Finally had a chance to watch most of Dallas’ big win over the Lakers last night, and the findings were interesting.

80 percent of Dallas’ offensive sets can be reasonably classified as one of two things:

• Pick-and-roll
• Dirk Nowitzki

There’s some overlap here, but Nowitzki — at least Friday night — was employed most frequently as a post-up threat, or in isolation on the wing. Occasionally, Rick Carlisle would spot up Nowitzki on the weak side, run some action low in an effort to lure Dirk’s defender into the play, then whip the ball over the Dirk before the defense could recover.

The other 20 percent of Dallas’ playbook Friday night falls under miscellaneous (i.e. Shawn Marion curling off a screen, a spot up set for Jason Terry).

I’m very bullish on the Mavericks this season because that pick-and-roll game is awfully difficult to defend. Jason Kidd, J.J. Barea and Jason Terry all run it well, but it’s the presence of Nowitzki behind the action that makes Dallas so tough. Do you trap the ball-handler? Maybe, but that will leave you 4-on-3 — and one of those three is a 7-footer who can kill you from anywhere in the halfcourt. If Nowitzki’s defender stays home, now you’re looking at a 2-on-1 and Jason Kidd has this funny way of finding open basketball players easy shots. On top of that, Erick Dampier sets a nasty screen and Shawn Marion is terrific in the PNR. Marion was the roll man five times last night and scored a bucket on four of those five possessions. If he handles a pass cleanly, that number is probably 5-for-5.

Switching is an option, but here’s where Eric Gordon’s size hurts the Clippers a little. Bigger 2s can handle some switches or, at the very least, stall a big man long enough for the defense to recover. There was a reason Cuttino Mobley was on the floor so much for Mike Dunleavy during the Brand Era. Mobley was a very capable pick-and-roll defender and a central ingredient in those good defensive squads. Gordon still has to learn how to anticipate the pick-and-roll and have a recovery plan ready. He’s not going to be able to fight through every screen, but if he can develop that instinct of knowing when and from where the screen is coming, he can take some pressure off the Clippers’ bigs who are finding themselves backpedaling a lot the first week of the season. Baron Davis has traditionally been a tough straight-up man defender, but I haven’t seen much over his year in Los Angeles to indicate he’s going to chew through a screen or give a big man trouble coming off that screen.

Hedging still demands that kind of recovery from your guards. It also requires smart, proactive play from your big man (against Dallas, the big man in the PNR is often the man who’s guarding Marion). Marcus Camby prefers to stay back defensively, though I’m pretty certain he’s shown on a screen a handful of times over his 13-year career. Kaman is getting better, though the Clippers usually deploy Kaman in a perimeter trap.

If Kaman is the match-up on Nowitzki, he’s going to have bigger things to worry about than pick-and-roll defense. And that’s why Dallas is going to be so tough to defend this season. It isn’t enough to defend the pick-and-roll to perfection, you also have to be mindful of the game’s most versatile big man at the same instant. That kind of multi-tasking is difficult.

The Clippers spent a good part of Tuesday’s practice working on defensive rotations. During the team’s 5-on-5 scrimmage, the coaching staff would have one practice squad run a high pick-and-roll, with a direction by Mike Dunleavy to go left or right off the action. The defensive unit was then ordered to trap or “red” the point guard, which means the PG’s primary defender would crowd him directly on his shoulder, with the screener’s defender joining his teammate out on the perimeter.

Basic perimeter trap, but effective only if the back line defenders rotate with quickness and precision.

This coverage scheme is the backbone of most NBA defenses on half-court S/R possessions. The teams that perform this task well (Cleveland, San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans) tend to prosper.  Teams that struggle on defensive rotations get shredded, particularly by offenses who can spread the floor with shooters.

Remember these guys? Defense was their middle name. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE)

Will the Clippers be a solid halfcourt defensive team this season?

