The Clippers boarded their chartered jet on Monday brimming with optimism, eager to ride that euphoria into Memphis against a Grizzlies team that’s been basking in the warm glow of .500hood.
Respectability? The Grizzlies have been at that party for the better part of two weeks. Recent road wins at Phoenix and Portland have paced Memphis, and they enter tonight’s game at 18-18.
Hours before the Clippers knocked off the Lakers on Wednesday, I asked Mike Dunleavy how a coach can tell the difference between real, permanent growth and the fleeting illusion of improvement.
“You ask yourself, ‘Is the team able to do what it wants to do?’”
Wednesday night, the Clippers got most of what they wanted offensively courtesy of Baron Davis, who is playing his most prolific stretch of basketball since he arrived in Los Angeles.
What accounts for that uptick? It’s probably a combination of factors.
The Clippers post an efficient offensive game — one that would have been exceptional if not for the bevy of offensive miscues, sloppy interior passes, a series of botched shots at the rim, missed free throws, and offensive rebounds that slide off the Clippers’ fingertips. Still, they use their length and side-to-side movement to create plenty of shots for themselves. It’s their atrocious defensive effort against a Portland team without a legitimate center, and that loses LaMarcus Aldridge midway through the first quarter, that produces one of their least satisfying losses of the season.