GAME #64: WOLVES (44-21) @ LAC (41-22)—TUES 3/12 7 PM, TNT

[Captain Ballmer]

I would like to invite everyone to come back from the ledge.

Let's puts things into perspective.
1. Last night was only the third time since November where we lost back to back games.
2. None of those back to back losses came with our starting 5 on the court. Last night had our starting 5, but we all know Kawhi left early.
3. Since the All-Star break no team behind us before the break has made up more than 2 losses on us. Minnesota has only increased their distance in the loss column by 1 and OKC by 3 (last night's debacle really hurt more because OKC lost to Indy).

So, outside of the Defending Champion Nuggets, who in the West is going to beat us in a 7 game series?

I put our team up against all of those other teams. No one has their back to the wall right now. No one's season is on the line right now.

Ty Lue, PG, Zubac and Mann were all part of the team that made it to the WCF after Kawhi went down. That team played a brutal playoff schedule, but were still on their way to the Finals until Zu hurt his knee in Game 4. I'll take Ty Lue's adjustments over the course of a playoff series.

This is wrong POV i think. Your statement sits behind the 2021 team's success but there are several points will make this take baseless unfortunately. First of all Pg13 is not the same player, he was like top 15-20 player at that time. Can you put him into top 30 player conversation after the last 3 years? Personally I don't. More like he's top 50 to me but this is a topic for later.

Secondly, more importantly the entire league is different. Our age difference with opponents will be much different than what it was in that 2021 run. It's not surprise anymore that our team isn't good with catching up young teams. Among those younglings in 2021 become superstars after 3 years. For example SGA was behing Pg13 for impact standpoint but right know he's far better. Edwards too. Jamal Murray, De'aron Fox, Brandon Ingram can school Pg13 right know. Same can be said for Harden, they are staying behind with age, It happens and it's perfectly normal.

Lastly, the player pool we'll face are much different than it was.
- The wings are more athletic than our wings comparing to 2021 run. Payton Watson-Aaron Gordon duo will be menace, Jalen Williams-Lu Dort duo will do nasty things, Edwards-Jaden McDaniels already putting mockery. You already know whats gonna happen when we face Herb Jones-Trey Murphy- B. Ingram.

- Bigs are more skilled than our bigs comparing to 2021 run. Zubac was young and his body was like iron back then, I have a bad news for you, Zubac misses so many games with minor injuries lately. He's getting veteran problems, his body peaked and now shows syndroms of reaching to the wrong side of age. You can't get 2021 Zubac, whatever left of him is not looking good to face Chet, Jokic, Gobert, Zion, Sabonis, Nurkic and Davis. For this result your coach got tendency to go small simply our bigs are vaslty undertalented. big time!

- Guards around the league are way faster, Doncic-Conley and Cp3 trio doesn't considered fast when we had that run. Now Edwards, Murray, Fox, SGA will murder our guards. Harden&Powell simply can't keep with any skilled perimeter player and their defensive deficiencies can't solved with lesser athletic wings backed up with lesser skilled bigs.

This is the last year of their window. If they fail big time, they shouldn't bring them for next season, big changes needs to happen around Kawhi.

[esqtvd]

I meant walked out of the game and didnt come to the bench in street clothes. Unless you are dying, you should come back and support your squad. Thats what leaders do. Nothing that was happening that night was going to change anything. He just looks like a selfish guy by leaving this team. Hes a great player but a terrible leader. Hes our only long term max contract and the player everyone looks to. Thats why I said this team is finished. no leadership including the coach.

I'm always ready to dog on Kawhi's leadership, but in fairness, back spasms can lay anybody low, especially at 6'7". That's a lot of back.

So just getting on the plane for a 2-game road trip IS leadership.

Read on Twitter

[clipperlover]

I would like to invite everyone to come back from the ledge.

Let's puts things into perspective.
1. Last night was only the third time since November where we lost back to back games.
2. None of those back to back losses came with our starting 5 on the court. Last night had our starting 5, but we all know Kawhi left early.
3. Since the All-Star break no team behind us before the break has made up more than 2 losses on us. Minnesota has only increased their distance in the loss column by 1 and OKC by 3 (last night's debacle really hurt more because OKC lost to Indy).

