• There’s news in Lisa Dillman’s notes that the Clippers plan to re-sign Fred Jones to a 10-day contract. Assistant GM Neil Olshey also tells Dillman that the acquisition of Adams was meant as a contingency plan, just in case Jones wasn’t ready to go tonight: “They acquired him from the Toronto Raptors, along with cash considerations, for a future conditional second-round draft choice and then waived him. The reason? Guard Fred Jones (sore foot) became available to play tonight, making Adams expendable. ‘We expect to sign him to a 10-day contract,’ Clippers assistant general manager Neil Olshey said of Jones. ‘We were kind of hedging our bets’ with Adams.”
• Marcus Camby tells Hoopworld about the Clippers’ MASH unit, and how he’s adapting to his new team after being a fixture in Denver: “On paper you look at our team and you would say we’re a playoff-caliber team and we still feel that way if we had guys out there on the court. It’s going to take some time, unfortunately injuries happen in this league and teams have to find a way to overcome it. It’s tough to overcome injuries and play in the Western Conference. Hopefully guys can come back relatively quickly, and get that camaraderie so we can salvage the rest of the season.”
• ESPN and Scout Inc’s David Thorpe is impressed with Eric Gordon’s defense: “Gordon’s offensive game is really coming on; he’s scored 24, 21, 21 and 31 points in his past four games. But I’m impressed with his defense, too. Finding shooters and closing out on them is a must in this league, and his awareness and long arms are a big help here.”
• More love for EJ from his hometown paper, the Indy Star:  “Eric Gordon is one of three rookies who have scored 30 or more points in a game this season. He and O.J. Mayo are the only rookies to do so in consecutive games.”
• Timur Hammond at Tamerlane is launching an effort to draft Donald T. Sterling for Governor.  His rationale? “The Clippers waived a player that might have been able to contribute, suggesting that the real motive for the whole deal was just a little pile of cash. Donald Sterling is one mean dude. But I was thinking: What if the man ran for Governor of California? Imagine how he might bridge our yawning abyss of a budget”  You can check out Hammond’s dialogue between Sterling and Nevada’s Governor over at Tamerlane.

The Clippers today waived forward Paul Davis and newly-signed guard Fred Jones.

Davis was the Clippers’ second round pick in the 2006 Draft.  He played in 27 games, averaging 4.0 points and 2.5 rebounds in 11.5 minutes per game this season.  Davis had a career night against Sacramento just a week ago, scoring 18 points.

Jones joined the team as a free agent last week.  He averaged 8.3 ppg in four losses to Dallas, Sacramento, Philadelphia, and Phoenix.  He left yesterday’s loss against Detroit early in the first quarter with a sprained right foot.  More...

After today’s game, Mike Dunleavy offers an interesting comment to the Los Angeles Times‘ Broderick Perkins:

“When guys get injured, typically you have agents that are going to tell them, ‘There’s no reason to hurry back. Make sure you’re 110% healthy before you come back,’ ” said Dunleavy, also the team’s general manager. “I think that’s one of the things you have to try and guard against. We don’t ever want anybody coming back that has a chance of injuring themselves.”  More...

It seems ridiculous to sanctify grown men for doing their jobs, but the Clippers’ few remaining healthy bodies play a gutsy game this afternoon.  “Clippers Point Guard” is now the NBA’s equivalent of “Spinal Tap Drummer.”  Today’s spontaneous combustion?  Fred Jones — today’s starter at PG — who follows Mike Taylor, Baron Davis, and Jason Hart to the shelf when he limps off the court less than three minutes into the game with a sprained right foot.  More...

When Jason Hart leaves the game in the first half with elbow tendinitis, Fred Jones – a player who wasn’t in the league a week ago – becomes the Clippers’ first-string point guard.   Jones doesn’t play poorly, finishing with a +9 on the night, as the Clippers hang around against a healthy, talented Phoenix team.

Where is Baron Davis?  A report that Baron would sit out the game with a bruised tailbone trickles out of Phoenix about ten minutes before tip-off.  The way Baron has been shooting the ball during his first ten weeks as a Clipper, I’m willing to accept that he’s hurt.   The unanswerable question, of course, is how many of the other 29 starting point guards in the league would be playing in Baron’s condition?

In no basketball universe is Fred Jones a natural point guard.  You can observe his limitations at [3rd, 3:38], and [4th, 10:12] when he telegraphs a couple of bad passes in halfcourt sets that Matt Barnes and Leandro Barbosa poke away in the lanes for Phoenix fast breaks.  But Jones has a good dribble game and isn’t afraid to draw contact on a drive for a trip to the line [3rd, 3:05; 3rd, 1:56].  Jones isn’t the defender Hart is, but Jason Richardson doesn’t kill him and he doesn’t make any brutal mistakes.

The game isn’t shown over-the-air or on cable in Los Angeles, so I pick up the Phoenix broadcast with Tom Leander and Scott Williams.  It’s always interesting to hear the opposing crew.  Early on, Leander speaks glowingly of Eric Gordon’s skill set.  He cites a pregame conversation with Mike Smith, during which the Clippers’ color commentator tells Leander there isn’t anything on the floor that Gordon doesn’t do well.  Leander and Williams also spend time on the Clippers’ train wreck narrative — the unending injuries, the Davis-Dunleavy flap, Ricky Davis, etc.  Leander does a good job breaking down a set at [1st, 6:15] when Marcus Camby calls for a lob after he gets baseline position in a mismatch against Grant Hill.  Instead of finding Camby, Hart swings it weak side along the perimeter to Eric Gordon.  A frustrated Marcus Camby, who was wide open having spun off Hill, throws his arms in the air in disgust — and Marcus has every right to be pissed.  Leander notes it as a talisman for the Clippers’ season.

Whatever annoyance Marcus might convey at Hart, the Clippers’ center is an absolute professional tonight.  Marcus racks up 23 rebounds — 11 of them on the offensive glass — to go along with 19 points.  Four of his seven FGMs come on tips or offensive boards.  He repeatedly finds himself on his ass diving and scraping for what little is offered to his impoverished team.  When this one is over, there are only seven bodies left standing for the Clippers in addition to Marcus.  Each of them — Thornton, EJ, Novak, Collins, Jones, Skinner, and Paul Davis — could’ve phoned it in.  None of them do.

Eric Gordon looks more like a pro with each outing. Tonight he scores 21 points on 65% TS, has three shots blocked [two of which will be called as fouls once he logs 200 games], and turns the ball over three times.  EJ gets a great deuce at [4th, 3:53...garbage time, I know] when he starts in the right corner, runs the baseline, then flashes up to the left elbow, rubbing Jason Richardson by a Brian Skinner back screen.  As he turns the corner around Skinner, EJ collects the ball from Jones, stop, and pops a high-arching jumper over Shaquille O’Neal.  It’s vintage Rip Hamilton.  And Rip Hamilton in the body of Eric Gordon sounds pretty good in the morass of an 8-24 season.  We’ll worry about his Crawfordian rebounding rate later.