Blake Griffin hedged on the screen and crouched, Kevin Durant swinging into focus. Durant recognized what most would have considered a mismatch, and tried to take Blake Griffin right to the rim. Only Blake quickly moved his feet, the ball poked between Kevin Durant’s legs and Blake threw the pass down to a bolting Jamario Moon for the quick jam. Blake also drew three charges (2 on Ibaka, 1 on Maynor) and stole another in the back court from Daequan Cook. Which begs the question, how good can Blake be on defense?  More...

Eric Gordon was 5 for 15 from the field when it happened. He couldn’t get a shot to go in from outside, nor when he drove and the fouls had rarely come. The Clippers themselves even looked downright terrible at times in the first half, falling behind by as many as 16 points and on the verge of turning in a stinker like they did in the game before against Phoenix. But with the Clippers tied at 92 and less than a minute remaining, Eric Gordon completely disregarded the precedent set earlier in the game, squared up from three just left of center and buried the backbreaker. 95-92 Clips. The Thunder desperately tried to answer, but Randy Foye quickly poked the ball away and raced to the other end of the court and drew the foul. He made both free throws, essentially icing the game. The Clippers won, coming back from their largest deficit of the entire season.

The Thunder jumped out to a 15-4 lead on the Clippers, with the help of a white hot Kevin Durant. He scored a quick 8 points on 5 shots and the Clippers ability to stop him (Durant scored 18.5 points on 31 percent shooting in the two games before) looked like a fluke. Jamario gave his best, but he was highly ineffective.

On top of their defensive struggles, Eric Gordon and Mo Williams couldn’t make a shot to start out the game, due to the physical defense of Russell Westbrook and Thabo Sefalosha (Sefalosha is THE most underrated defender in the league). The two guards combined for 1 for 3 shooting and 2 turnovers in that first Thunder run. The Clippers fought back some, closing the gap to 7 points, but only two Clippers had more than one field goal (both Blake and Craig Smith had 2 field goals apiece). But that just felt like a superficial turnaround because the Clippers still couldn’t even hang onto the ball (5 turnovers) or shoot for a decent percentage (41 percent in the first quarter).

However, the turnaround wasn’t a superficial one, but just latent in the game. The hidden strength of the game started with Blake Griffin and Randy Foye. As soon as Moon moved off KD, the best defense was played. After starting 4 for 5, Durant shot 1 for 3 in the rest of the quarter and had Blake pick his pocket on an isolation play (which led to a Jamario Moon fast break dunk). Randy Foye’s successful defense of Durant was perplexing because he gave up at least 6 and probably more like 8 inches to Durant. Let’s look at the sequence of Foye on Durant. First touch, Durant passed off, no Thunder bucket. Next, Foye fouled Durant. Then forced Durant into a miss. The only play that Durant succeeded was the end of the quarter jumper after he already missed a three pointer.

Those individual defensive performances didn’t carry over to the team, though, and the Clippers continued to dig a big hole in the second quarter. Probably because of his effort on defense, Foye struggled mightily on offense, and didn’t create any sort of flow. He took his shots when he could, missing a long two, a floater and a three within the first three minutes while James harden buried three pointers (and did a ridiculous three fingered hand gesture after every shot where he dragged his arm low will giving the A-Okay sign but pointed down). The Clippers fell down by 15 before the Clippers subbed out Foye for Aminu. And even though Gordon made a pair of free throws, Daequan Cook made a quick rebuttal three to extend the lead to a game high 16 points.

The Clips half-heartedly chipped away at the lead, with the Al-Farouq Aminu dunk and the Eric Gordon front of the rim, miracle bank layup seeming like an exception rather than the start of a trend. The atmosphere felt like a first hand account of exactly what happened in Phoenix, lazy effort and execution lacking.

“I didn’t like the way we played in the first half,” Vinny said. “Our intensity and energy wasn’t good last night and it kind of came over to the first half tonight. I challenged the guys and they responded.”

Whether or not the Clippers were responding to Vinny or just taking their second quarter surge, there is no denying that the Clippers not only played much better in the second quarter, but just looked better. They hustled for rebounds, got out in transition and their offense forged together. The Clippers played by far their best third quarter of the year.

