Will be telling to see what the Fakers do against Portland tonight but I’d expect they stomp them.

So, Friday’s game is going to be pivotal against the Mavs. Ideally we would want to see us impose our will and dominate. This is surely enough of a wake up call for the team to be focused and angry and out to prove something. IF we are truly a championship caliber team then no way we shouldn’t see a decisive win Friday. But with Bev out I’d even settle for a win by a respectable margin. Anything short of that and the writing is on the wall that we are headed for a mortifying 1st round exit.

We’re in a dog fight with this team and Doc has to make adjustments now. The Trez option is killing us, in all ways. The guy needs to hit 10 FTs in a row in practice before I’d play him again. The Boban matchup vs. Trez is Carlisle genius. I’d even stick 2Pat in there. Kinda wish they could throw Fi in there v. Boban.

Mavs have some very accurate shooters. The Clips vaunted D has to show itself more, even without Bev. And, speaking of no Bev, RJ did look better and hitting those shots kept us in the game somewhat. I’ wouldn’t sleep on McGruder either. He’s got energy and makes fine decisions.

I think PG will be better. He’ll keep shooting, that’s for sure. The team was embarassed and are now properly motivated. Use that loss as a positive.

1. Leonard
2. PG
3. Zu
4. Beverly
5. JMG
6. Morris
7. Trez
8. Lou
9. Reggie
10. Shamet
11. Rodney/Mann
12. The rest

What the first 5 have in common is that they are all relatively efficient two-way players. You could play these 5 as a line up against any team. While that line up obviously matches well with a big team, it also can punish a team for going small as it would be able to score at ease (with the Leonard/PG and Zu P&R) while also being able to defend the perimeter and rebound like hell (all 5 of those guys can grab a board).

Once you move past the first 5 listed above, you start to come into a bunch of players who have very special attributes (morris with his occasional ability to play lock down defense and run an offense, Trez with his high energy offense and his uncanny ability to defend the rim despite his height, lou with his ability to create buckets), but who’s flaws make them to a certain extent excellent utility players. Morris can kill your offense. Trez matches up poorly against really big centers and is isn’t quick enough to stretch out as a 4. Lou kills you on defense.

With Doc’s philosophy of “let’s play to our strengths and force them to tweak to play us,” it boggles my mind that he doesn’t give Zu and JMG more minutes. The ability to play five 2-way efficient players IS our strength. It isn’t Trez’s dominance, or Lou’s slick scoring. It’s the ability to grind out good possessions on both ends of the floor. We need more minutes of playing the core 5. The bench should be Trez/Lou/Morris with a staggering of PG/Leonard and some Beverly/Mann/Lance.

Sure some of that is bad defense, but these games happen.

1. Less Trez – if the Mavs are tailor-made for MM (he can bully their smaller wings), they’re tailor-made *against* Trez, even when he’s at full strength. Porzingis and Boban don’t need to defend Trez from beyond 5ft out, so they can just camp in the paint indefinitely, and Trez doesn’t have the strength and/or length to battle them for rebounds. I’ve been beating the PLAY ZU MOAR drum for a while now, and while his lack of minutes wasn’t the only reason we lost tonight, I do think the team looked quite a bit better while he was out there. Hell, they looked better w/ MM at C, since at least then Porzingis/ Boban had to respect the shooting. It pains me to say it, but I think the Clips (and Doc) need to put less on Trez’ plate for now. They looked fine w/o him during the seeding games, and I think for the time being they need to go back to playing that way, at the very least until Trez is back up to game speed – the Mavs aren’t a weak enough team to roll over while Trez leisurely works himself back into shape.

2. Super short leash for Reggie – he hit a few 3-pters and had 2 nice defensive possessions guarding Luka at the end of the game when the outcome was no longer in question. That’s literally the only positive I can muster for him. He’s been ATROCIOUS since the restart. I realize Shamet has been mostly invisible too (and mostly a negative on defense), but at least Shamet isn’t taking horrible shots while depriving others of opportunities. I know it sounds crazy, but I think Doc should give Mann some meaningful minutes – if Shamet isn’t gonna shoot, and Reggie is gonna shoot too much, what other viable options do we have? Kawhi and Lou aren’t really PGs, and even if they could handle starting, they can’t keep playing 40mpg…

3. The real “Playoff P” – it’s never a good look to coin your own nickname, and it’s even worse when you have a game like this. PG13 needs to get back to normal, otherwise we’re sunk.

The sky isn’t falling yet. I predicted Clips in 5, and I’m sticking to that. Let’s hope tonight was (yet another) learning experience both for the players and for Doc and the staff.

Morris’ 2 way ability and availability arguably make him the Clippers 3rd best player, IMHO. if the Clippers are this reliant on Bev and if PG puts up performances like today where he scores 0 pts in the first half, it’s gonna be a problem going fwd.

also, the Clippers front court rotation looked good during the seeding games with Zu getting more minutes and Green playing small ball 5. but of course, as soon as Trez comes back, Doc immediately goes back to playing Trez more minutes than Zu even tho he’s not even in game shape yet. nor is he fully there mentally, as both him and Doc have mentioned.

i just don’t trust Doc to out coach Carlisle or to even match him. Doc is a better coach when they’re underdogs or when they’re shorthanded. it seems like he doesn’t know what to do when he has too many options. he’s better off ordering from an In-N-Out menu than a Jerry’s Deli menu, if that makes sense.