Clippers 105, Warriors 86: Losing My Religion

26 Dec 2011

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The team you root for doesn’t serve solely as an indicator of your geographic location. Fanhood can be a reflection of your personality, your ideals, your loyalty. Being a Clippers fan, for a lot of people, means something. It means you go against the grain, you root for the underdog. It means on some level you’re self-deprecating and maybe even a little bit masochistic.

Now? I don’t know what being a Clippers fan means anymore. We’re all losing our identity, because the Clippers are no longer the Clippers.

This, of course, is a good thing. It’s nice that they can beat the Warriors by 19 points on the road and we can all complain afterwards about Chauncey Billups’ shot selection or all the offensive rebounds or the terrible half-court execution. It’s good that the sky can fall after a win. It’s just different.

And it’s a lot like being a Lakers fan.

Some of you just made your laptop do a Jerome Simpson like flip, and others are hovering your mouse over the back button as we speak. But let’s look at this for what it was.

The Clippers were sleep-walking through the first three and a half quarters, maintaining a small lead for the majority of the timeframe. For 44 straight minutes, save for some DeAndre Jordan blocks (8 to be exact), the Clippers looked downright apathetic on the court.

Then all of the sudden the best player on the court remembered he was the best player on the court, and decided to take his boot to the fingers of a team clinging for their life. 18-foot jumper, 11-foot jumper, 21-foot jumper. Three straight possessions, three straight Chris Paul daggers. And that was that. The Clippers knew it, the Warriors knew it. The best player on the court had just staked his claim to the victory, and there was nothing anyone else could do about it.

The Clippers didn’t play better than the Warriors this Christmas; they were just better. They did what teams with superior talent do — coast for as long as possible, then step on the gas and pull away when it matters. It’s maddening and unnecessary, it’s reminiscent of all the times Kobe and the Lakers have done it, and it’s something the Clippers will likely do all season long. And in return? Well…we”ll complain and conjure up crazy hypothetical situations where the Clippers actually lose the game, of course.

This team has obviously changed. The expectations have changed right along with it. And whether you realize it yet or not, so has your identity.

letsjointhenavy

The Laker comparison is exactly what I was thinking after this game finished. Could Chris Paul have lulled for three and a half quarters with the Hornets and finish with a win? Same goes for Griffin; a night of 22 and 7 would not have given the Clippers a 19 point victory on the road. It was a guilty pleasure to see the Clippers give everything they have and barely squeeze out a win. It defined the experience of a being a Clipper fan. But we probably won’t be seeing that this year, and I’m not complaining.
STEVEN

word!
cLIPPER wARRIOR

So comforting to finally have a closer (in CP3) to manage the final quarter. Last year we would cough up so many games due to unforced turnovers and not knowing who to give the ball to at the of games. I still havent seen consistent offensive and defensive sets (almost seem like they were playing a pickup game for the first few quarters last night) . Let’s hope they work on that before the San Antonio game. Our on-the-fly playmaking won’t work against a savvy veterain team
Max Powers

Griffin was terrible and lazy last night. It was the opposite of the grit and hard work from last year. Hope this doesn’t become a trend.
- TeddyGreen
  
  Totally agree.
Isaac

It was strange. At no point during the game did I think we were going to lose. I don’t think i’ve every really experienced that.
Slax

These Clippers have no business taking any possessions off, and they have to everything to prove on hustle and hardwork. The Heat are loaded with talent, went to the NBA finals and they’re defensive effort yesterday was mind blowing. The Clippers better take defense seriously or they will not beat the disciplined teams, or go far if and when they make the playoffs. Determination and hunger is what I want to see this season.
rgc

I disagree with the article. Has anyone given thought to the fact that this roster has had a lot of turnover and only a few weeks to prepare with said new roster and perhaps that is the reason for the uneven first 3 and a half quarters. Yes, the Clips are superior talent-wise to the Warriors, but what I saw for the first 45 minutes was not a lazy, coasting team, a la the Jordan era Bulls. Instead, I saw a team that is going to need court time together to gel. They were out of sync as I expected. I think some people got a little overzealous with expectations after a few meaningless preseason wins.

