(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Buzzer Reaction
 Phoenix Suns |
 Los Angeles Clippers |
MVP: The Clippers bench was handed a 1-point deficit at the start of the second quarter and a 3-point deficit late in the third quarter. Both times, they handed a lead back to the starters. The second unit would finish the night with 41 points.
That was … a milestone: With a corner three at 9:27 of the fourth quarter, Jamal Crawford would surpass 16,000 points for his career, making him the 23rd shooting guard in the league to have ever crossed that mark.
X factor: The Phoenix backcourt of Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight came into tonight’s game averaging nearly 43 points combined. Tonight, they would only score 28 points on 10 of 29 shots, including a 2 of 12 shooting line from behind the arc.
— Brandon Tomyoy
Tweet(s) Of The Game
Here's the basket that gave @jcrossover 16,001 points for his career. #NBAMilestone 📺 #PrimeTicket https://t.co/dH8O6GWJGW
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) November 3, 2015
Clippers' starting lineup currently 2nd in ORtg (122.2) and 6th in DRtg (91.2). That seems okay.
— Andrew Han (@andrewthehan) November 3, 2015
Closeup look at Blake Griffin blocking a Tyson Chandler putback attempt pic.twitter.com/ea2blJ02sT
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) November 3, 2015
The Clippers having @Raising_Canes as a sponsor this season is perfect. The official meal of #DeAndreGate. pic.twitter.com/e3vDk9m5tO
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) November 3, 2015
Check Your Messages
Multitasking
I know I shouldn’t lead with personal stories, but hear me out.
I had a lot of homework tonight. Not quite a ton, but a lot of research to be done, a few statistics problems to work out, and some general housekeeping to take care of on the side.
The Clippers are also very personal subject for me, and this game utterly hijacked my night. A stunning Clipper turnaround towards the end of the second quarter became a nail-biter all the way to the wire.
I’ll probably be up until the A.M. hours doing all the stuff I should have been doing.
I tried. I really did.
So what if I didn’t get anything else done? This could very well be a historical season in Clipper history. I can’t justify to myself missing a moment of it — even a random game in November that would surely be less than a footnote in a grand story of the 2015-2016 Clippers.
It was exciting, it was fun, it was nerve-wracking, it was intriguing.
I regret nothing.
– Aaron Williams
Rollercoaster Lance
Lance Stephenson had moments leading you to believe he can be a comfortable fit within the offense. He’ll have possessions like the one in the third quarter where he bullied his way around P.J. Tucker –- shedding him like a rag-doll for an and 1 -– providing flashes of the player he was on the Pacers.
Not even several minutes removed, he would pull up from 15-feet to take an ill-advised jumper that clanked off the rim before Chris Paul and Blake Griffin had even crossed half-court.
It’s early. Doc is still learning when and how to use Lance. Doc is still figuring out how to wring out as much of the Indiana version as possible.
Until then, this will be the continuing roller coaster that is Lance.
– Kaveh Jam
Hanamichi Sakuragi
Rebound.
An act of securing the ball after a missed field goal attempt. Also an exclamation from the crowd when the team fails said attempt time and again, leading to an inability to move from defense to offense.
The Clippers have given up 61 offensive rebounds in their first four games. Much of this has been caused by an insistence to play Josh Smith as the lone big man for the second unit, all while Cole Aldrich observes from the bench.
Looking at the disparity, it’s easy enough to second guess. Why not play Aldrich more? Why not play bigger based on the size of the opposing lineup on the floor? Why not sub Smith for DJ earlier in odd quarters to allow DeAndre Jordan to anchor the paint for the subs?
In the end, it may be less of a concern as these early games are perhaps more important as building blocks to allow the second unit to better acclimate to each other. If the season is truly a marathon and not a sprint, than these are the moments where one observes how the foot strikes before hitting a stride. But the course of a season is also iterative, and defined results in small samples can proved to be less valuable than the inspection that leads to adaptation.
– Brandon Tomyoy