The Clippers continued to play great defense on Kevin Durant, as he shot just 3 for 9 in the third quarter, 2-5 in Jamario’s time on the floor and 1-4 during Aminu’s. Their offense was merely mediocre even through the start. In the first 5:30 of the third, the Clippers only scored a bucket on a pair of DeAndre Jordan put back slams, and one layup each for Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon. But because the Clippers’ defense was good, they were able to weather the Thunder until they went on a 10-0 run on a Jamario Moon 3, a Blake reverse layup, three technical foul shots (Perkins, Westbrook and coach Scotty Brooks all earned one) and a Blake Griffin righty bank shot (after he had a fantastic rebound and saved the ball as he fell out of bounds by whipping it to Aminu). The fans were elated and the prospect of an upset felt very real.

The Thunder may have been rattled but that didn’t stop them from halting the Clippers push, despite more technical fouls (one on Nazr Mohammed and a double on Nick Collison and Blake), a game tying offensive rebound and layup from Blake and supposedly momentum swinging three. The Thunder even bumped their lead back to five points early in the fourth quarter.

The Clippers countered with their small ball lineup, sending out Gordon, Foye and either Bledsoe or Mo to play with Smith/Blake and DeAndre. The lineup flummoxed the Thunder for a coupe of minutes, as the Clippers charged back to another tenuous lead. However, the Clippers began to fumble in the fourth quarter, and had this been earlier in the season they probably would have lost the game. The Clippers just couldn’t stop fouling and whining (DeAndre was called for the technical foul when he complained on Eric Gordon’s foul of Westbrook), they eventually were down by as much as 5, again, with only five minutes remaining.

The volatility of the small ball lineup swung back in the Clippers favor as Foye made a three, Eric Gordon made a bucket and when Kevin Durant answered with a jumper to take the lead (his only field goal of the quarter), Randy Foye hit a stepback 30 foot three pointer over Durant’s outstretched arms to take the lead back. But the Clippers showed their predictability by trying to go for the dagger alley-oop for Blake, only to have Harden deflect the pass and get Ibaka an easy dunk to take the lead back.

The Clippers didn’t fret, got the ball back to Blake, who drew consecutive fouls and made 3 of 4 shots from the free throw line and set up for that huge Eric Gordon three.

More than any other game, the Clippers had fight. Usually in their big wins, they get the lead and take the lead, but tonight they showed the mettle typically reserved for playoff type teams. Even though they made mistakes they didn’t let those mistakes distract them from continuing to play hard and smart. If the Clippers are ever going to develop like the Thunder, they’ll have to remember the lessons learned in this game.

Notes:

- Craig Smith had his biggest game of the season, scoring 14 points on 6 for 8 shooting and providing a great bench lift especially with Chris Kaman out. He scored in some of his normal ways, bullying around the rim, put backs off offensive rebounds, but also drove to the hoop for a bucket and drilled a 20 footer from the top of the key.

- Eric Gordon has had a fantastic year, but I wonder if he has become too demonstrative after he goes to the rim. He drew a technical tonight once, complained frequently and that could hurt him on borderline calls, like when it appeared Gordon blocked Westbrook from behind but was instead whistled for the foul.

- Sticking with Gordon, he still struggles with his handle, possibly because he dribbles with the ball so far away from his body. He finished with three turnovers that could have been more if a few mishandled dribbles didn’t go out of bounds off Thunder players. Surely, his weak wrist has an effect on his handle, but Gordon still needs to improve if he wants to become a truly special player.

- Aminu. Played great tonight, and played the best defense I’ve seen all season. He even had some good passes, like a third quarter interior pass to Rhino that almost turned into a bucket and a fourth quarter dish to DeAndre that would have been an easy slam had DeAndre not been fouled. They didn’t result in assists but they didn’t go unnoticed either. His offense came completely on the fast break tonight, with his coast to coast monster dunk, the Bledsoe assisted fast break layup in the fourth and the put back jam off Bledsoe’s miss on the break.

- Blake drew three charges and had some solid cameo defense on Kevin Durant. Love his late season improvement on defense.

- The Clippers look more like they have each other’s backs. When Blake and Collison were chirping, Craig Smith jumped right in, and when Blake hit the deck in the third, three Clippers raced to pick him up. Little things, but those little things help keep a team together.

- Randy Foye played great defense on Durant and made some huge shots late in the fourth (that stepback, rebuttal 30 footer over Durant was insane) but he also played miserable defense on James Harden and ran the offense terribly for stretches in the second quarter. As it was, he made those giant buckets, and was a key to success, but he could have just as easily been the goat.

