 12:12 am
One step forward,two steps back.Once again no consistency.
Posted on March 4th, 2010 at 12:33 am
Of all the teams, it always seems they do the worst against Phoenix. Closest they ever got was beginning of the season when Nash sank the layup to win the game.
Posted on March 4th, 2010 at 7:45 am
I looked at the box score just now. Wow. Steve Novak actually played?
Posted on March 4th, 2010 at 7:49 am
Will they ever learn to defend the 3!!!! They have to be one of the worst teams in the league at defending the 3.
Posted on March 4th, 2010 at 9:24 am
First game of the year for me last night, and first NBA game of his life for my 5-year-old hoops loving son. We had a fantastic time and the kid is totally floating on cloud nine today. Tale of 2 halves last night, huh?
The defense was bad in the 3rd quarter but I thought the offense was worse. The Suns came out in the 2nd half with a lot more energy and determination. Hughes tried to quell it but there was a spell there when the Clips only points came on a couple of ill-advised 17-footers by Gooden. To me they seemed dispirited on the defensive end from their inability to get anything resembling a decent look on the offensive end. Amazing because it was a really nice 1st half.
Kaman and Gordon were both hot early but the Clippers don’t seem like a team that is smart enough to keep feeding the hot hand(s). BD for the most part was facilitating but there were a couple possessions in the 1st quarter where both BD and Butler brought the ball down and it was clear from the word go that they weren’t giving it up. Maybe good teams go through that kind of selfishness too but my money says they’re smarter and better than that and (1) people are willing to sublimate their numbers for the team, and (2) people realize that they’re going to get theirs if they’re patient. I know Nash is Nash but 2-2-13 is a BEAUTIFUL line, especially considering he was able to take the 4th quarter off. I don’t think BD would be happy with that line, even if it meant a 26-point victory and kicking back during (as the boy called it) “jerk time.” (I have no idea where he got that but it was damn funny.)
It seemed obvious last night why Gooden has bounced around the league. Good energy but he made several awful decisions on offense – a bunch of reckless dribble drives, the 17-footers. He seems to hold his offensive skills (and I use the term loosely) in very high esteem – much too high. End of contract, maybe end of career, the numbers matter – is that it?
I was disappointed that Outlaw was content to sit back and bomb 20-footers. That’s how you go 1 for 9.
Jordan couldn’t have been less of a factor. I was really hoping to see good energy minutes from him but he was barely capable of taking up space.
Blake looked nice in his suit and all Clippers merchandise was 50% off. The kid had a great time. The first half was competitive and entertaining. All was not lost.
Juicebox Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 10:46 am
Hahaha, “jerk time.” That’s clever. The merch being 50% off was definitely the highlight of my night, though I missed the third quarter in that line and consequently the Suns breakaway. Im still 1 for 12 in career Clipper games.
Deez Nutz Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Going back and re-watching it today I was amazed at how good of a game Ralph and Mike call. I mean, I’ve always loved Ralph – the guy is so damn good. (I loved the Lawler-Walton years but who didn’t?) After seeing the game in person and forming my own opinions and then going back over it, I really was blown away by how much value the broadcast adds. These guys are so spot on and locked in on every issue as the issue is happening, from the flare screen to Gordon early to the rule change that allowed the refs to review (and disallow) Richardson’s first shot to Amare’s surprising use (and non-use) of his left hand to lineups that worked and didn’t work the last time the teams played. I get so sick of uninformative or unentertaining broadcasts that I wanted to give a shout to the great work that Ralph and (even) Mike do.
Posted on March 4th, 2010 at 10:03 am
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