So, outside of the Defending Champion Nuggets, who in the West is going to beat us in a 7 game series?

I put our team up against all of those other teams. No one has their back to the wall right now. No one's season is on the line right now.

Ty Lue, PG, Zubac and Mann were all part of the team that made it to the WCF after Kawhi went down. That team played a brutal playoff schedule, but were still on their way to the Finals until Zu hurt his knee in Game 4. I'll take Ty Lue's adjustments over the course of a playoff series.

This is wrong POV i think. Your statement sits behind the 2021 team's success but there are several points will make this take baseless unfortunately. First of all Pg13 is not the same player, he was like top 15-20 player at that time. Can you put him into top 30 player conversation after the last 3 years? Personally I don't. More like he's top 50 to me but this is a topic for later.

Secondly, more importantly the entire league is different. Our age difference with opponents will be much different than what it was in that 2021 run. It's not surprise anymore that our team isn't good with catching up young teams. Among those younglings in 2021 become superstars after 3 years. For example SGA was behing Pg13 for impact standpoint but right know he's far better. Edwards too. Jamal Murray, De'aron Fox, Brandon Ingram can school Pg13 right know. Same can be said for Harden, they are staying behind with age, It happens and it's perfectly normal.

Lastly, the player pool we'll face are much different than it was.
- The wings are more athletic than our wings comparing to 2021 run. Payton Watson-Aaron Gordon duo will be menace, Jalen Williams-Lu Dort duo will do nasty things, Edwards-Jaden McDaniels already putting mockery. You already know whats gonna happen when we face Herb Jones-Trey Murphy- B. Ingram.

- Bigs are more skilled than our bigs comparing to 2021 run. Zubac was young and his body was like iron back then, I have a bad news for you, Zubac misses so many games with minor injuries lately. He's getting veteran problems, his body peaked and now shows syndroms of reaching to the wrong side of age. You can't get 2021 Zubac, whatever left of him is not looking good to face Chet, Jokic, Gobert, Zion, Sabonis, Nurkic and Davis. For this result your coach got tendency to go small simply our bigs are vaslty undertalented. big time!

- Guards around the league are way faster, Doncic-Conley and Cp3 trio doesn't considered fast when we had that run. Now Edwards, Murray, Fox, SGA will murder our guards. Harden&Powell simply can't keep with any skilled perimeter player and their defensive deficiencies can't solved with lesser athletic wings backed up with lesser skilled bigs.

This is the last year of their window. If they fail big time, they shouldn't bring them for next season, big changes needs to happen around Kawhi.

So, I will put you down for OKC, Sacramento and Minnesota absolutely beating us in a playoff series.

Obviously, Daigneault's 0 playoff games coached gives him a distinct advantage in a playoff series with a team that has never won a playoff series.

Chris Finch and his 0 playoff series wins is definitely a coaching force. His team could do better this year because they have been there the last couple years. However, Philly made the playoffs several years with different coaches and still couldn't get past the 2nd round.

Mike Brown has had some playoff success (and failures), but his team is in the bottom third of the league in defensive rating and bottom half in net rating.

Ty Lue hasn't coached the Clippers with a full roster yet.
2021 - Kawhi went down mid series and we still made the WCF
2022 - PG was sidelined with Covid for the play-in game
2023 - No PG in the 1st round. We were up 1-0 and found out later Kawhi (who still had 31 pts) tore his meniscus. Team made a valiant effort in Game 3 playing 5 on 8.

I trust Ty Lue to be able adjust to the challenges a playoff series throws at a team over any of those other coaches.

[NickP]

I would like to invite everyone to come back from the ledge.

Let's puts things into perspective.
1. Last night was only the third time since November where we lost back to back games.
2. None of those back to back losses came with our starting 5 on the court. Last night had our starting 5, but we all know Kawhi left early.
3. Since the All-Star break no team behind us before the break has made up more than 2 losses on us. Minnesota has only increased their distance in the loss column by 1 and OKC by 3 (last night's debacle really hurt more because OKC lost to Indy).