- Revenge of the dunk contest? First it was JaVale McGee and now Ibaka, but Blake had one of the most vicious rejections of the season:

An amazing block from Ibaka, but I’m not so thrilled about him stealing Dikembe Mutombo’s fingerwag afterwards. Ibaka will have enough great blocks that he needs to have his own reaction.

The Clippers play host to the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team whose plan the Clips would love to follow. Draft a couple blue chip prospects (Durant/Westbrook or Griffin/Gordon), fill the team in with talented young role players (Ibaka, Harden, Maynor or Jordan/Aminu/Bledsoe), value highly the chemistry of the team, don’t overspend on veteran players, rid the team of bad contracts and stock up on draft picks. For continued development, stay wise with picks and vets, and let the team grow.

Although, as smooth as the Thunder’s rise to success has seemed, let’s not forget that they had their struggles, too. When they were supposed to take off in their second year, they limped out the gate to a 1 and 12 start, fired P.J. Carlesimo and continued to flounder under Scotty Brooks (winning only two more of their next 19 games), and even had paradoxical questions to deal with like whether the Thunder were better off without Kevin Durant on the floor. Even when they improved, they had to deal with the underwhelming Jeff Green (6 rebounds per game as a power forward?), whether or not the once sure thing James Harden would develop into a solid rotation player and the fact that they had very little size or intimidation.

And that’s all after they had won 50 games and made the playoffs. No matter how talented a good team is, there will always be questions.

The Clippers have a ton of their own (what to do at small forward? Will Aminu develop into the future small forward? Will Mo Williams mesh with the team? How will their team defense improve or their individual defense? What to do with Kaman and DeAndre? Should they keep both, trade one?), but the essential foundation is there. They have two blue chip players to build around and from the looks of it, they are showing the patience necessary to do so. The most rushed move they’ve done was to get rid of Baron Davis while they could. The Clippers might have been able to unload Baron after the end of the year and get back more, but even the concession of the pick is understandable considering the financial repercussions.

The great news is that the Clippers team has won more this year than either of Kevin Durant’s early teams (whether they were the Sonics or the Thunder). The Clips have already suffered that horrible opening, this years 1-13 start, and have righted themselves earlier than the Thunder team. But that doesn’t guarantee that the Clippers will have more or even as much success.

Oklahoma made plenty of smart plays after they began to shine, from getting a young coach that could connect with the team and get Kevin Durant to improve his defense. They finagled the extension with Nick Collison by front loading his contract so that they would have room for the extensions of other players on the team. The Thunder snuck away good players (like Maynor) from teams that needed cap relief and took advantage of teams that were looking towards the future while ridding themselves of their own problems (like the Celtics trade with Kendrick Perkins for Jeff Green).

Beyond just improving the team’s defense, cutting down turnovers and keeping them healthy, the Clipper front office has a huge workload. There is an adage insisting on the ephemerality of both success and failure. Just because the Clippers have, finally, begun to assemble a good team doesn’t guarantee it. They need to watch how hard and smart the Thunder work at every level, and then emulate that ethic. And though that doesn’t guarantee success, that ideology will give the Clippers the best chance.

Keys to the Game

- Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Both players are MVP caliber and so far the Clippers have been able to hold them in check. In the two previous meetings, Durant averaged 18.5 points on 31 percent shooting while Westbrook averaged 14.5 points on 29 percent shooting. No matter how good the Clipper defense is on those two, the probability that they play around those numbers is unlikely. That will be the goal, but anything below their averages of 22 points on 44 percent shooting for Westbrook and 27.8 points on 46 percent shooting for Durant will be considered a success.

- Big game for the Clipper bigs. The Thunder have one of the better interior defenses with Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka, both are athletic and capable of blocking shots and limiting the points in the paint. One on one, Blake can take either of these players, however, the Clippers are potentially without Kaman, so the pair of Perk and Ibaka might be able to swarm Blake, making for a rough offensive night. Blake has been very efficient against the Thunder (23 points on 59 percent shooting) but both games were before Perkins joined the Thunder lineup. He’ll need some help from DeAndre or Kaman (if he plays) to give him the spacing to operate down low.

- Mo Williams. Mo started to find some rhythm against the Suns, dished out a couple assists (even to Eric Gordon), but found himself in early foul trouble due to some silly fouls. Mo needs to keep himself in the game, maintain that rhythm because in the last few games, VDN has been putting Foye in to run the offense, which is a significant downgrade at the point.

