Tales of Interest: POR-LAC

31 Mar 2012

Admiral Ackbar, Blake Griffin, Vinny Del Negro

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Friend of ClipperBlog Andrew Han had some thoughts on last night’s win over the Blazers and the big picture for the Clippers. Enjoy.

***

“So that’s what things would be like if I’d invented the finglonger.”

A brief introduction: My interest in this iteration of the Clippers was piqued primarily by Blake Griffin’s lost year (coming so close after Oden’s injuries was eerie to say the least). Curious, I made an early 2011 New Years resolution to watch every Clippers game during the 2010-11 season. I watched 79 out of 82 games. Obviously I missed 3, so I opted-in on my fan option for the 2011-12 season (I have watched every game this season, by the way). And, if I may, this compressed season is amazing from a fan’s perspective. You get your choice of several games each night plus the uncertainty of schedule fatigue. “Did the other team have a practice?” “Are they on a back-to-back?” “Did we play too many minutes last night?” With the exception of the Thunder and Bulls, teams this season walk into a potential 5/12 March Madness upset special every night. Schedule-tastic. It’s like winning the jackpot for an NBA junkie (but not as good as winning last night’s Mega Millions, I imagine).

But I digress. The Clippers have seemingly weathered the crap storm after ripping off three straight wins. Except, if you’re a Clippers fan, you know that wins versus a discombobulated Memphis team coupled with two revenge victories against injury-depleted, subpar teams weren’t the same as the statement wins of the early season. Still, wins are wins and beggars can’t be choosers (unlike whomever won the world record lottery jackpot).

And, if you’re a NBA fan, you know this Portland game had Admiral Ackbar written all over it (“It’s a trap!”). This is a Portland team that, along with the Warriors, fanned the flames of a more than two week long debate on ESPN/HoopIdea about tanking after blowing up their teams at the trade deadline. On top of that, Portland announced LaMarcus Aldridge would miss the game due to a sprained elbow. I don’t know what proprietary analytics Portland employs, but I’m sure a stat indicated the Clippers are vulnerable to mediocre teams missing key players.

Nick Flynt wrote a terrific recap highlighting all the delicious Vinny Del Negro game-management frustrations. I would just like to add three things:

This is the third time in the last six home games where the opposing team sought out Griffin’s man during crunch time for points (Hickson/PDX, Monroe/DET, Patterson/HOU). The three teams that didn’t eviscerate Blake’s defense? The D-League Hornets, Phoenix and the Grizzlies, all blowouts down the stretch.
On the same day John Hollinger writes a pointed article outlining what ails the Clippers (basically perimeter defense, something every ClipperBlog writer has been yodeling about for more than a month), the Clippers allow Portland to shoot 50% from the field and 42.1% from distance (8-19).
And finally, Luke Babbitt, Jonny Flynn and Hasheem Thabeet played MEANINGFUL minutes as backups in this game and didn’t kill the Blazers. Three first round busts that couldn’t get off the bench before the trade deadline played the Clippers even. I don’t even know what to think about that.

So why do I (and frankly, all the ClipperBlog writers) seem so sober, especially after winning four games in a row with the Clippers turning the proverbial corner? Well, I can’t speak for them, but DJ Foster’s tweet succinctly sums it up for me:

@fosterdj: “The West is weird. The Clippers are broken, but hell, so is everyone else that’s not OKC.”

The Clippers are not perfect but there is a genuine opportunity, in this particular season, to go deep into the playoff. Every West contender has their own set of warts no less egregious than the Clippers. And if they could make the Conference Finals? Dallas showed last year that if a jump-shooting team gets hot they can ride it through the playoffs. And that could be the Clippers as well, if they could shore up at least some of their defensive deficiencies. Blake has to be able to better defend OR the Clippers have to guard the 3-point shot better. Chris Paul and the Clippers offense can be so prolific that if things broke the right way they could seize this gift of a season. But they have to pick ONE area to improve defensively and, you know, succeed at it.