Hope: Crisp as 2005-06
In some sense, defensive rotations are a lot like officiating in basketball. When your team’s defense is rotating effectively, you hardly notice it.  When they blow it, it’s painfully obvious and aggravating.

Let’s rewind to 2005-06, when the Clippers were the 7th most efficient defense in the league. One of the bedrock strengths of that team was the alacrity of their half-court defense. On a 1-5 pick-and-roll, Cassell and Kaman would blitz the ballhandler, and the backline trio of Elton Brand, Cuttino Mobley and Quinton Ross would pick up the screener and still get to their respective spots along the perimeter. That season, the Clips played 3-on-4 defense in those situations as well as any team in the league, which is why, despite being a below-average offensive squad, they were a Raja Bell hail mary away from a conference final berth.

“A lot of what you do defensively is keyed by the guys on the back line,” Dunleavy said. “They have a chance to see the play and read the play. They see everybody out there.”

That 2005-06 team knew how to read half-court defenses even though, with the possible exception of Ross, none of the other four players in that lineup were All-NBA defenders. But Brand and Mobley had acute court awareness and were tough as nails. That season, you could watch 40 defensive possessions before seeing a blown rotation. Though many Clippers fans might be loath to admit it, Mike Dunleavy had a lot to do with that.

For this year’s Clippers, getting from chaos to fluency is going to take a little time.

“It’s all about repetitions,” Dunleavy said. “For us, the first component is getting to the right spots, make the right reads, and then you continue to build on that.”

Will this team have the personnel and collective smarts to replicate that 2005-06 defense? It’s certainly possible. If you swap out Al Thornton for Rasual Butler, the Clippers’ “three man rotation” defending a 1-5 pick-and-roll would be composed of Eric Gordon, Rasual Butler, and Blake Griffin/Marcus Camby/Chris Kaman.

Aside from the beastliness, explosiveness, athleticism, balance, and general immortality Griffin displayed at Summer League, Dunleavy was most impressed with the rookie’s reads on defense. “He really got the rotations,” Dunleavy has said … three times in interviews over the past eight weeks. He’s telling the truth. Not only was Griffin routinely at the right spot, he reacted with ease to nearly every offensive counter. On top of that, he was a vocal traffic cop on D. In short, he got it.

Rasual Butler has the length and wherewithal to bounce from a cutter back to the perimeter effectively. The upgrade over Thornton in this department is almost inestimable.

The wild card here is Eric Gordon. Though EJ has the strength to body up as a man defender against many opposing shooting guards, he has yet to master team defense and has a long way to go before he’s Cat Mobley. But there’s tremendous upside here. Gordon played with dozens of lineups last season and it’s unreasonable to expect a young rookie to grasp the nuances of NBA rotations — particularly when there was a different defensive unit out there each time he took the floor … and that unit often included the likes of Thornton and Zach Randolph. When you consider that collection of players last season, it’s no wonder the Clips finished 27th in defensive efficiency.

This season, Butler will take tremendous pressure off  Gordon on the wing.  If Griffin is as quick a study defensively as he’s demonstrated early, the Clippers could be a dramatically different, and vastly improved, defensive unit.

The Fear: Opponents Exploit the Clips’ Inexperience
Compliment Griffin and Gordon all you want, but can you find any precedent for an elite defensive unit that depends on the instincts of a couple of 20 year olds?  I’ve been asked/forced to go on record with a prediction of the Clippers’ win total this season, and the optimistic number I’ve come up with is 36-38. And it’s this dynamic — along with the rebounding on the wings — that’s kept that number in check.

This fear isn’t without a disclaimer — it’s early. Although some believe that the ability of a player to understand half-court defense is a hard-wired intuition, there’s plenty of evidence that a player can cultivate that defensive readiness.

“These are skills that can be taught,” Dunleavy said. “When you get it right, it will be really good.”

