I’m glad that’s over.
Pre-season came to a merciful close tonight with a 96-94 loss to the Sacramento Kings. The Clippers came out hot, built a double digit lead, squandered it, fell behind, tied the game with under 30 seconds to go on a loooong 3-pointer by rookie Al-Farouq Aminu, and were beaten in the final seconds on a Tyreke Evans heart breaker. Except, of course, it wasn’t a heart breaker. It’s pre-season. I’ve already forgotten who won.
Even before the off-season started, it was quite obvious what position the Clippers were going to focus on: acquiring a small forward. As a part of a financial overhaul to potentially lure a top free agent SF, the Clippers cut ties will all but five players, keeping Baron Davis at PG, Eric Gordon at SG, Blake Griffin at PF, Chris Kaman at C and DeAndre Jordan at C. Not a bad foundation at all and with the quality of free agents at the small forward position (LeBron, Rudy Gay, Joe Johnson, etc.) as well as the small forwards in the draft (Wes Johnson, Al-Farouq Aminu, Gordon Hayward, Paul George, etc.) it was really easy to imagine that the Clippers were going to easily find their need and make a clear ascent.
Tonight is the Clippers last pre-season game and they’ll play the Sacramento Kings at home before taking eight days off for the season opener. In the last pre-season game, the Clippers cleaned the Kings clocks, beating them by 42 in their lone win of the pre-season.
Kaman, Blake and Al-Farouq scored 20, 18 and 17 respectively to lead the Clippers in scoring in the rout. However, what was more impressive, at least for this preseason, was that the Clippers held the Kings under 100 points in the first go-around. Hopefully, they can replicate that tonight. Game starts at 7:30 PM PT.
A few notes as I get back into town and the groove of things: last night, I came home late to check in on the Clippers and the first thing I find is that Blake Griffin isn’t in the box score and I’m instantaneously nervous. I try to evaluate how the Clipper players have played (Cookie 28 points, awesome!) but Blake Griffin’s health has turned into a zahir for me. I obsess over his well-being, cringe not only whenever he falls but whenever he’s up in the air, which is a lot. So I search more to learn that it is an injury, an ankle injury. My imagination is running wild. Can he play in those Sumo-wrestler fat suits for protection and not lose too much of his effectiveness? If not, he’s going to need screws of NASA grade metal to keep his foot together! Maybe NASA or the Army needs to give him an adamantium skeleton to protect him!
After blowing an 18 point lead against San Antonio in Mexico City, the Clippers tried to make up an 18 point deficit tonight against the Denver Nuggets in their preseason home opener. That they fell short in both games is neither a good sign for the regular season nor a reason to panic quite yet. Ginobli sat out the second half of the Spurs game on Tuesday and Chauncey Billups took the game off tonight, while the Clippers were missing Craig Smith and DeAndre Jordan from their regular rotation. Once again, there were some positives and negatives to take from a spirited preseason contest.