If the Clippers are already at the point to where they think they can sleepwalk through teams and eek out wins, that is not good at all. But , it is good to see this team win games, when they don’t play their best, which goes to show just how much talent we have.
- AH
  
  Agreed. And it’s going to take that much longer to build chemistry when Evans takes over the backup PF minutes and they find a suitable backup C. I’d say the team mid-Feb will not be the same team we see now and, hopefully, the team deep in the playoffs will not be the same team we see mid Feb.
griffin

These aren’t my clippers anymore that’s for sure but I love it. I just wish they put more effort into it cuz it was sloppy. But they are a new team. Too. So everyone has to mesh to be that major force in the western conference
Liveperl

What? The only accurate thing about this article us that Cilp fans are everywhere because of the underdog element. I’m a Jet fan living in NY – where the Giants (once again) rule the town. Ive always pulled for the Clips in this Laker town. Don’t apologize for success. Finally, this team is truly legitimate. Enjoy it. Enjoy being the main attraction in LA. As for the team “coasting” last night – relax – its one game. How great is it to not play that well and win by 19 over anyone? Enjoy it!
griffin

19 pt win not only did cp3 ice the game but blake got in the paint in the third quarter. During the first two quaters blake couldn’t get inside or got the ball at the top of the key. And the refs. Everytime blake muscled his way to the basket the refs didn’t call nothing. No fouls or anything. They let gsw beat up blake but on the other end they call for little taps. I think that’s a major reason blake never really got going. Not to mention cp billups need to throw the lobs higher. Both blake and dj can jump higher then anyone else on that court but too many times those lobs were low enough to let gsw get a steal. They need more time together indeed.
Jesse

Some of the ugliest basketball I have ever seen. CP3, Big Shot, Blake and Mo all looked like they were out there to play for themselves. None of them seemed like they were on the same team, let alone the same page. It was terrible.
JJClipperfan

Some of you Clipper fans have very selective memories. All this talk about the hard working underdog team is misplaced especially as it relates to last years Clipper ball club. How many times last season did we see the EXACT same thing we are seeing tonight? Missed rotations and a general malaise and laziness on the defensive end. Griffin even said it himself…can’t find the quote but he said last season after they got wins they just got full of themselves and took the next game off essentially. Very dissapointed in seeing these missed rotations and hopefully they get humbled in San Antonio because if they honestly think that kind of effort will win them games they are sadly mistaken. Last thing we want is for that kind of effort to become a habit.
- Liveperl
  
  Del Negro is the problem. Now that the Clips have a real contender – they need a real coach (and 1-2 more rebounders/defense minded players).
Highlander25

Hey DJ mind if I ask what happened with your gig with the clippers. Ps.,that madelyn burke is a looker
- D.J. Foster
  
  Not at all — they just decided to go a different direction had different priorities for the site than I did. No hard feelings on my end at all.
  - Highlander25
    
    Glad to have you back at clipperblog. I really enjoyed your articles last season so I was surprised I wasn’t able to find any this time around. You’re an invaluable member here so I look forward to reading more of your work.
  - griffin
    
    There lost becuz we missed you here at the clipperblog. Plus we like the mail bag
  - Joeluis323
    
    Same Here! Sorry i couldnt follow you in Clipper site. I tried but im more of a clipperblog.com kinda guy! Welcome back!
    - D.J. Foster
      
      Thanks for the kind words guys. It’s great to be back!
clipsy russell

1 game in and people are complaining already. hey boys and girls how about we try something different like actually supporting the team. no matter how great cp3 is, he’s gotta learn blakes tendencies and likewise. Clipper nation: be realistic as far as expectations and understand that we as clipper fans may have to go through a little bad to get a lotta good. GO CLIPPERS!
Jax

I generally like Foster’s articles but this one is silly IMO. What I don’t like about the article is that the author seems to think that he’s speaking for the motivations of all Clipper fans. The author truly believes that is take about true Clipper fans liking underdogs and being masochistic.

That’s not the case for all of us. And most assuredly not for me. I became a Clipper fan primarily because I really didn’t like the lakers and during the Manning / Larry Brown era they seemed to care about winning. I was always looking for a reason to believe in the management and the team but for the most part that wasn’t there. I’m not a big Dunleavy fan and I think that Sterling made a huge mistake in trusting the future of the franchise to a guy who was only a winning coach in the league when handed a team and really had no business being GM, much less a coach.

But I was encouraged by Sterling’s intent to field a winning team notwithstanding the incompetent management he surrounded himself with (yes he’s got his issues too). What was frustrating was how obvious it was that Brand wouldn’t resign (it was very clear to me when I spoke to him about it) and that Baron was going to be a poor fit.

In any event, that’s all past history. Now they obvoiusly have people in place who can put the team in a position to win. Kudos to Sterling for letting them run with this.

The gist of this article seems to be that the people who gravitate to the Clippers do not like to win or are uncomfortable with winning and would rather live in a world where they can be unrealistic about the team’s chances – a team that will invariably lose.