Note the future progressive tense here.  It will be really good.  But that could take some time and there are several rotation players on the squad for whom that time could be an eternity: Thornton, Steve Novak, DeAndre Jordan, Ricky Davis (at times). Gordon still has a ways to go.  Chris Kaman is a sold interior defender, but becomes less capable the farther away from the basket. At this juncture, only Marcus Camby and Butler can be depended on for crisp possession in-possession out rotations.

Another uncertain piece here: Baron Davis’ ability to contain the ballhandler. For all his defensive failings — and they were many — Cassell knew he’d be beaten off most S/Rs, but he was very good about funneling the opposing PG to the right spot. Baron has been a very, very good defender in the past. Last year? Well, you watched the games. You tell me. Will Baron recommit himself this season?

There are a lot of uncertainties and the prospect of this collection of players replicating the air-tight 2005-06 squad defensively are very, very remote.  If this season’s Clippers can finish in the high-teens in defensive efficiency, that would be a vast improvement — but still leave them as a 30-ish win team.

The Hope: Gordon and Griffin become quick studies under the tutelage of a coach whose specialty is this kind of instruction.

The Fear: That learning process takes far longer than anticipated. Thornton continues to get the bulk of the minutes at the 3, and the base pick-and-roll defense up top will leak like a sieve.

ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” revisits the circumstances surrounding Cuttino Mobley’s retirement due to a heart condition. What seems evident at this point is that [a] Mobley has been aware of his condition, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, since he was 23. [b] Each of the four teams Mobley has played for were aware of his condition and had him sign a liability waiver to suit up. [c] The Knicks may or may not have known about Mobley’s condition when they dealt for him, but any notion that they acted altruistically to save  Mobley’s life by pushing into retirement is silly. As Larry Coon explains in the segment, the Knicks had only one concern — unloading Zach Randolph onto any willing buyer. If the Knicks could acquire a player in return whose contract not only expired in 2010, but who might also fetch them an injury exemption and an insurance claim, all the better.

Disheartening words, regardless of what line of work a person is in.  Everyone wants to go out on their own terms.  But with each passing day, it appears less likely that Cuttino Mobley will have that privilege.  From Frank Isola at the New York Daily News:

Mobley is due to arrive in New York today, and there is a strong possibility that the veteran guard will be forced to retire due to a heart condition. Mobley has been meeting with specialists since being acquired from the Clippers in the Zach Randolph trade three weeks ago.

The Mobley story is strange and sad for a number of reasons.  Heart conditions are serious business.  Heart disease is the leading cause of death in this country, and the ordeal must be frightening for Mobley and the people who care about him.  The prospect of anyone losing his livelihood — even if that livelihood is derived from playing a game for outrageous sums of money — is difficult.  Ironically, durability has been one of the hallmarks of Mobley’s 11-year career.  From the Clipper perspective, Mobley will always be regarded with fondness.  He willfully chose the Clippers during free agency in 2005 — a significant event at the time — and was a linchpin of the Clippers’ most successful season in franchise history.

Several questions remain unanswered.  The condition isn’t new and reportedly raised concerns while Mobley was in Houston.  Were both the Clippers and Mobley under the impression that it wasn’t dire?   Did Mobley know the condition was a problem, but took the risk in order to play?  Was it a case in which Mobley didn’t realize how serious the situation had gotten until he took his physical for the Knicks?

Whatever the case, best of health to Cat.

From David Aldridge:

The trade between the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers involving forward Zach Randolph, forward Tim Thomas, guard Cuttino Mobley and guard Mardy Collins is currently in limbo because of a physical concern raised by the Knicks about Mobley, according to a source. As a result, Randolph was not in uniform for Monday’s Clippers game against New Orleans.

The source said that the Knicks raised the concerns about Mobley and have yet to sign off on the deal as a result. While players do have to pass a physical in order to join their new teams, those teams are allowed to waive physicals in order to expidite trades. It is not known if Mobley has taken a physical yet in New York.

