That being said, he did not look great last night. Let’s hope he’s still knocking the rust off. If he plays a bad as last season, I could easily see Hartenstein pushing for those minutes.

I think Ty was asked after the game about possibly playing Serge at the 4. Think he sounded against it, but as long as Marcus is out, they are running out some pretty small lineups. I probably wouldn’t rule it out against all matchups, especially against the cross hall rivals, although they might be the only team in the league who does play 2 bigs where it might make sense.

So we’re coming up on the vaunted 10-game thingee. One more chance for Bled, maybe, but it’s almost more painful every game. I give the 10-game trial approach some credit, as I would have started Bled and Kennard after game 5, when the Clippers were 1-4. But patience was rewarded with a Reggie Jackson breakout of sorts, and in the meantime Terence Mann has gotten over his own slow start and it seems completely obvious that he should be in the starting lineup now. The thing about Bled is that he does provide good point of attack defense, starting out on Lamelo last night and he’ll probably be guarding Lillard tomorrow. But TMann can be that guy, and he’s doing about ten other things really well at the same time. It’s not like there won’t be minutes for Bled. And it’s a long season. He’s going to be fine, and I’ve always liked him as a player, but now we need to see what TMann can do in the starting lineup. If this were Doc Rivers, and Bled was Avery Bradley, Bled would be starting for another 50 games, and playing 35 minutes to Mann’s 15. But Lue will change things up, I think, though maybe not tomorrow.

That lineup and rotation change isn’t even the headliner now. What to do with Zu, Hartenstein, and Serge? Serge looked rusty but decent, like it’s going to take him time to get rolling, and it’s hard to say how that’s supposed to work when Hartenstein is out there killing it, Zubac is getting stronger and more confident with every game, and Nic Batum and Clipper small ball is also a solid option–Batum’s 3 pt. shot looks significantly better, in a sort of junior version of Kennard’s improved energy and confidence. Have to see if there are any games/lineups coming up where Hart and Serge or Zu and Serge could be on the court at the same time, but Lue sounded deeply skeptical when he was asked about it. Bledsoe and Serge could be a good backup pairing, but Hartenstein is going to be fighting tooth and nail to keep his minutes, and Serge isn’t close to taking anything away from him yet.

So yeah, good times. Paul George needs to keep the turnovers down to 5 or below, and I didn’t hear anybody mention Bledsoe’s 5 turnovers yet. His shooting is so bad maybe you forget that he throws the ball away? And George lost a little of his mojo, as it wasn’t called for, and he still put up a solid line, turnovers aside. Having seven guys playing well is a lot, Bled might get better quickly in a different role, and Serge can take some time. Best of all, the Clippers have a bunch of guys–George, Mann, Batum, Kennard, Reggie, Zu, Hartenstein, in something like that order–who are fun to watch. And they can keep getting better.

Anyways, on a cheerier note – LEGIT WIN STREAK! Mann/Kennard look great together, Batum has been amazing, and PG13 just won player of the week. Hope we can continue Dame’s prolonged funk and take care of business tomorrow night.