That’s ridiculous.
- griffin
  
  There are a few reasons I’m a clipper fan.
  1. When I was growing up I never liked basketball. It was boring mainly because all my family watch lakers and to me the lakers were snoreville. I didn’t get into basketball until I was 11 and saw the most exciting basketball of my life and amazing commentary by ralph lawler. The clippers hooked me for life and from that point on I was a clipper fan as well as a basketbal fanatic
  
  2. I hate the lakers, boring style of play, boring commentary never got into them.
  
  3. Clippers despite there losing they were an exciting team with just bad luck. But it didn’t matter for me because I knew one day they will win it all. I knew the clippers would get there dues back in the cassel era. But it wouldn’t be in the cassel era. Even though I was hoping it was. I knew the clippers when they finally did get the peices they wanted. It would be mulitple championships. Is this the clippers I had envisioned? Yes! Thanks for making me a clipper fan and basketball fan in general clipper nation
- D.J. Foster
  
  That’s fair, Jax. I shouldn’t have lumped all the fans together like that, as obviously different people have different motivations and reasons they follow the Clippers. I guess my main point wasn’t that we all crave losing for some reason, but rather that things are changing and in effect so are a lot of us. I just feel strange watching the Clippers play so poorly and win convincingly because of superior talent. It’s new.
  
  But anyway, you’re 100 percent correct — not all Clippers fans are the same, and I shouldn’t try to speak for everyone. Thanks for commenting as always man.
  
  -D.J.
  - Jax
    
    Thanks, DJ, but I continue to disagree. First, they didn’t play poorly. They don’t have alot of bigs, they haven’t been playing together for very long and they aren’t the most athletic at the guard position. The Warriors are talented too but they are not well put together (two lightning quick guards who score first doesn’t really make a good team). Note they just beat the Bulls. Of course, their quickness on the perimeter caused problems for us, but when the chips were down our vets took over and killed them. All good teams have pluses and minuses. I like our pluses better than most teams pluses. You need to give them some time to gel, like any good team.
    
    Second, I really don’t understand your point about Clippers fans being uncomfortable with winning. Who is more comfortable with losing than winning? I guess that since I disagree with the premise that the play was poor I I disagree with the statement that we are going to get used to winning while not playing championship basketball 24/7. No team does that. No player is capable of doing that. I guess some of us just don’t understand that because we are not used to having the type of talent and depth that most teams have. I suspect that once we play together for a while and when we get another big you will see vast improvement in the areas you’re concerned about.
  - http://clipperblog.com CAKid
    
    After reading your post it makes me wonder why am I a Clipper fan? Why are any of us Clipper fans. Heck when I started watching basketball in the 80′s the Lakers and showtime. I just thought that was too easy. Almost like a fasion statement. It seems more honest and true to watch an organization grow into a hopeful dynasty. Imagine being a Atlanta Brave in the early 80′s to now.
    
    I kind of draw the anology being a father now. I like watching son grow up and find is way. He is a teenage now and really making strides in becoming his own man and his own identity. Its kind of like the Clipper and they are finally doing that now (however it seems to have taken them 30 years).
    
    There could be a chance we really put a dynasty together and see the fan base grow. That will be great for the organization. However for those of us who were around for the “Sports Arena era” and the draft parties, it will be even more special for us.
    
    DJ it sounds like another good article to post some time.
Benoit Benjamin

The team will get better. Give them time. I could not stand some of the shots Billups was taking and wondering why Griffin was not being aggressive on the boards. The team will gel. I hope the team uses the pick and roll. I hope Griffin takes more consideration on rebounding and letting the offense come to him. I cringe at low percentage shots. We haven’t turned the ball over much which is great. Paul is our closer.
- griffin
  
  It was the refs. Griffin would get beat down in the paint and the refs didn’t call nothing. So blake couldn’t get into a groove also becuz of foul trouble as well. But imsure blake is gonna turn it up soon
http://clipperblog.com CAKid

This game looked like a preseason game but with alot more fans in attendance. Its a foregone conclusion that MO will leave next year (we need the cap space anyway). He is a starter and he is just the kind of guy who will probably take less to be a starter (say with Lakers, Heat or replacing a retiring J-Kid in Dallas). The dude made his money, its about enjoying what you do at his stage of NBA life.

Right now the Clipps and Mo just need to follow Al Davis’s saying “Just Win Baby”. Rack up as many wins as possible right now and get out of the gate fast. Clearly there are a ton of things we can improve on. An uggly win counts just as much as pretty win. Winning solves and smooths a lot of things. If we are sitting in first in the Pacific in late March or early April no one will remember this.

As a 25 yr Clipper fan all I want to see us do is win the Pacific right now. Kobe is a commen! There are a ton of championship down the hall from us at Staples and they may be down but down count them out. We all know who the prize of next summer free agent class is and it helps our cause if we win the Pacific.

Game 2 is a serious measuring stick. Couple more practices now under our belt. Lets go boys!

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Clippers 105, Warriors 86: Losing My Religion

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