Then again, things breaking for the Clippers a la Dallas last year would leave a bigger conundrum. Would you rather the Clippers make the Western Conference Finals/NBA Finals this year and have Vinny Del Negro return next season or have them go out in the First/Second Round and bring back a team coached by Nate McMillan, Jerry Sloan, Mike D’Antoni, Rick Carlisle or a Van Gundy? A fan can dream though. A fan can dream.

griffin

At this point in time even if the clips win the west vinny is still gone becuz you have strong coaches in the off season. Not to mention vinny has shown the same habits this year as last year. Cp3 can only cover up so many mistakes vinny makes. Olshey keeps his job vinny needs a wing and a prayer to keep his
doublerice

nice article. like the optimism. it’s good to read something not blatantly pessimistic (looking at you nick flynt).
bongstradamus

My dream is for the Clippers to become an Ivory Tower of Basketball.

Like literally a place where monks of the game come to achieve Jedi like abilities on the court. I want to see consecutive 82-0 seasons and a 10 year dynasty.

But Im a crazy idealist. I doubt DTS could pull that off seeing as how he’s all Sith Lord and stuff.

You need a Colangelo and Coach K for that kind of work. Sloan is a close second. Jeff Van Gundy is a neurotic third.
- Aditya P
  
  Hey Weirdo,
  
  Please step away from the bong.
  - Bongstradamus
    
    I don’t know what is weird about responding to the content of the post. I even added my own Star Wars metaphor in homage to the Admiral Ackbar reference and described my own dream for the team.
    
    You on the other hand just decided to be a dick to 2 people and not contribute to the commentary whatsoever. As far as I’m concerned, you’re the one with the problem.
    - Nicholas
      
      well you do have “bong” in your screen name, so you are being rather misleading
Clip ‘Clips4′

Check out this statement from ‘Clips4′: “I’ll take Vlade Divac in his prime over Eric Bledsoe, FTW!”

On NBA Draft Day in 1996, Hornets GM (Bob Bass) drafted a high-school stud named Kobe Bryant. Within a couple hours of drafting him, Bob Bass traded Kobe Bryant to the LA Lakers for a center named Vlade Divac. Divac was entering the prime of his career, and the Hornets needed a center.

Bob Bass’s explanation for trading Kobe Bryant was, “We needed a center at the time. If it were today, I’d make the trade again. The evidence supports itself.”

‘Clips4′ is the self-proclaimed GM of the Clippers. As the self-proclaimed Clippers GM, he unquestionably would have traded sophomore PG stud Eric Bledsoe for any basketball player who was in between 6’6″ and 6’9″ tall. It didn’t matter if the player was on a D-League roster or an NBA roster. Anyone who was in between 6’6″ and 6’9″ tall.

Clips4′s explanation for trading Eric Bledsoe was, “We needed a long wing defender at the time. The evidence supports itself.”

Bob Bass and ‘Clips4′ share the same basketball philosophies. There is no doubt that Clips4 would have also traded Kobe Bryant for Vlade Divac in 1996.

Eventually, Bob Bass was fired as the Charlotte Hornets GM and would never find a job in the NBA again. Nobody takes his opinions seriously, and it is generally understood that he doesn’t know anything about basketball.

‘Clips4′ insists that he is entitled to his own opinion. And there is nothing wrong with that. This is a free country, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

But just like Bob Bass, nobody takes Clips4′s opinions seriously, and it is generally understood that he doesn’t know anything about basketball.

Yes, we respect your opinion. But respecting one’s opinion and taking one’s opinion seriously are two completely different matters.

My opinion, as well as the opinions of numerous commenters on this blog, is that ‘Clips4′ needs to be clipped.
- Clips4
  
  Are you insinuating that Bledsoe is going to be as good as Kobe Bryant? If you are, you’re pretty much deluded.
  - cody
    
    I don’t think he’s saying Bledsoe will be as good as Kobe. I think he’s just saying that you be saying some stupid stuff sometimes. Actually, you say stupid stuff ALL THE TIME.
    
    Clip Clips4!
Aditya P

Is Clips4 the same guy who said team defense in NBA games is the equivalent of playing team defense in a 5 on 5 pickup game at Bally’s Total Fitness?
- Clips4
  
  Have you ever played a 5 on 5 pickup game where you and your team didn’t put max effort on defense and won? Didn’t think so.
  - Dave DeBusche
    
    What? What is your point, Clips4? You don’t make any sense at all.
DeMote DeAndre

Whewwww, close call. The Clippers barely survived the DeAndre Disaster last night. As so often happens, a sub par center had a career night going against Jordan . . . 13-19, 29 points, 13 boards. And this was a guy who got waived two weeks ago by the second worst team in the NBA.

