There are some real issues, hard to navigate. Zu is still just slightly underperforming, as Rob notes in the preview. Getting Kawhi back is the next step, but after that comes Zu finding his soft touch and getting better balance and strength. I actually think it’s a rare case where his defense will follow his offense, and he will be better and make more plays as a defender, and get more rebounds, if he can get his shot calibrated and he gets more attempts.

And then there’s the YKN/Lopez question. It does seem like there should be some YKN 1st half backup minutes, based on how he has looked. Harden and others seem to find him pretty easily for dunks.

It was kind of funny to see how excited and confident Chicago got, after the Clippers failed to land punches. Clips were due for getting something like that–Lopez was a big contributor, but Harden had turnovers and Zu wasn’t sharp enough. We’ll see about Kawhi.

and on offense as he repeatedly got stripped; my complex and nuanced advice to YCN: hold the ball tighter—

at the least it should be a jump ball and not a strip; really infuriating

Many folks have given Ty credit for playing the young guys but I’ve been rather hesitant to do so. I believe the only reason that some of these young guys are playing (Kobe, Miller & Cam) is because Ty didn’t have a choice due to injuries. In other words, he was forced to do so.

If Bogi, DJJ and Kawhi are all healthy, then Kobe & Miller’s ass would be glued to the bench. And tbh, I would rather see Miller and Kobe play over DJJ and Bogi.

YKN should have played over Lopez last nite and Tyty should have gotten mins as backup PG to give Harden some much needed rest. Not saying that these changes would result in a win but they would have given our veteran star some rest and our a young center valuable mins to learn and get better on defense.

Garbage time mins doesn’t do anything for the young guys. They need to play meaningful mins.

In the 2nd half, after Zu anchored a comeback with very good 3 pt shooting from Collins/Sanders, Lopez and the 2nd unit gave it all away.

The team was tired, and we might not have had the legs to make the big shots in Q4 had it stayed competitive, but this should have been a competitive game if the 2nd unit (and Lopez in particular) had given the team anything.

Jordan Miller had a rough night after a pretty good start. He’s a rookie and that’s to be expected. I do think Ty should’ve gone deeper sooner with Washington and YKN. It’s a good way to hide Lopez a bit the added youth gives the team more athleticism.

It was always going to be tough to sweep this week with Kawhi out.

On the positive side, I did like the more intentional attempts to get Zu the ball. Thought the team started going to him after they got way behind in Q2. It looked like he was going to help stop the bleeding and then the team abruptly went away from him. But if you draw it out into Q3, the more the team went to him, the more efficient the offense became and they outscored Chicago over the Q3 stretch. If Kawhi is going to be out for a while, getting the ball into the post w/Zu is going to be key in half court sets. It also helps if there are credible shooters on the floor, as Sanders and Collins were willing shooters. Harden also got a shot off, but one should keep in mind that the spacing to take those shots is being created in part by Zu’s gravity.