Players have 48 hours from the time a deal is finalized to report to their new teams, and are given an additional 24 hours to take their physicals, the results of which are usually posted and approved quickly. In this case, that means the respective teams would have until Tuesday afternoon to approve any physicals. A Clippers source said that while they hoped Randolph would play Monday, they weren’t expecting him to be available until Tuesday at the earliest.

You get the sense that the Knicks don’t really care about Mobley the Player so much as Mobley the Contract.  I don’t want to suggest that Mobley offers no value to the Knicks on the court.  But would they really hold up a deal that works for them whether or not Mobley ever logs a minute?   In a similar vain, Mobley has proven to be a very durable player over the course of his career, so why the concern?:

Mobley had started all 11 of the Clippers’ games this season before the trade, averaging more than 33 minutes a night. He’s played in 747 games in his 10-year NBA career and has only played fewer than 66 games in a non-lockout season once.

The only plausible reason I can think of for the Knicks’ buyer’s remorse is the possibility that they feel there are better offers out there for Randolph, and they pulled the trigger too quickly.   That seems awfully unWalshlike.   Lisa Dillman reports that the Clippers maintain the holdup is no big deal:

“We’re confident that both of our players will be in uniform on Wednesday,” said Clippers’ President Andy Roeser.

I learned about the holdup earlier in the afternoon, but was told that it was not a big deal and that the Knicks were not concerned. It could simply be a case of the team needing more information about Mobley’s heart condition. Aldridge wrote that the Rockets raised concerns about it when he played in Houston but also noted that the club gave him a six-year, $31-million deal in 2000. It has never been an issue in Mobley’s tenure with the Clippers.

• The Clippers have likely improved their fortunes this season, though they’re still unlikely to play games in late-April.
• Who gets the really tough defensive assignments on the perimeter now that Cuttino Mobley is gone? Let’s use Dwyane Wade next week as the case study.
• Ricky Davis and Eric Gordon are the most immediate beneficiaries of Cuttino Mobley’s departure. Ricky will start for a stretch, until Mike Dunleavy can no longer tolerate his defense.
• If the Clippers are truly “done,” as reported, how do you divvy up the minutes down low? Bring Camby off the bench?
• The Clippers have $41.6M committed to three players in 2010-2011: Baron Davis, Zach Randolph, and Chris Kaman.
• Given that contracts with expiration dates of 2010 are valuable commodities around the league, could the Clippers have done better had they been more patient?

Smart recap of the trade and its implications from Kelly Dwyer:

There’s no point in killing the Clippers too much for making what is essentially a pretty pointless move. They don’t need Zach Randolph, at all. The idea of Randolph and Chris Kaman playing alongside each other kind of reminds of Zach and Eddy Curry trying to go at it, though Kaman has more high post gifts than Eddy Curry. Michael Kamen had more high post gifts than Eddy Curry, for that matter, but that’s beside the point.

Randolph’s contract is horrible, and I still think he hurts teams despite his point and rebound production, but the contract isn’t piling on the mess in the same way that Isiah piled bad deal after bad deal on his Knicks.

The Clippers had to pay Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas anyway next season, so they’re not losing any money this year or next, and with Marcus Camby’s contract coming off the books in 2010, the Clippers will have some flexibility in Randolph’s final year.

What the deal is, though, is pointless. The Clippers are 29^th in offense, and Randolph will help, but what the squad desperately needs is some sort of wing scorer. Actually, they needed two. Cuttino Mobley and Al Thornton have both had their moments this year, but they use up a lot of minutes and a lot of shots to get their (average the two out) 15 points per game. There’s a reason this team is so inefficient, and Thornton/Mobley/Ricky Davis’ play at the wings has the most to do with it.

And as horrible as Baron Davis has been at times, he’s still helping the offense. Not a lot, but he is averaging eight assists for a team that only 35 field goals a game. That’s a Steve Carlton-on-the-Phillies level of production, if Carlton had a 9.72 ERA and struck out 12 guys all season.

