There should be a lot of chatter and controversy with Carmelo Anthony in the building tonight. When will he be traded? Will the Clippers get him (I say probably not)? Do the Clippers even want him? Etc.
Will you come to any conclusions when you watch him tonight as the Nuggets come to town in the Prime Ticket televised pre-season home opener? Maybe, maybe not. But if last game is in any way indicative, it’ll be fun to watch.
In some ways, last nights game at Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes had all the hallmarks of a “typical Clippers” loss – the blown double-digit lead, missed free-throws down the stretch, a last-second dagger drained by a semi-obscurity etc. In fact, the game was an encouraging one for Clipper fans. With the exception of a sluggish stretch in the third quarter where an offensively-challenged Clipper B-unit lost an 18 point lead, repeatedly settling for the outside jumper, the Clippers played energetic team basketball, with a consistent ball movement unseen in these parts (Clipperland not Mexico City) in years. There was an unusual intensity down the stretch for a pre-season game, stemming from some combination of 22,000 stomping fans (mostly pro-Spurs) and the fact that both coaches played their starters throughout a nip and tuck fourth quarter. Would it have been nice if the Clippers had held on? I guess – but most of us have been waiting all summer to watch this team on the court, and there was a lot to like. To wit:
One of my favorite movie lines of all time is in Bottle Rocket, during a scene where Owen Wilson is trying to convince Luke Wilson to join in a planned heist. “Here are a few of the ingredients,” he says, ticking off elements of the plan on his fingers. “Dynamite, pole vaulting, laughing gas, helicopters…can you see how incredible this is going to be?!?” The joke, of course, is that it’s a terrible plan — long on pole vaulting, short on logic. The Clippers enter the 2010-11 campaign with a new coach, a new general manager and a whole bunch of new parts, including last year’s top overall draft pick, the Completely Cleared for All Basketball Activities Blake Griffin. And the question is: Has Neil Olshey put together a workable plan or will it be another season of laughing gas and helicopters?
Bienvenidos desde Mexico. The Clippers play the San Antonio Spurs tonight at 6:30 PM PT and since I had so much fun working the Daily Dime Live for ESPN last Friday, I thought we’d start up our own Cover It Live/Daily Dime Live-ish event here on the ClipperBlog.
This should give you all plenty of space and options to talk about the game. I’m going to try and work this out as seamlessly as possible, but this is my first time hosting a CIL event, so I apologize in advance for any hiccups. I’m going to try and make it less formal than the Daily Dime Live chats so that there can be dialogue between everyone. Same guidelines as normal: no foul language and no name-calling.
Perhaps the best way to begin a consideration of the Rookie of the Year, from the perspective of a Clipper fan, is to remember that other people don’t think or see things the same way that we do. Out there in the real world of the NBA and its fans, John Wall seems an easy and obvious primary candidate. He was clearly the top pick, with virtually no discussion of any other player getting the nod. He’s an extraordinary talent, with a mixture of athleticism, court sense and skill that is outstanding, even in an era of amazing point guards. We should remember that to most folks he might as well be a lock.