Comments on: Clippers vs. Thunder Game Preview: A Big One

By: Dave Rosa

Dave Rosa — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 22:28:46 +0000

It’s the old thing. Too much Morris. Half-butt coaching by Lue. Sorry to see George go down. He won’t be back. Trading SGA was the worse Clipper trade since acquiring Marques Johnson for Junior Bridgeman, Ricky Pierce, and Craig Hodges.

Lesson for today: Never have players dictate who you trade for. It never works out.

If a player doesn’t want to play for the Clippers with Ballmer as owner, he’s not for us.

By: WhyNotTyler

WhyNotTyler — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:01:07 +0000

Absolutely. Their defense would be way better. But Sabonis is the potential issue and would be key imo. Definitely a series I’d look forward to watch. With regards to the coaching as well. Love what Daigneault is doing in the regular season, beautiful stuff. Same for Mike Brown. Curious how Dags holds his own over the course of a series.

By: John Maclean

John Maclean — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 07:17:41 +0000

Can’t argue with that assessment. Not sure where you can trade Kawhi though. Probably has a 15% kicker he won’t waive. We may be stuck with oohing and awing over the new arena being built for the next two years:-)

By: John Maclean

John Maclean — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 07:15:38 +0000

I would love to see OKC get to 6 which I think is fairly possible now. I think they’d have a heck of a shot at the Kings in the first round too. Shai would be the best player in the series. If PG is done or even out for as long as it would appear I wouldn’t mind seeing the Thunder fill that void.

By: WhyNotTyler

WhyNotTyler — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 06:55:40 +0000

If OKC wins the second game as well, I pick them to avoid the play-in and make the playoffs. Easiest remaining schedule of all the teams fighting for seeding. Next game is huge. Their games vs the Warriors, Lakers, Jazz and Suns will be huge, too. If they win at least 2 of those and take care of business in the other games, my money is on them.

Clippers got a lot of room for improvement on offense and in closing though, even without PG.

By: dhpat

dhpat — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 06:36:38 +0000

Agreed on KL’s responsibility, but just the other four guys, setting a pick and proper screen, if we all had pickup ball at the park, we all could have moved better than those final 20 sec. WTF.

By: dhpat

dhpat — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 06:33:43 +0000

Swap out Zu for Morris, maybe Shai doesn’t make one more shot. Simple.

If Morris keeps playing the 4th Q, we will continue to lose close games.

By: WhyNotTyler

WhyNotTyler — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 06:33:32 +0000

Re-watching the final minutes. No Zu on the court, PG hurt, Mann ejected. Shai gets a 50/50 call with 2:26 left. Shai gets another call (when Russ played excellent defense) with 2 seconds on the shot clock. Not 50/50, more of an 80/20 call here, okay. Great offense Shai on the next possession – but Zu may have made a difference there. Kawhi’s help makes SGA give up the ball, they end up with a semi-contested 3, good offense, good defense there. Rebound battle Dort vs Russ, totally unclear who touched it last but the rules allow for the refs to call it one way. Some refs (most?) opt to go to the review monitor on huge possessions like that in the final minute. This crew didn’t. Team needs to challenge which costs a timeout. They lose the challenge even though the call was inconclusive because the refs did not go to the monitor (and call a jump ball following that). Russ does NOT fall down on the following possession to force the whistle and draw a charge. Don’t know whether this would have sent him to the line or made any difference as the team got the stop anyway and OKC would likely get the final possession, with the game either tied or Clippers up 1 given the most likely outcomes at the free throw line. Now the team has the ball down one but because of a) the timeout due to PG’s injury and b) the timeout necessary to challenge after the refs didn’t review who should have possession, they are out of timeouts now. What they get is awful execution on the final possession: Kawhi does not take the open drive to the right with 11 seconds left, he forces the dribble to the far left near the sideline even though he got nowhere to go there, he realises it, now got 6.5 seconds left without any advantage created and the defense completely set, Morris slips the final screen which is an awful decision as it allows Dort to stay with Kawhi (and the 3 he might get due to slipping is definitely not the shot you want), this creates the second issue, Russ has no time to screen for Kawhi or cut or help on a DHO as he could have with either more time or Morris setting the screen, Russ is now in Kawhi’s way, cuts to draw his defender but can’t get open and Kawhi is running out of time. He’s not aware of the shot clock either and burns his last chance to get a shot off. Gordon and Batum are spacing, if Zu plays Kawhi may have a passing target, same if he chooses the drive with 11 seconds left or if Morris sets the last screen to create an advantage.

Murphy’s law. What can go wrong will go wrong, over and over and over. Also a bit of the butterfly effect, PG’s injury and the ensuing timeout, the refs not going to the monitor and the ensuing timeout –> no timeout left, awful execution, no Zubac, every detail mattered and nearly every detail made a difference and bit them in the ass, from 50/50 calls to the consequences of the poor shooting to missed free throws to the timeout dilemma to small mistakes with big consequences on the final possession to Ty Lue’s rotations in the 4th.

By: dhpat

dhpat — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 06:27:31 +0000

Let’s pray for PG’s health. I can deal with this loss, but man, it is tough losing one of our guys like that. Tough.

By: KingAlfonse

KingAlfonse — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 06:06:36 +0000

PG will likely be out all of next season, too. It’s time to blow it all up. Trade Kawhi, trade PG, build around Zu and Mann (I mean hold on to them, not that they’re cornerstones or anything) and restock draft picks. This era is toast and has been for quite some time.