Injury Report

Chris Kaman: viral illness, questionable

Thunder: none reported

Just prior to the game, both Chris Kaman and Steve Nash were ruled out due to flu-like symptoms and Ryan Gomes was having problems with his knee. The Clippers did lose their third or fourth option on offense with Kaman (and their last option with Gomes), but the Suns lost not only an efficient scorer but the man that runs the entire offense. Combine that with the Suns’ four losses going into the game, and the momentum had to be with the Clippers.

And for the start, the Clippers played like they had the momentum.

DeAndre Jordan muscled for a couple offensive rebounds and a five foot hook shot (with his right hand) for the first points of the game as well as almost making a solid lefty hook off a good seal. Eric Gordon broke out of his slump with his first two jump shots, assisted by Blake and Mo, which led the way to 21 points on 8 for 16 shooting. Mo made a three. Blake was typical Blake (20 points on 6 for 15 shooting, 13 rebounds and 4 assists), getting Gordon involved, transition dunks, righty bank shots off the block. Even Jamario Moon drilled a three. The Clippers were soaring, with an easy 19-14 lead through the first eight minutes of the first quarter.

However, DeAndre mowed over Channing Frye for his second foul and Mo drew two fouls (the second after he undercut Grant Hill who made the bucket), and the Clippers immediately lost momentum. That five point lead dropped to 2 points, then the Clippers were even and by the end of the quarter the Clippers were down two.

When Mo left the game in the first, Randy Foye (10 points, 4 for 8 shooting, 0 assists) took over the reigns and the Clippers offense immediately sputtered. They didn’t score for the next two minutes, only scored 4 points in the last four minutes and shot 2 for 7 from the field while missing both free throws and turning the ball over twice. Eric Bledsoe (9 points, 4 for 6 shooting, 3 assists and 3 steals) may have his problems, but he’s much closer to a natural point than Randy Foye.

With the first half push turned into an end of quarter deficit, the Clippers seemed to have given up. Blake still continued to rack up rebounds and points, but even he lollygagged down the court and looked defeated. With the help of rookie point guard Zabian Dowdell (14 points, 5 for 10 shooting and 5 assists), the Suns bust the game open, leading by as many as 16 in the second half.

The Clippers barely tried to defend a team without Steve Nash, and while there’s no question he’s much better than Aaron Brooks or Dowdell, they are still NBA players that need to be covered. But the Clippers suffered from a bout of laziness and never even thought about inching closer in the second half. Really, the only part of the second half that was even worth watching was Eric Bledsoe’s fast break bounce pass backwards between his legs to a trucking Brian Cook for the jam. Everything in the middle? Just a vicious reminder that the Clippers have a long ways to improve.

Yes, they have Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon looked much better, but the fact is that the team doesn’t function as a team consistently enough. March was a huge improvement, but like in January, the Clippers benefitted from a home heavy schedule and some weak opponents when they did go on the road. The Clippers need to continue to play hard, not play to the level of their competition. Actually, had they played to the level of the Nash depleted Suns, they would have at least put up a fight. As it were, the Clippers strolled through to their 47th loss of the season in a disturbingly relaxed fashion.

Notes:

• With Gomes out, Jamario Moon got the nod at starting small forward. Other than his first three, Moon was on a non-stop mission to prove that he’s not a starting small forward. He missed the rest of his shots (1 for 4 on the night), didn’t record a steal or a block, although he did have two inane turnovers and his 4 rebounds were in no way compensatory for the rest of his night. In theory, I like the idea of Moon, but he’s not part of the future. If the Clippers are just going to get a turnover prone small forward, why not put in Aminu and develop him?
• Tonight was by far the best I’ve seen Eric Bledsoe operate a fast break. He drove until defenders collapsed on him, and then kicked it out to the appropriate player. He showed moments of hustle and, outside of Gordon, was the most active on the floor. Hope that VDN’s lesson in the Dallas game has positive residual effects, although I don’t like seeing Foye get the point guard call before Bledsoe in any situation.
• Clippers really could have used Kaman tonight. As soon as DeAndre went into foul trouble (which has been happening with less frequency, but still), the Clippers had to go to Rhino in the paint. As good as he is, the height disadvantage can be brutal, especially against a tall Suns team (Frye, Gortat and Lopez are all over 7’1” and long). Kaman would have been a great balance to draw Gortat off Blake for stretches when the Clippers needed points.
  