Davis is shooting 36 percent, he’s taking an average of 6.5 three-pointers per game and making an average of 1.6 a contest (re-read that, it’s astounding), and he’s getting to the line nearly half as much as he used to. Other than that, bang on.

But while Baron should be playing better per his contract and abilities, he’s not the problem. Mobley and Thornton and Ricky Davis have been. The team is just getting nothing from those wing spots.

And the team’s rebounding, somehow, is awful. The Clippers are being out-rebounded by about five and a half per game, even though Kaman and Camby are combining to average over 20 per game. I don’t see how Randolph can help that, because his rebounding acumen will come at the expense of another good rebounder’s minutes.

So, essentially, the Clippers have further weakened their weakest position, added a superfluous big man, and a year’s worth of salary. Not the end of the world, but not good, either. Maybe they can trade Camby back to the Nuggets for J.R. Smith and a part?

UPDATE: Jim Lynam has told Ralph Lawler that character issues are no longer a concern for Zach Randolph because, among other reasons, Zach “has a good woman in his life right now.”

I generally don’t entertain trade speculation because I don’t find it all that fun as a parlor game.  But there are enough reputable voices now suggesting that the Clippers are in serious conversations to acquire Zach Randolph for Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley.

Randolph coming to the Clippers would be a colossal mistake.  Let’s enumerate why:

• However you feel about Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley, their contracts have one extremely favorable feature:  They expire the summer of 2010, when a slew of high profile free agents hit the market.  When Thomas and Mobley come off the books, the Clippers will inherit a combined $16.27 million in cap space to pursue one of those prized free agents.
• Zach Randolph, on the other hand, stands to make $17.33 million in 2010-2011.  Forget, for a second, that this is an exorbitant amount of money to pay a cancer like Randolph to play basketball.  Even if you love Randolph’s game, his contract effectively takes the Clippers out of the 2010 sweepstakes.
• It isn’t as if the Clippers’ pressing need is frontcourt help.  Right now, the Clippers are one of the league’s worst defensive teams, and they need some help on the wings.  In Randolph, they’d be inheriting a player who would make that inexplicably poor defense ranking pretty damn explicable.  In his seven-plus seasons in the NBA, Randolph has demonstrated neither a desire nor the aptitude to play defense.   It’s also fair to say that Randolph doesn’t begin to address the team’s issues on the perimeter.

If Randolph is on his way in, does this mean Kaman is on his way out?

That’s the only possible rationale I can see for obtaining Randolph. The term of Kaman’s salary extends a year longer than Randolph’s, into 2011-2012 .  If the Clippers truly believe that they’ll never win with Chris Kaman — and there are reasonable arguments that can be constructed to that effect — then I guess swapping him for, say, a Gerald Wallace, starts to at least make sense.   Because a frontcourt rotation at the 4-5 of Kaman, Randolph, and Camby offers no logic, particularly when you consider the first two will make a combined $28.67 in 2010-11, the year you’d like to put a nice offer on the table for the services of someone like Chris Bosh.

ADDENDUM: Kelly Dwyer captures it perfectly in discussing the Knicks’ maneuvers: “If [the Knicks] can find some sucker to take Zach Randolph’s contract in exchange for expiring deals, that number goes down over $17 million.”

Who might that sucker be?

Fans  — particularly those jonesing for a win — are often inclined to overvalue a W against an inferior opponent. But sometimes there’s a counter-tendency among cynics to discount the victory because it’s a cheap win.   Yes, OKC is a sloppy team, but the Clips make some real strides tonight. And every little bit counts.

Any discussion of the Clippers’ performance should start with Chris Kaman [25 points, 11-13 FG, 3-3 FT, 14 REB [2/12], 6 AST, 4 BLK, 1 TURN].  Charting Chris’ improvement is always tricky, because it’s not as if the guy ever struggles to establish position on the box.  Chris is assertive in setting up down low, and he generally gets the ball where he wants it.  So you don’t need a clinical breakdown to demonstrate his offensive woes.  With Chris, it’s far simpler than that: When he’s struggling, it’s because he’s not finishing.