So, outside of the Defending Champion Nuggets, who in the West is going to beat us in a 7 game series?

I put our team up against all of those other teams. No one has their back to the wall right now. No one's season is on the line right now.

Ty Lue, PG, Zubac and Mann were all part of the team that made it to the WCF after Kawhi went down. That team played a brutal playoff schedule, but were still on their way to the Finals until Zu hurt his knee in Game 4. I'll take Ty Lue's adjustments over the course of a playoff series.

This is wrong POV i think. Your statement sits behind the 2021 team's success but there are several points will make this take baseless unfortunately. First of all Pg13 is not the same player, he was like top 15-20 player at that time. Can you put him into top 30 player conversation after the last 3 years? Personally I don't. More like he's top 50 to me but this is a topic for later.

Secondly, more importantly the entire league is different. Our age difference with opponents will be much different than what it was in that 2021 run. It's not surprise anymore that our team isn't good with catching up young teams. Among those younglings in 2021 become superstars after 3 years. For example SGA was behing Pg13 for impact standpoint but right know he's far better. Edwards too. Jamal Murray, De'aron Fox, Brandon Ingram can school Pg13 right know. Same can be said for Harden, they are staying behind with age, It happens and it's perfectly normal.

Lastly, the player pool we'll face are much different than it was.
- The wings are more athletic than our wings comparing to 2021 run. Payton Watson-Aaron Gordon duo will be menace, Jalen Williams-Lu Dort duo will do nasty things, Edwards-Jaden McDaniels already putting mockery. You already know whats gonna happen when we face Herb Jones-Trey Murphy- B. Ingram.

- Bigs are more skilled than our bigs comparing to 2021 run. Zubac was young and his body was like iron back then, I have a bad news for you, Zubac misses so many games with minor injuries lately. He's getting veteran problems, his body peaked and now shows syndroms of reaching to the wrong side of age. You can't get 2021 Zubac, whatever left of him is not looking good to face Chet, Jokic, Gobert, Zion, Sabonis, Nurkic and Davis. For this result your coach got tendency to go small simply our bigs are vaslty undertalented. big time!

- Guards around the league are way faster, Doncic-Conley and Cp3 trio doesn't considered fast when we had that run. Now Edwards, Murray, Fox, SGA will murder our guards. Harden&Powell simply can't keep with any skilled perimeter player and their defensive deficiencies can't solved with lesser athletic wings backed up with lesser skilled bigs.

This is the last year of their window. If they fail big time, they shouldn't bring them for next season, big changes needs to happen around Kawhi.

So, I will put you down for OKC, Sacramento and Minnesota absolutely beating us in a playoff series.

Obviously, Daigneault's 0 playoff games coached gives him a distinct advantage in a playoff series with a team that has never won a playoff series.

Chris Finch and his 0 playoff series wins is definitely a coaching force. His team could do better this year because they have been there the last couple years. However, Philly made the playoffs several years with different coaches and still couldn't get past the 2nd round.

Mike Brown has had some playoff success (and failures), but his team is in the bottom third of the league in defensive rating and bottom half in net rating.

Ty Lue hasn't coached the Clippers with a full roster yet.
2021 - Kawhi went down mid series and we still made the WCF
2022 - PG was sidelined with Covid for the play-in game
2023 - No PG in the 1st round. We were up 1-0 and found out later Kawhi (who still had 31 pts) tore his meniscus. Team made a valiant effort in Game 3 playing 5 on 8.

I trust Ty Lue to be able adjust to the challenges a playoff series throws at a team over any of those other coaches.

So you're hanging your hat on Ty Lue's ability to coach? Have you not seen his atrocious lineups?
Maybe you're seeing something I'm not.

[madmaxmedia]

It feels like the Harden bump we were riding in December has disappeared (not that I think we'd be better off without the trade, by any means.)

I think we'd be clearly better off without the trade. We'd probably be around the same spot in the standings, but we wouldn't have given away all our remaining draft capital for the decade in order to do it, and we also wouldn't be stuck with PJ Tucker's terrible contract and even worse attitude. Bringing in Harden was another desperation move by Frank that fixed none of the team's flaws and created new ones.