The Clippers will face a Suns team that they haven’t seen in their first three meetings, not that any of those teams were exactly the same (pre-Marcin/VC trade, Marcin/VC trade adjustment period, post-Marcin/VC trade), but now the Suns have fallen two games below .500 and are 5.5 games out of a playoff spot.

Over at Valley of the Suns:

With the Phoenix Suns mired in a four-game losing streak that has dropped them 5 1/2 games out of a playoff spot and caused the Hollinger Playoff Odds to decrease their chances of reaching the postseason to an honest 0 percent, it begs the question how much longer will Steve Nash continue giving everything he has for a season gone awry?

Just because of the emotions, the recent performance, the Suns could easily add to their losing streak. They had expectations, like always, of making the playoffs and despite some stretches of solid play mixed with a great addition in Marcin Gortat, the Suns are practically but not mathematically eliminated. Even if they won the last 8 games, Memphis could win only 3 games (and they have two against the Clippers) and still have a clear lead in the standings.

Clipper fans will remember how the Clippers handled their apparent practical elimination from the playoffs when they lost to the Bulls on February 2 (or earlier against the Rockets and Mavs), the Clippers then went on a 2-9 road trip. Only rare nights drew much energy from the Clippers as a collective.

The Suns are a veteran team, so they’re not looking to develop a chemistry and identity, but maintain health for the future. Every win is a stepping stone for the Clippers right now, and if anything, they need to take advantage of teams when they are down. The Clips need to develop the habits necessary to win with consistency and every game provides that opportunity.

In other news, Ryan Gomes’ knee has been bothering him and he might eventually be shut down for the season. While this doesn’t change the problem that the Clippers have had at small forward this year (Gomes played his worst season of his career), a dimension of the problem is added, or removed. Now, the Clippers only have three options: 1) give Gomes’ minutes to Al-Farouq Aminu, 2) give Gomes’ minutes to Jamario Moon or 3) give those minutes to the Clippers three guard lineup of Bledsoe, Gordon and Foye.

At this juncture, none of those options are particularly appealing. Aminu has shown glimpses, but is still a project. Jamario has had flashes, but his career is just a series of flashes (check out Ben Golliver’s post at Blazer’s Edge on Malcom Gladwell’s famous 10,000 hour principle applied to Gerald Wallace and Jamario Moon). And having Gordon or Foye spend time at the three minimizes Gordons ability to defend or leaves Randy Foye out to be not just a streaky defender but a wildly bad one.

Since the Clippers are playing for the future, playing Farouq more seems like a no-brainer. Aminu had his best stretch of the year when he was starting (don’t you vaguely remember that 20 point, 8 rebound performance against the Hornets back in November?), and needs minutes to develop. Although after Vinny’s post-game talk about the rookies (Aminu and Bledsoe) not being consistent enough, Jamario and the three guard lineup might see more run.

Keys to the Game

- Steve Nash v. Mo Williams. As Mo has shown, he’s ready to attack any time he a poor defensive point guard covers him. He lit up Derek Fisher, as well as Jason Kidd in the quarter Kidd covered him, but Mo’s not a good defensive player. Nash is also not a good defensive point guard, but the offensive capabilities between Nash and Mo are not even remotely close. While Mo seems to have ‘distributor’ mode and ‘scorer’ mode, Nash is better than Mo in both scoring and distributing and to top it off, is always in both modes. Cut off Nash’s passing lanes, he’ll drive to the hole for a circus layup. Collapse on Nash and suffer the Suns getting a wide open three. That’s really the distinction between guys like Mo and Nash, the ability to not fall into a zone, because that zone makes defending that player easier. Although Nash may not play much or at all, which would be huge for the Clippers.

- Blake v. the Phoenix Bigs. Blake had one of his least efficient games against the Phoenix in their last match-up (17 points on 6 for 18 shooting), largely due to the new defensive presence of the Suns. Both Marcin Gortat and Robin Lopez provide the length and athleticism requisite to bothering Blake.

- Eric Gordon. He hasn’t been playing nearly as consistently as of late, and that’s of some concern. Not sure whether that’s due to his wrist, or Mo’s ability to get the ball in Eric’s favorite spots. The good news is that both can be remedied, although not right away.

Injury Report

Mickael Pietrus: knee, questionable