Here’s my take from the Clippers last win before the All-Star break over at the Daily Dime for ESPN.com. Basically, it sure is nice to be in the “haves” instead of the “have nots” isn’t it? For so many years, the Clippers were the team saddled with injuries and no real closer to finish games in the fourth quarters. Although it was far from perfect, it was nice to see the Clippers assert their will by riding Chris Paul and Blake Griffin down the stretch. Games aren’t always decided by which team has the best players, but tonight’s was.
MVP: Blake Griffin. An honorable mention goes out to Chris Paul for his 36-point showing, but this was Griffin’s best defensive game of the year, and probably his career. The 27-12-5 line ain’t bad, either.
That was … Star Power: The Nuggets looked great offensively without Ty Lawson, Nene, Rudy Fernandez and Danilo Gallinari for three quarters, but when they needed buckets late they had no stars to lean on while the Clippers had two.
Defining Moment: In three consecutive plays in the fourth, Griffin took a charge, scored on an “And-1″, then nabbed a defensive rebound and started trading elbows. At that point, the shorthanded Nuggets looked helpless.
***
Here’s the Lob City Ledger over at ESPNLA.com brought to you by Jovan Buha, where he has rave reviews for the Clippers two-man show:
It wasn’t as jaw-dropping as his Kendrick Perkins dunk, but Griffin’s dunk over three Nuggets defenders was nearly as impressive. Before Chris Paul took over, Griffin was the focal point of the offense and managed to finagle his way to the rim despite facing double- and triple-teams. Most importantly, Griffin’s elite passing skills seemed to return, if only for one night.
Once again, Paul showed that with the game on the line, there’s no other player you’d rather have with the ball. After going scoreless in the first quarter, Paul pulled off the impressive feat of having a double-digit scoring output in each of the last three quarters. There’s no doubt this particular team is at its best when Paul is in aggressive, attack mode.
Whenever Jordan was off the floor, the Clippers looked puny inside and were outrebounded and dominated by the Nuggets’ tough frontline. Whenever he was on the floor, though, he grabbed every rebound within sight, deterred the Nuggets from attacking the rim and even finished a few plays around the rim. His numbers don’t always show it, but Jordan is the key to L.A.’s defense.
22 Responses
Lucky to win without Foye, Butler or Mo having a good game – at home. Something is in Mo’s head. We need him back. The 4th quarter offense was terrible.
Foye is fine off the bench, but it’s gonna be hard to hold off the new seemingly “hot” Lakers until he’s got an upgrade.
Why has Blake stopped taking his outside shot? He was hitting it on the road and has stopped in the last three games.
Lakers have only 5 tough games in their next 10. Clips have three. Assuming we can beat Kings, Suns, Rockets, Nets on the road. Can we assume anything anymore?
Cult of Lawler Reply:
February 23rd, 2012 at 10:08 am
I am incredibly happy that Blake has stopped shooting 18 footers. He was starting to shoot them when nobody was within 10 feet of him, instead of taking advantage of the space and going to the rim for a much higher percentage shot. He seemed to be settling for jumpers way too much.
JoeLuis323 Reply:
February 23rd, 2012 at 12:22 pm
Maybe VDN gave up on that notion. From what mike smith was saying the other day, VDN was encouraging him to shoot so when playoff time comes Blake would’ve added a 13ft shooting to his arsenal.
That’s Popovich’s schooling to its finest!!! lol
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 at 12:22 am
To DeMote if he ever reads this, DJ has some post move. Tonight he dribbled into the low block and spun around and got a nice lay in with the soft touch. DJ is like D12 in that he’s some weird hybrid forward/center because he’s not a true back to the basket center.
The Clippers have become a jump shooting team that is dying by their jumpers. They need to find a way to score easy baskets in the half-court offense. VDN’s lack of coaching chops during crunch time with go-to plays and his weird substitution patterns are hurting this team.
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 at 1:29 am
Also, Chris Paul is like LBJ in the sense that he is a facilitator and playmaker who would rather make the pass for a teammate to take the final shot if it were the better basketball option than for him to actually take the final shot. Although, he is like Kobe in that he has that clutch gene. However, CP3 is a natural passer. He’s not Kobe or Melo or D-Wade where they are natural scorers. Without Chauncey, we lost our go-to guy who will take the last shot.
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 at 1:32 am
Tonight should have been a blowout win too. The Nuggets were missing Nene, Gallinari, Fernandez, and Lawson.
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 at 1:32 am
Nice to see paul slashing in the pick in roll. The same pick in roll eric gordon and blake used. We would be unstopable with that slashing player running the pick and roll too. Have paul take down defenses and the sg using there slashing ablities to get som space for blake.
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 at 5:05 am
I keep hearing that the Lakers are on our heels. They aren’t. Look at them. They have an old team, and it’s quite obvious in their current make-up that they have to completely reach their peak right now, just to catch up to us. The Clippers are steadily improving in all areas of our game, and with 1 more move, to bring in a young, hungry, and athletic slasher (can somebody say DeMar DeRozan) who can defend, and score from beyond the arc, and we’re set. I know we can’t get DeRozan, but it’s nice to dream. The Lakers have to make a lot of moves, or stick with what they got which is why they sit on their hands, and hope Mike Brown can pull a rabbit out of a hat. It’s not going to happen. Trade Pau, and get worse, or stick with Pau, and idle in 2nd place, and then fizzle out, with a 1st round exit. I can read the Lakers book like a cheap Stephen King short-story. Yawn, good-night now!
Clips4 Reply:
February 23rd, 2012 at 12:48 pm
DeRozan is a black hole though. He is not a heads up player and is not a knockdown shooter.
Clips4 Reply:
February 23rd, 2012 at 12:48 pm
I would know because he’s on one of my fantasy teams and I am disappointed by how he has played so inconsistently this year and how little 3′s he gives me.
