Ha! Well of course I couldn’t tune out and just now finally starting to calm my frayed nerves from the nerve wracking game. Judging from the comments on this thread y’all were suffering the same torment.

These cardiac Clips aren’t going to make it easy are they? But thank goodness we managed to squeak out a win in a game where Denver seemed like they really had us on the ropes. Game 1 was such a tease thinking we might get an easy series. But it seems like it’s gonna be a dogfight as usual.

Some key takeways:

1) PG13 is really starting to show us what we traded the mother lode for. He was masterful in this game and is the only reason we aren’t down 2-1. His offense was aggressive and seems he’s the only Clipper who can hit 3’s anymore. But even more important has been his defense. He has Jamal Murry in JAIL. Love the new Playoff P!

2) We REALLY REALLY REALLY need to fix the turnover and offensive rebounding problems. We are dominating Denver in the half court but because of stupid turnovers and lazy effort on the glass (and small lineup with Trez who can’t rebound for shit), Denver is getting a huge advantage in shot attempts. They took 19 (!!!) more shots than us this game. You really aren’t going to win many games when that happens so we really dodged a bullet this game.

3) What happened to our 3 point shooting??? Entire team is shooting well below their season averages at the same time. This is really a poor time to lose our 3 point shooting abilities. Kawhi has been especially bad in this regard. We could really use some mean reversion in the worst way.

4) Jokic is giving me Luka flashbacks with his ability to single handedly take over the game on offense and we can’t seem stop him without fouling. Need to figure out a way to slow him down or this is going to be a long and nerve wracking series.

5) Trez continues to be a liability with poor defense, and horrifically bad rebounding. And even more concerning he seems to have completely lost his ability to finish at the rim. Is it a conditioning problem or is his head just not right?… I have said Doc needs to bench him but Doc clearly isn’t going to do that. One maybe faint glimmer of hope is that Trez did an admirable job in the final minutes closing out at center after Zu fouled out. Maybe just maybe that will get his head screwed back on again (?).

Anyway, thankful to be 2-1 and I can actually sleep a little easier tonight, as a loss here would have been close to panic time. Let’s hope that somehow Clips can regain that game 1 magic in game 4 for the sake of all our mental and emotional health. 🙂