Game # 37 Clippers @ Celtics Thursday 12/29 4:30pm

[madmaxmedia]

So I was at a bar and missed most of the game (NFL rules bars), before it started I had decided that if we just kept it close I’d be reasonably satisfied, since we just beat them recently. Should I be?

[Wammy Giveaway]

The schedule up to the all star break is terrible- probably the worst of all time. I hope all the players can stay healthy and that they can stay in first place- the suns and warriors are banged up too

Don't forget about the Kings, who are this close to making the playoffs. What if Kings draw Clippers and pull off an upset? Now there are three Pacific Division opponents to worry about.

[Scoundreldays]

So I was at a bar and missed most of the game (NFL rules bars), before it started I had decided that if we just kept it close I’d be reasonably satisfied, since we just beat them recently. Should I be?

I would be. Rough loss but it was competitive. We gave them a good scare

[MartinToVaught]

So I was at a bar and missed most of the game (NFL rules bars), before it started I had decided that if we just kept it close I’d be reasonably satisfied, since we just beat them recently. Should I be?

Losing a close one isn't the problem. Lue's horrible coaching is. Our record against over-.500 opponents is terrible so far, and a lot of that has to do with how easy Lue's antiquated offense is for other teams to defend, and how his rotations are based on seniority and favoritism instead of who helps the team win. He hasn't made a single adjustment all season. All the talk of him tinkering and taking it ten games at a time is just that: talk. When push comes to shove, he'd rather lose with Reggie, Mook and Wall than win with Mann, Luke and RoCo. So while the result wasn't so bad last night, the process is alarming.

[Captain Ballmer]

So I was at a bar and missed most of the game (NFL rules bars), before it started I had decided that if we just kept it close I’d be reasonably satisfied, since we just beat them recently. Should I be?

Losing a close one isn't the problem. Lue's horrible coaching is. Our record against over-.500 opponents is terrible so far, and a lot of that has to do with how easy Lue's antiquated offense is for other teams to defend, and how his rotations are based on seniority and favoritism instead of who helps the team win. He hasn't made a single adjustment all season. All the talk of him tinkering and taking it ten games at a time is just that: talk. When push comes to shove, he'd rather lose with Reggie, Mook and Wall than win with Mann, Luke and RoCo. So while the result wasn't so bad last night, the process is alarming.

There is no alarming, nothing is on fire. We just lost to the best team on their home in a close game. You could see a lot of messages states that the game was a finals preview or Clippers as the team come out of west If you mind and check the Celtics forum game topic.

Norman and Batum looks like found their roles. It's a progress.
Kawhi getting 35+ minutes without setback, another progress.
Pg13 not settling 2nd role, showkin he's gonna be 1b. another progress.

We have things to do but pieces are coming together.

[PeteyPablo]

There was a stretch in the 4th quarter where the Celtics got layup after layup which opened the lead back up for them. Tatum and Brown were attacking the rim with not much resistance.

During the postgame interview, Ty Lue talked about the Celtics showing a lot of different looks on defense and that The Clippers were caught off guard instead of going into their sets. Maybe Ty Lue is more for the long term and allowing his guys to learn from these games for the benefits that will come later on.

[LamarWho]

Kennard 0 shots is just inexcusable. Some of it might be he wasn't being aggressive enough. Our coaching staff needs to make sure this will never happen again.

[MartinToVaught]

There is no alarming, nothing is on fire. We just lost to the best team on their home in a close game. You could see a lot of messages states that the game was a finals preview or Clippers as the team come out of west If you mind and check the Celtics forum game topic.

Norman and Batum looks like found their roles. It's a progress.
Kawhi getting 35+ minutes without setback, another progress.
Pg13 not settling 2nd role, showkin he's gonna be 1b. another progress.

We have things to do but pieces are coming together.

Again, there's no shame in dropping a close one on the road to the Celtics. But I'm not talking about just one game, it's the season as a whole.

We are 6-13 against .500+ opponents. That's tied with the Lakers, Magic and Rockets for third-fewest wins against any opponent with a pulse so far (only the Pistons and Hornets have less). We're 29th in points per game and 26th in offensive rating, and watching the stagnant isoball we play makes it easy to see why.

Lue hasn't even tried to address these problems. He just keeps playing his favorite veterans no matter how bad they are or how much they ruin our spacing.

It's alarming to me because it's the exact same routine we've had to sit through with Doc, Vinny, and the countless other incompetent coaches we've had in the past.

[esqtvd]

There was a stretch in the 4th quarter where the Celtics got layup after layup which opened the lead back up for them. Tatum and Brown were attacking the rim with not much resistance.

During the postgame interview, Ty Lue talked about the Celtics showing a lot of different looks on defense and that The Clippers were caught off guard instead of going into their sets. Maybe Ty Lue is more for the long term and allowing his guys to learn from these games for the benefits that will come later on.

Exactly. This is still a bit of a pickup team with only handful of games together under their belt and the Celts threw the kitchen sink at them defensively. They had nothing to fall back on.

Basically, the Celts were throwing double-teams at Kawhi and PG. The Clips need ready solutions with the rest of the rotation--and Powell, Wall and pretty much Kennard are new additions. [Powell was again a team-worst +/- at minus-12. Kennard played 17 minutes and took ZERO shots.]

Familiarity and identity cure a lot of ills. Coach knows this--the secret of bad coaching is yanking people in and out like everything's a Game 7. It's December, ffs.

[clipperlover]

The schedule up to the all star break is terrible- probably the worst of all time. I hope all the players can stay healthy and that they can stay in first place- the suns and warriors are banged up too

Don't forget about the Kings, who are this close to making the playoffs. What if Kings draw Clippers and pull off an upset? Now there are three Pacific Division opponents to worry about.

