(Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
Buzzer Reaction
 Los Angeles Clippers |
 Los Angeles Lakers |
MVP: Blake Griffin. Griffin finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in just 26 minutes, hitting the 20-point mark for a streak-extending 22nd consecutive game.
X-factor: The Lakers roster. How sad is Kobe Bryant right now? The Clippers just handed the Lakers a 48-point loss, their worst in franchise history. Things aren’t going well in Lakerland, and there doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel.
That was… malicious. The Clippers outscored the Lakers 44-13 in the second quarter then turned around and outscored them by 16 in the third. Meanwhile, every Clipper starter finished with a plus/minus better than 30.
— Fred Katz
Awkward Encounter
Bad News Blake
Tweet(s) of the Night
Really shocked that neither Wes Johsnon or Xavier Henry defending Blake Griffin has worked out for D’Antoni. #perplexed
— Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) March 7, 2014
The Lakers should get a one-year ban from having games broadcast on national TV as punishment for this season.
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) March 7, 2014
Blake Griffin Alley Oop v.1 pic.twitter.com/EPSgwl9ayd
— jose3030 (@jose3030) March 7, 2014
Mitch Kupchak. Is Not Happy. pic.twitter.com/kifTQnO5xu
— jose3030 (@jose3030) March 7, 2014
The Lakers should make a t-shirt with the current starting 5’s names because it will be the most hipster NBA shirt ever in 3-4 years.
— netw3rk (@netw3rk) March 7, 2014
Clippers win 142-94 — biggest Clipper win ever/worst Laker loss ever.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) March 7, 2014
Great win! We def owed them from opening night.. Gotta keep this thing rolling.. Playoffs are right around the corner
— Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619) March 7, 2014
— Jamal Crawford (@JCrossover) March 7, 2014
Misery = Motivation #thanku #urwelcome
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) March 7, 2014
The Depth Charge
| BENCH | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | +/- | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan Hollins, C | 7 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 5 |
| Hedo Turkoglu, PF | 22 | 3-6 | 3-5 | 0-0 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | +14 | 9 |
| Big Baby Davis, PF | 19 | 5-7 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | +5 | 10 |
| Total | 48 | 10-17 | 3-5 | 1-2 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | +20 | 24 |
(Photo via NBA.com/Stats)
ClipperBlog Live’s Best Moment
Fred and Patrick discuss the sheer ugliness of tonight’s blowout, Danny Granger’s play, Reggie Bullock finally hitting 3s, Grant Hill’s hilarious reaction on TNT, and who the Lakers might target in free agency this offseason.
Check Your Messages
The Bruin Blur
Collison had a strong game — he finished with 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting — looking no better than on two fast breaks in the second quarter. In the first, he used a euro-step to finish an and-one layup on Jordan Farmar. The second was a perfectly thrown lob for a DeAndre Jordan slam.
This isn’t anything particularly new from Collison, who’s been a transition threat all year. However, statistically he’s more of a magician in the open court than his impressive eye test results would suggest. Collison scores 1.29 points per play in transition, per Synergy Sports, ranking in the top 40 league-wide. Although he’s no Blake Griffin — 1.4 PPP, 15th-best in the NBA — Collison’s speed and finishing ability make him an upper-echelon transition player in what’s become a career year.
– David Vertsberger
Best Show In The Business
Chris Paul jogged down the court on a fast break — jog being the word of choice because of the sheer familiarity he felt running wide open — a 3-on-1 transition play against the Lakers, DeAndre Jordan on one side, and Blake Griffin flanking his left. Paul faked to his right and in the same motion, flicked his wrist over his head in a sideways U-shaped turn and half a second later, Griffin sent the crowd into hysterics.
A woman clutched her phone, smiling, already counting the number of likes on Instagram. A guy stood next to her, mouth agape, and hands clasped around the cheeks of his face, wondering if anyone else has seen what he had just witnessed, even if it had seemingly happened 45 times in the two and a half quarters prior. Mitch Kupchak just shook his head at the taunting 104-56 screenshot on the scoreboard.