The upward trajectory for Chris began in that Friday night game a couple weeks back against Houston.  Tonight, he displays the full sweep of that progress.  His first layup is tipped by Jeff Green. About 30 seconds later, he slips underneath Robert Swift,  gets a good lob pass from Baron Davis, and slams it home.  Chris’ first three makes of the game are dunks — no finesse, no futzing, no extra dribbles or pivots…just a flush.  Of the other 8 FGMs, another is a dunk, six are layups [including one whirling right-handed reverse], and the other is that fluid, face-up 15 footer he’s been nailing with consistency.

What’s the difference?  Chris is doing a better job of passing out when he knows he’s liable to get into trouble.  It’s a great life skill — knowing one’s limitations. It’s a particularly good life skill when you’re an NBA center.  Tonight, it’s as if Chris is able to say to himself, “this isn’t going to end well” in those instances when it’s apparent to everyone he’s going to cough up the ball or overwork his shot.  His defense — against, admittedly, a challenged front line — continues to be solid, particularly bodying up on the block.

Marcus Camby turns in a Marcus Camby kind of game. Nick Collison isn’t the most difficult of assignments, and this allows Marcus to rove, which is what he prefers to do and what he does effectively. This is in stark contrast to Houston, whose big men demand constant attention. Camby is still struggling with his shot outside of the paint, but he converts 7 FGMs tonight on 11 attempts.

Al has his best game in a while, particularly on the boards. It’s somewhat of a gamble against a running team like OKC to crash the offensive glass as aggressively as Al does tonight, because Al is one of those guys you need on transition defense, because he’s quick, long, and agile. But tonight, it pays off. He does some nice things offensively, but it’s worth highlighting something we should see more of from Al.

At the 6:34 mark of the 1st, Al gets the ball in transition down the right sideline. The numbers have dissipated for the Clips [it's now effectively 2-on-3], but Al still has a head of steam and only a backtracking Jeff Green on his heels and Johan Petro between him and the basket. Rather than trying to sidestep Petro for a tough shot — because it would be a tough finish — Al instead draws contact, squares up, still gets off a good attempt, and earns a trip to the stripe. Al averages 4.2 FTA/game. That’s not horrendous, but you’d like to see that number closer to the mid-5s for a slasher of his caliber. Tonight, though, Al brings his whole game and seems seriously focused. No turnovers, either, on a whole lotta touches.

Cuttino Mobley gets the unenviable assignment of Kevin Durant, but does yeoman’s work on him. Durant manages to get off only 15 shots off from the field, tying his season low. Cat’s best work isn’t necessarily the on-ball coverage — Durant shoots 50%…though Cat gives up five inches — but in denying Durant the space to receive the ball, and in forcing Durant to pass-out.  It also warrants mentioning that Ricky Davis, despite his incapacity to do much of anything else, does some solid work on Durant during a stretch in the second quarter.  In addition to his defense, Mobley has put together some freaky offensive spurts in the third quarter recently — falling fadeaways and fearless, hard drives through the heart of the lane.

Baron Davis has another rough shooting night, but his shot selection, defensive game, effectiveness at the point, and general mood are all better. You can also credit him for a good deal of Kaman’s night. He delivers Chris two beautiful lob passes underneath Swift for easy layups — one at 8:34 mark of the 1st, and an almost identical play at the 9:45 mark of the 3rd. There’s also a perfectly executed Side S/R with Chris at 6:52 in the second. Baron is completely amped to go up against two of his UCLA successors — Earl Watson [still the best defensive PG in the game], and Russell Westbrook [no slouch and one of the better defenders of the rookie class]. Baron racks up four steals, and plays snarling defense on the ball, never once taking a play off.