Tim Reply:
February 23rd, 2012 at 1:42 pm
But he is young, and could easily fill the role of lockdown defender and slasher. In Toronto, they ask more of him than his skill-set allows at this time. But he can defend with his size and quickness, and he can slash and finish, just what the Dr ordered. Question, what would it take to get him in a Clipper uni?
Clips4 Reply:
February 23rd, 2012 at 8:25 pm
I would think a multi-team trade would be needed to bring DeRozan. He needs to work on his shooting range and play with his head up. Otherwise he would be Maggette 2.0.
Tim Reply:
February 24th, 2012 at 9:34 am
Maggette never had a point guard like CP3. Boykins, Dooling, McInnis, Overton, Jaric, Martin and Livingston, throw in Cassell. Alot of turnover through the years for Maggette, which led to a lot of turnovers. I think Caron, and Chris would have a calming effect on DeMar, the likes of which Maggette never saw. All we need is for DeMar to slash, and defend, get back in transition, and finish. We have enough jump shooters, and spot up 3 artists. I would like Olshey to engineer that multi-team trade asap!
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 at 8:54 am
This was a huge win for the Clippers and was significant for a few reasons. LAC was on a two game losing streak and have yet to lose 3 consecutive games this year. Also, winning the last game before the all star break gives the team a little more morale and boosts their overall confidence.
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Even through the innane yammerings of Mike Smith I was able to enjoy this win.
I realize the team is not playing their best ball. If they were. They close the San Antonio game and GSW,DEN (with players out and at home) are blowouts. But Blake and Paul are looking awefully strong these days and our mentality is good from the standpoint I think everyone is playing team ball and focused on winning.
The Defense is piss poor more often than it is stellar from an x’s and o’s standpoint and the poor coaching on that end is only partly disquised by the presence of a legit shot blocker….. but considering the glaring hole of having no wing defender of any length, sometimes it’s hard to know how much guys are moving out of position to cover up.
We just need to continue to develope and not become overly reliant on Paul and Blake to bail us out every game. It’s a crowded schedule and if either one of those guys has to morph into Hercules mode every game just go get by any team with a pulse, it will hurt us in the playoffs.
As far as the grade for the team at All-Star break, I don’t see how it can be less than A-. If the Gomes disaster had not happened, it might be an A even with the GS loss.
griffin Reply:
February 23rd, 2012 at 2:07 pm
It wasn’t about playing there best game in those two loses. It was about how we made mistakes at the end of the games. In critical moments such as those. Its the team who makes the less mistakes and convert on there plays to make them win. Clippers tanked out in the gsw game though. And udoh was the x factor of that game
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 at 1:34 pm
i wonder where demote is right about now??? DJ also held his matchup to 5 points
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 at 2:40 pm
To be honest, I would have actually preferred a 3-game losing streak over a win. It would have put them back to second place in the Pacific Division, giving first place to the Lakers should they beat OKC today. Just because they’d end up second fiddle to the Lakers doesn’t necessarily make them losers. When the Clippers return from the All-Star Weekend, they’ll be refreshed and focused with one thing in their mind: correcting a majority of the mistakes they’ve made during the first half of the season, and to improve their game play for the upcoming playoffs. I understand why the team had to beat Denver in regards to their humiliating defeat in their home court via TNT, and I respect their reasons for closing the first half of the season with a win. But look at last year’s Lakers: after being defeated by Cleveland in their hometown, the team regrouped and put up a monster 17-1 game effort post All-Star Weekend. With the team as currently constructed, the Clippers are now capable of regrouping.
A 20-12 win is very nice for the franchise, so I wonder if a 19-12 win is nothing to sneeze at.
Tim Reply:
February 23rd, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Clippers coming in 2nd to the Lakers? Are you trying to justify why it would be a good thing for the Clippers to be behind the Lakers going into the All-Star break? You would have preferred the Clippers to lose 3 games in a row? You are a complete idiot! Hey Laker fan, get the hell outta here, and enjoy your second place finish, with your old team, and got ahead trade Pau to Chicago, because Blake owns Boozer, and CJ Watson is a career back up, and Pau won’t be around to make Bynum viable, because Boozer is a very selfish player. I hope you do trade Gasol, because the only advantage you have is those twins towers, and thats only good enough for 2nd place and a 1st round exit. Make that trade, and you miss the playoffs altogether, so pick which one, either way, Clippers still dominate you.
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 at 2:44 pm
Clippers need to win every game. There is no scenario where we lose and get better. There are no moral victorys. We should win when we are the more healthy team. We should win ugly, if we have to. 1:52 before halftime vs OK Thunder was the most beautiful basketball ever! This team is doing what its suppose to do. Its a 1st place team. Get wins now, and let the rest figure itself out whenever that happens. Don’t come in here telling me what the Lakers did last year, because we’re not really trying to hear all that, nobody cares. Clippers don’t regroup, we rebooted, reloaded, are relentless, ridiculous game! Check the dunk-docket pal! That 17-1 second half aint’ doing nothing now, you second place, other team of LA. OKC will dominate the Lakers tonight anyway.
Tim Reply:
February 24th, 2012 at 8:33 am
Like I said, Lakers got dominated, don’t come in here with your Lakers talk. Its an old team, that can only scrap-together about 80 to 85 points a night, and they aren’t going to be able to play enough defense to win games. Kobe got shut down by Mike Harden who is not known for his defense. 24 shot attempts to get 24 pts is getting shut down. But its ok, because this is old Kobe, he’ll have several more nights like that before he shuts it down to call it a career.
Posted on February 23rd, 2012 at 3:35 pm
DJ played like the player he’s going to be!
Posted on February 26th, 2012 at 12:53 am
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