I was just keeping the focus on Norm and his return to form. This was a really valuable game, for him to get the opportunities without Kawhi playing, and he was actually able to take it to a new limit. And that’s really good. It will also help in the next B2B, the Dallas games at home next weekend.

I completely agree with your analysis, and I like the kicker, how BShaw managed to steer things so capably and make all sorts of obvious right moves while Ty was out.

The strategy always seemed to be to try to take a good shot in the game, but it’s likely going to be a loss, and then really try to win tonight. We knew that CLE was going to aim towards getting the winning edge at home after the losing streak playing the West. The Clips shouldn’t be afraid of them, or anybody else. See how it goes tonight.

Kawhi 0.233 (increased by 0.035) in 356 min
Harden 0.316 (increased by 0.211) in 475 min
Zu 0.327 (increased by 0.155) in 447 min
Norm 0.247 (increased by 0.094) in 194 min
DDJ 0.275 (increased by 0.164) in 273 min
Bogi 0.265 (increased by 0.103) in 332 min
Nico 0.301 (increased by 0.204) in 272 min
Dunn 0.228 (incresead by 0.092) in 298 min
Simmons 0.349 (increased by 0.245) in 126 min

————

Coffey -0.077 (decreased by 0.047) in 220 min
Eubanks 0.204 (increased by 0.315) in 54 min
Miller -0.083 (increased by 0.061) in 24 min
Brown -0.222 (decreased by 0.019) in 45 min
Patty 0.526 (increased by 0.549) in 19 min

The synergistic effect of having Kawhi and a mostly healthy team.

So it is safe to say that the 9-man play off rotation is here to stay.

Some numbers (Plus-Minus/minute) that highlight our current rotation:

Kawhi 0.198
Zu 0.172
Bogi 0.162
Norm 0.153
Dunn 0.136
DJJ 0.111
Harden 0.104
Simmons 0.104
Nico 0.098
————————
Coffey -0.030
Eubanks -0.111
Miller -0.144
Brown -0.203

That is it guys. A 9-man rotation with the fineprint: “Use Ben Simmons with caution”

Obviously Harden is tremendously important, much more so tham his number, as Ben can’t shoot anything. Then we have Kawhi (a beast if he is ok physically), a pillar in Zu, a wise old man in Batum, and a good mix of offense first (Norm, Bogi) and defense first (Dunn, DJJ, Simmons) players.
Bogi is a wildcard, he can be tremendously important in certain scenarios.

It is crystal clear that Coffey is borderline a negative, he may have the odd great game but don’t count on it. Hence, he is out of the rotation.
Patty Mills is -0.022 but he’s played only 45 garbage time minutes.

It’s hard and exhausting to score points, even when you train for it all the time. Norm pushed himself back up to where he left off, getting to his 24-25ppg form–and in Kawhi’s absence, getting there way ahead of schedule. But heaters come to an end, and the smidge of fatigue can hit–Norm had never been in that rare air, with a clear shot at going from 30 to 40 points in the first 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter. It’s too bad–it would have been something to watch. He got a couple more buckets during the comeback but he also had more near misses.

The good news is that he made it all the way back. With Kawhi the Clips don’t need Norm to get to 30+ points and take 24 shots (!), but they do need him to hit his average or do better if opportunity allows.

Kawhi getting an extra day of rest and having him fresh against Orlando and finishing off the trip with a win would put the Clippers back on the upside. ORL will be tough, and it was always going to be a challenge to win both of these games, or even just one of them. The Clips played well and hard and kept competing all the way to the finish. Kind of like the OKC game, a couple of bounces or cleaner shots and even a call or two and they could have pulled it out–against one of the league’s elite teams. Back at it tomorrow.

LAL has 8 games left against HOU, GSW, NO, @OKC, @OKC, @DAL, HOU, @POR. They are an up and down team, but I think they’ll split with Houston, beat GSW, and go 6-2 or 5-3. I’ll say they’ll finish at 50-32.

Minnesota has 7 games left and I expect they’ll go 6-1 (at worst). Only tough games are @DEN and @MEM. The rest are literal bottom feeders and injury riddled teams. They’ll finish 49-33.

GSW has 8 games left and Steph being back has injected some new life into that team. They have @MEM, @LAL, DEN, HOU, @PHX, SAS, @POR, LAC. I think their record will be 5-3. They’ll finish at 48-34.

Memphis is a team in complete disarray. Ja really isn’t a good basketball player right now but has a very high usage rate. They have 8 games left (BOS, GSW, @MIA, @DET,@CHA, Min, @DEN, DAL). I think their record will be 2-6. They’ll finish at 46-36.

LAC has 8 games left, including 2 back to backs, which means Kawhi won’t play in 2 of those games. We also have the Ty Lue factor as he seems to be tinkering and struggling with the starting rotation (and rotations in general). I think they’ll go 6-2 or 5-3 and finish at 48-34 or 47-33.

I think that means that LAL is #4, MIN is #5, GSW is #6, LAC #7, MEM #8. If they do finish in a tie with GSW they’ll be #6, but if you have 1 game faceoff between Steph and LAC in SF for the right to go to the playoffs or be sent to the play in, are you really betting against Steph at home?

A lineup of Zu, Bogi, Dunn, Batum, Harden could’ve worked too.

Would’ve been better to have started Batum instead of DJJ.

It’s tough to play Dunn out there if he’s going to sit in the corner and also get called for reach in fouls every time he swipes at Mitchell/Garland and whoever else is in the paint. Use him as a screener and let him move to the elbow/FT area or baseline.

Ty Lue was pretty terrible in his game management. If the Clips are going to do anything in the western conference this season, he has to be a lot better than what we’ve seen. We always demand something of players. Well, coaches gotta step up too.

His lineups and adjustments were screwball throughout, but at a high level, I’d pick 3 or 4 key things that underscore a bad performance:

1. Playing Kris Dunn in the corner: There just isn’t enough spacing on the floor when he’s in the corner. He’s not a good shooter. No one respects him. If you say ‘well he made 3/8’, my response is: ‘Bogi had only 4 3PAs. Who would you rather have taking 8 3s? Bogi or Dunn?’. You already know the answer to that question. If you look at the two key stretches where we lost this game, it was in Q1 and the beginning part of Q3 with Dunn on the court causing the lane to be clogged. His defense was decent but not stellar. He fouled out. Play him as a screener in these lineups or move him to the second unit.
2. Going small in the last 3 min of Q2: Subbing Zu out to avoid foul trouble is defensible. Going in with Batum at the #5 instead of Simmons is not. Yes, the Clippers outscored them by 3, but that was because Norm was on a heater. We gave up 4 super easy, barely contested buckets to Allen and Mobley. Had we played Simmons and Batum together, we could’ve contested those shots and we really could’ve been ahead at half time with the way Norm was going.
3. Poor Offensive process in Q3: Q3 was helter skelter and Zu got almost no touches. We forgot about him entirely. You can’t do that as a coach. Cleveland crushed our momentum once the Norm heater ended and Harden had a rough shooting stretch. You wouldn’t have to tell Brian Shaw to get the ball to Zu, I know that much.

As for Q4, the comeback started when Zu got more touches. Dunn made a couple of shots, but his presence gave Cleveland self assurance that they could crowd the lane and chase after Zu/Norm. They were sagging off him the whole game. You cant win big games that way.

Well, the more important game is coming up: Detroit v Minnesota. Clips need a DET win. They have to go get that win in ORL tomorrow.