The bench goes 5-26 FG, and 1-2 FT, so the less said about that, the better. In theory, Eric Gordon should be getting more than 6 minutes against a team like Oklahoma City, but I don’t know that Mike Dunleavy has that defensive luxury against a matchup nightmare like Kevin Durant. Mobley was the call, and the right one.

As Lisa Dillman writes in today’s Los Angeles Times, the meme that the Clippers would improve once all the starters were healthy and on the court has been debunked.

Baron Davis has suggested that the problem is an offense weighted down by a heavy playbook.  Chris Kaman says, “Coach is throwing a lot of different lineups in there. Some guys are trying to adjust to that a little bit.” Mike Dunleavy hasn’t pointed fingers, though he tells Dillman that guys who slough off defensively will find their minutes reduced.

What’s frustrating is that each of these diagnoses belies a larger truth.  The Running Team v. Set Offense debate?  The Clippers rank 12th in pace.  That means they’re pushing the ball more than Utah, more than Phoenix, and more than Washington.  Against Golden State on Saturday, the Clips had 22 transition opportunities.  The Warriors had only 15.  Pace is not the problem — and if it is the problem, it’s not because the Clippers are too slow to shoot.

When the Clippers struggled offensively in the past, the sets had that rigor mortis quality.  But that isn’t happening here.  They got 20 unguarded looks on Saturday.  The problem is that the Clippers are settling for low-percentage shots.

Clippers
Long Shots: 26
Medium Shots: 9
Short Shots: 10

Warriors
Long Shots: 19
Medium Shots: 17
Short Shots: 10

And last Wednesday against Sacramento?

Clippers
Long Shots: 20
Medium Shots: 14
Short Shots: 9

Kings
Long Shots: 15
Medium Shots: 18
Short Shots:8

The data don’t require too much explication:  The Clippers are settling for shots way out on the perimeter, while they’re allowing their opponents easy mid-range stuff.

On a more specific note, Baron has gotten shredded defensively.  He was the primary defender on 10 possessions Saturday; the Warriors came away with points in seven of those 10 possessions.  The sad truth was that he wasn’t even that good.  He failed to rotate on Turiaf at [2nd, 4:25], but Turiaf missed the wide open 14-footer.  On another occasion, Stephen Jackson missed a layup after beating Baron off the dribble.  Against Sacramento, the Kings scored on 4 of 8 possessions in which Baron was the primary defender.

I don’t want to lay this strictly on Davis, because virtually everyone has been terrible.  Mobley got beat all afternoon on Saturday.  Thornton has played soft defensively, and he’s yet to pick up the nuances of NBA defense — knowing how to cut a slasher off from the rest of court, knowing when to give up, knowing how to antipate a screen.  Ironically, Camby has looked a little better the last couple of games, but the other Clipper big men are being drawn away from the interior when they’re most needed inside.  Part of this is employing the likes of Tim Thomas at the PF.  Part of it is Chris still getting comfortable with his new teammates along the perimeter in defensive S/R situations.  The genius of Sam Cassell was that, despite being a really limited defensive player laterally, he and Chris communicated effectively in those situations.  They trapped when they were supposed to trap; Chris learned where he was supposed to be vis-a-vis Sam on a switch or on a show.  Chris instinctively knew when it was okay to drop back.  But he doesn’t share that kind of trust yet with any of the new guys — Cat excepted — and it’s evident.

I don’t know what’s more frustrating — the Clippers 1-8 record, or the fact that we have no idea what’s wrong with the patient.  “Everything” is an apt response — because they suck in every respect right now — but it doesn’t begin to prescribe remedies.

Please give me three things you’d do differently tonight against San Antonio.

With Parker and Ginobili out, the Spurs are running primarily a straight S/R offense with either George Hill or Roger Mason as the small in tandem with the Big Fundamental. Michael Finley is picking up a bunch of shots on the perimeter off the collapse on Duncan — but that’s not news.