If tonight’s game felt familiar to you, there’s a reason for that. You’ve played in this game before. Let me explain. From the arc of the game right down to some of the characters in it, tonight’s matchup felt a lot like a glorified pickup game. Take Corey Maggette for exampl[...]
Five thoughts from tonight’s game: Patience: Similar to their loss to the Warriors a few days ago, the Clippers don’t exercise their advantages nearly enough on the offensive end. Toronto is a miserable defensive team (last in the league in defensive efficiency at 109.8), but the Clipper[...]
Far and away the most compelling sequence of the night: This is the only time the Clippers body up all night. The Clips have been among a select group of truly awful defensive teams in basketball for more than a month. Tonight, they give up 107 points in 90 possessions (118.9 points per 100) to a te[...]
There’s a ton of behind the scenes number crunching and player evaluation that makes the Houston Rockets a successful team. One of the big curiosities about Houston is how they can survive without a single shot-blocking threat on the court. A quick glance over at Hoopdata.com helps explain how[...]
From his blog: The Clippers are in turmoil and have announced they “want to win now.” Is this possible? Since trading away Marcus Camby the Clippers have played around 8 points worse than an average NBA team. Surprisingly, most of the poor play has occurred when Steve Blake is in. Blake had played g[...]
In the summer of 2008, after Baron Davis signed a five year, $65 million dollar contract with the Los Angeles Clippers, the thought of the prodigal son returning to his hometown seems like a happy match for both the star crossed franchise and the temperamental All Star point guard. But after two ye[...]
Larry Brown’s Charlotte Bobcats are an incredibly scrappy team. They play in your face defensively, fly all around the court, and hit the glass with reckless abandon. They fight, they hustle, and they grind out wins. Not surprisingly, their star player goes by the nickname of “Crash̶[...]
When is losing better than winning? The obvious answer has something to do with extra lottery balls, but let’s ignore that aspect (for now). Sometimes winning can complicate things where losing won’t. A loss is just a loss, and a defeat to the Hawks is to be expected given the circumstan[...]