Whether we're better off overall (short and long term) is certainly up for debate, but I don't think there's any chance in hell we'd have the same record without the trade. Last year we finished 44-38 with mostly healthy seasons from PG and Kawhi, and at no point did I think we had a chance to go deep in the playoffs. We've obviously come down our high, but in December this team was rolling like it hadn't since 2020.

PJ Tucker's contract isn't good, but carrying him for a year is not that big of a deal IMO. He'll get moved like Morris did when he becomes an expiring. Finally, bringing in Harden didn't solve all our problems but it absolutely fixed one of the team's major flaws, which is that we've had no legitimate high level point guard in all the 213 years.

[wakelaunch1]

I meant walked out of the game and didnt come to the bench in street clothes. Unless you are dying, you should come back and support your squad. Thats what leaders do. Nothing that was happening that night was going to change anything. He just looks like a selfish guy by leaving this team. Hes a great player but a terrible leader. Hes our only long term max contract and the player everyone looks to. Thats why I said this team is finished. no leadership including the coach.

I'm always ready to dog on Kawhi's leadership, but in fairness, back spasms can lay anybody low, especially at 6'7". That's a lot of back.

So just getting on the plane for a 2-game road trip IS leadership.

Read on Twitter

A heat pack and massage wraps are right there. Players wear them all the time during the game. You support your team unless you need serious medical attention. Or a road trip and you are doing rehab. Otherwise he should have come back out. He wasnt crutching in pain or being wheelchaired out.

[clipperlover]

I meant walked out of the game and didnt come to the bench in street clothes. Unless you are dying, you should come back and support your squad. Thats what leaders do. Nothing that was happening that night was going to change anything. He just looks like a selfish guy by leaving this team. Hes a great player but a terrible leader. Hes our only long term max contract and the player everyone looks to. Thats why I said this team is finished. no leadership including the coach.

I'm always ready to dog on Kawhi's leadership, but in fairness, back spasms can lay anybody low, especially at 6'7". That's a lot of back.

So just getting on the plane for a 2-game road trip IS leadership.

Read on Twitter

A heat pack and massage wraps are right there. Players wear them all the time during the game. You support your team unless you need serious medical attention. Or a road trip and you are doing rehab. Otherwise he should have come back out. He wasnt crutching in pain or being wheelchaired out.

Larry Bird, Charles Barkley and Brad Daugherty are just a few players that had their careers ended early by back issues.

Relatively speaking, Kawhi has a pretty high pain tolerance. He continued playing with an ACL tear during the Utah playoff series. He obviously played with a torn MCL during the later part of Game 2 last year. If Kawhi was leaving because of discomfort, I will trust his judgement. Team had a big lead when he went out and then increased that lead.

Had the others just finished the job, no one is questioning Kawhi.

[wakelaunch1]

I'm always ready to dog on Kawhi's leadership, but in fairness, back spasms can lay anybody low, especially at 6'7". That's a lot of back.

So just getting on the plane for a 2-game road trip IS leadership.

Read on Twitter

A heat pack and massage wraps are right there. Players wear them all the time during the game. You support your team unless you need serious medical attention. Or a road trip and you are doing rehab. Otherwise he should have come back out. He wasnt crutching in pain or being wheelchaired out.

Larry Bird, Charles Barkley and Brad Daugherty are just a few players that had their careers ended early by back issues.

Relatively speaking, Kawhi has a pretty high pain tolerance. He continued playing with an ACL tear during the Utah playoff series. He obviously played with a torn MCL during the later part of Game 2 last year. If Kawhi was leaving because of discomfort, I will trust his judgement. Team had a big lead when he went out and then increased that lead.

Had the others just finished the job, no one is questioning Kawhi.

Im not saying play in the game. JFC. Im saying go to the bench support your teammates in street clothes. My god. This is a team game where your leaders lead even from the bench. Spurs had Duncan, Toronto had Lowry. Kawhi has to be that guy on this team. Hes the highest paid player with the longest contract.