This is the kind of thing that is going to keep the Clippers from advancing into the second round.

It does raise a second point, why didn’t the Clippers get Hickson since he’s obviously far better than the Clipper starting center?

Probably because the soap opera actor wants to keep trying to fool the fans into still thinking Jordan is good and is not the disaster he really is.

Jordan played too many minutes last night and that’s why the Clippers almost lost the game. Evans’ minutes were way down, probably because of the trouble he got into with the league yesterday, so that’s probably why Jordan ended up playing too many minutes.

. . . the talk about how Jordan should have played more than he did at the end of the game is misguided and delusionary, all, part of the ongoing effort to desparately grasp at straws while pipedreaming Jordan is not as bad as he really is.

It’s a credit to Del Negro that he doesn’t play Jordan much. It’s the one thing that has kept the Clippers in the playoff race.
- Timmythetooth
  
  You dope, he’s not a center. JJ plays PF, Blake is to blame for the poor defense. Or is your point know that any player having a good game is DJ’s fault too?
  - Clips4
    
    I think DeMote plays fantasy basketball and uses those stats to bash on DJ. I think Hickson is center-eligible in fantasy hoops.
    - Rich
      
      He’s actually right this time. For very large portions of the game Jordan was on Hickson while Griffin was on Batum.
      - AH
        
        Ehh, not so much. You can pretty much determine if DJ was on Hickson based on whether Kurt Thomas, Joel Pryzbilla or Hasheem Thabeet were in the game (all were playing the center position for Portland).
        
        Based on the Play-by-Play, Thomas or Pryzbilla played the entire 1st half. Luke Babbitt checked in for Pryzbilla at 5:46 remaining in the 3rd quarter. KMart checked in for DJ at 1:50 of the 3rd.
        
        Hickson comes back into the 4th at 7:07. Butler checks in for DJ at 5:54. DJ checks back in for Young at :57.
        
        So if my math is correct, Hickson was playing the center position at the same time DJ was in the game for 5:09 of the entire game. Now DJ may have cross-matched a bit (I don’t recall) but you can see the numbers would suggest DJ didn’t have much to do with Hickson’s explosion.
      - Rich
        
        There were times when Griffin was on Pryzbilla and Jordan was on Hickson.
        
        I mean I’m not saying Griffin wasn’t partly responsible for Hickson, he was, but a lot of those early pick and roll buckets Hickson got were on Jordan.
Max Powers

It’s no coincidence every pf has career type nights vs the Clipps. Blake is abysmal on defense
Clips4

CP’s hurt, let’s see if the Clips can pull off the win without him!
joeluis323

5-0 Baby!!

CP3 is better than ok. What an awesome fake pass!

http://youtu.be/YwsCnf-NVFc
Tim

This was a great run for the Clippers. 1st 5-0 home stand since 1979. These are indeed rare times for our team. Our Magic number is 11. One thing I’ve noticed is, the flow on offense has returned to what it was earlier in the season. I believe it has to do with Randy Foye’s comfort level as starter, and I know he has suffieciently duplicated Chaunceys offensive and defensive production. Nick Young has also easily matched Randy Foye’s old offensive production, when Foye was a bench contributor. The results are that this team is back to where it used to be earlier in the year. The bonus is the fact that now, the 2nd unit plays defense, and doesn’t typically give leads any more, so our starters get the rest that they need during games. This was a factor the other night vs Portland when Paul had to go hero-mode to get that win. Paul had some gas left in the tank at the end and the dude is money in those situations. Paul going hero every now and then isn’t a bad thing, if we get wins where otherwise we lose. We can’t expect that from Paul every night, but the way we’re playing right now, hero mode is not needed. These next 2 games, are huge. If we can get a win at Dallas, come back and beat the Lakers, then I’m not sure when we might lose again. I see OKC coming up in like 6 games, which might be another statement type game. By then, we might be on a 10 game winning streak. Next 5 opponents, Dallas, LA, 2 with Sac-town and Memphis. The way we are playing, these are all winnable games. The way they are playing, it looks like Vinny indeed likes this gig. Finals or bust, I hear the laughter though. Go Clippers!!!
Nicholas

whats with the futurama quotes, “finglonger”, “tales of interest”?!?

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