The Clippers aren’t the best team in the NBA. But on sheer entertainment, crowd-pleasing, buzzing anticipation, and freakish delight, the Clippers are the best blowout team in the universe. It was only the icing on the cake that this happened against their proverbial big brother.
– Andy Liu
The Baby Monitor
This game was a laugher, but it didn’t start out that way. Until the last few minutes of the first quarter, the Clippers were playing sloppy, uninspired basketball. They were down by as many as seven points, but when DeAndre Jordan picked up his second foul and Big Baby checked in with about five minutes to go, things swung in the Clippers’ favor. This is the Baby Monitor:
4:46: Baby steps over and takes a charge
4:26: He swishes a mid-range jumper
4:16: He plays tough post defense on Pau Gasol, who misses a baby hook
4:01: He sets an extraordinarily wide screen for Chris Paul, who drains a 3-pointer
3:22: He once again plays tough post D on Gasol, pushing him away from the hoop and into a tough fadeaway, which Gasol misses
3:10: He sets another big screen for CP3, who takes and makes his favorite shot, a wide-open elbow jumper.
Over this minute-and-a-half stretch the Clippers went from down four to up seven in the midst of a 14-0 run, taking the lead for good. The six plays Big Baby made over that stretch were instrumental, a spark that ignited a ridiculous offensive explosion that would last the rest of the game.
– Ben Mesirow
No Excuses, No Holds Barred… No Mercy
You know the deal by now with the contrasting escalators that are the Clippers and the Lakers.
Last season was clearly about the Clippers finally winning a division title, even though the franchise-best win total was blunted by the fact that neither the Clippers or Lakers moved on to the second round of the playoffs. This year, it’s about the fact that this will be the first time since the 1976 NBA-ABA merger that the Clippers make the playoffs and the Lakers do not.
Tonight? Ye Gods.
The Clippers hung an NBA season-high 142 points on the Lakers. The purple and gold managed 94, making for the largest margin of victory and defeat for the respective teams in franchise history.
The Clippers already embarrassed the Lakers in January. They didn’t need to prove that they could curb-stomp their hallway rivals. But early on, the dim lights of the Lakers home game setting may have suggested that this game would be more like the Clippers’ season-opening loss, as the Clippers turned the ball over nine times in the first quarter. But the Clippers would proceed to blow the Lakers up and out, with the championship banners serving as witnesses.
The Clippers are FOCUSED, man. They finally have the elusive sixth consecutive win. There was no letdown after going on a 26-2 run in the second quarter. They came out after halftime with a 33-point lead and promptly went on a 6-0 run to force a Mike D’Antoni timeout and a Kendall Marshall benching. The starters stayed in the game until 3:09 left, when Blake Show shut the building down with a dunk that made the Clippers look like they were playing the D-Fenders.
This is not a mere throwaway game against a lottery team missing decrepit guards taking the rest of the season off. The Lakers showed up against Portland earlier this week. The Clippers went on to make 57 field goals on them tonight. They out-rebounded the Lakers by 31. We didn’t learn about the Clippers skill tonight. We learned about their will.
Tonight was a blood bath against the Lakers. And because it was so extreme, so explicit, the Clippers ensured that it will never be forgotten — by either team.
– Lawrence Murray
Pyrrhic Victories
Watching the Lakers lose is always fun for me. Watching them fall in bad or painful ways is even more fun for me. I will never not enjoy the sound of the waves of overwhelming entitlement breaking over the rocks of 2014 reality. Except… those were the Lakers in laundry only. Playing against a Summer League team (Kent Bazemore, MVP!) with an NBA roster is actually kind of unsatisfying, and honestly feels like more of a waste of time than an accomplishment.
And in a way, this turns Kobe Bryant into a bigger heel than I already thought him to be. This season he’s contrived to absent himself from the nightly shaming his career of garbage-time gunning and mean-mugging so richly deserves. His villainy extends beyond his on-court appearance, as without him, the sweet taste of victory turns to bitter ash.
Of course, beating this bunch of cast-offs by 48 is better than the other way around. Small solace.
– Seth Partnow