The Kings have played only 14 WC games so far (7-7). In those games, they are 4-5 at home and 3-2 on the road. They have a lot of conference game to make up (most WC teams have played 20+ conference games). If my math is correct, then they still have 21 road conference games to play. They are a .500 road team now. They have a 14 game stretch from Jan 28 through the end of Feb where they play 11 road games. Their home games are the Mavs (2) and Portland. We will see what they do, but I expect a drop-off as things get tighter.

[clipperlover]

There was a stretch in the 4th quarter where the Celtics got layup after layup which opened the lead back up for them. Tatum and Brown were attacking the rim with not much resistance.

During the postgame interview, Ty Lue talked about the Celtics showing a lot of different looks on defense and that The Clippers were caught off guard instead of going into their sets. Maybe Ty Lue is more for the long term and allowing his guys to learn from these games for the benefits that will come later on.

Exactly. This is still a bit of a pickup team with only handful of games together under their belt and the Celts threw the kitchen sink at them defensively. They had nothing to fall back on.

Basically, the Celts were throwing double-teams at Kawhi and PG. The Clips need ready solutions with the rest of the rotation--and Powell, Wall and pretty much Kennard are new additions. [Powell was again a team-worst +/- at minus-12. Kennard played 17 minutes and took ZERO shots.]

Familiarity and identity cure a lot of ills. Coach knows this--the secret of bad coaching is yanking people in and out like everything's a Game 7. It's December, ffs.

No one on this roster needs to be putting in over 35 MPG right now. We should have 6+ players in double figures every night. We need all hands on deck between now and the All-Star break. We kick ass over this stretch and we set ourselves up for the rest of the season.

[esqtvd]

There was a stretch in the 4th quarter where the Celtics got layup after layup which opened the lead back up for them. Tatum and Brown were attacking the rim with not much resistance.

During the postgame interview, Ty Lue talked about the Celtics showing a lot of different looks on defense and that The Clippers were caught off guard instead of going into their sets. Maybe Ty Lue is more for the long term and allowing his guys to learn from these games for the benefits that will come later on.

Exactly. This is still a bit of a pickup team with only handful of games together under their belt and the Celts threw the kitchen sink at them defensively. They had nothing to fall back on.

Basically, the Celts were throwing double-teams at Kawhi and PG. The Clips need ready solutions with the rest of the rotation--and Powell, Wall and pretty much Kennard are new additions. [Powell was again a team-worst +/- at minus-12. Kennard played 17 minutes and took ZERO shots.]

Familiarity and identity cure a lot of ills. Coach knows this--the secret of bad coaching is yanking people in and out like everything's a Game 7. It's December, ffs.

No one on this roster needs to be putting in over 35 MPG right now. We should have 6+ players in double figures every night. We need all hands on deck between now and the All-Star break. We kick ass over this stretch and we set ourselves up for the rest of the season.

I think this was a temperature check to see where we stand--and to show where we need to go. With Kawhi and Wall sitting out b2b and guys getting generous days off from nagging injuries, we pretty much HAVE been doing what you recommend for games against the weaker sisters.

But frankly, giving key minutes to guys like Coffey who are not going to get playoff burn is pointless, RoCo is simply not up to speed yet, and with Mann, I think the feeling is what you've seen is what you're gonna get. We need to invest PT in Powell, Wall and Kennard [and eventually RoCo, if he's not dealt] to see if we can upgrade from there.


https://www.latimes.com/sports/clippers/story/2022-12-29/clippers-boston-celtics-nba-game-recap-kawhi-leonard

In a Western Conference this muddled where no single contender has distanced itself from the chase pack, the injuries and inconsistency haven’t cost the Clippers much ground in the seeding race. But with a front-loaded schedule that features only 21 games after the All-Star break, there will soon be increasingly fewer opportunities to find their foothold, to leave games like this feeling as though they’d put the pieces all together.

“We got the guys to make plays, make shots, we got the guys to get stops,” said Paul George, who scored 24 points. “We got all the recipe for the little stuff but it’s just how we play, regardless of who we play, it’s how we play.”

[madmaxmedia]

So what is exactly the deal with RoCo? He was so fun to watch last season, and I thought would easily keep a role as a rotation big for us.

[madmaxmedia]

Kennard 0 shots is just inexcusable. Some of it might be he wasn't being aggressive enough. Our coaching staff needs to make sure this will never happen again.

I don't think there's a player or person in the org, or on this board, that wouldn't be happy to let Luke fire up open 3's all game every game, him not getting any shots couldn't have been part of any game plan. Hopefully just a statistical oddity, or maybe the Celtics were paying particular attention to him, which should still help other guys get looks.

[wakelaunch1]

Exactly. This is still a bit of a pickup team with only handful of games together under their belt and the Celts threw the kitchen sink at them defensively. They had nothing to fall back on.

Basically, the Celts were throwing double-teams at Kawhi and PG. The Clips need ready solutions with the rest of the rotation--and Powell, Wall and pretty much Kennard are new additions. [Powell was again a team-worst +/- at minus-12. Kennard played 17 minutes and took ZERO shots.]

Familiarity and identity cure a lot of ills. Coach knows this--the secret of bad coaching is yanking people in and out like everything's a Game 7. It's December, ffs.

No one on this roster needs to be putting in over 35 MPG right now. We should have 6+ players in double figures every night. We need all hands on deck between now and the All-Star break. We kick ass over this stretch and we set ourselves up for the rest of the season.

I think this was a temperature check to see where we stand--and to show where we need to go. With Kawhi and Wall sitting out b2b and guys getting generous days off from nagging injuries, we pretty much HAVE been doing what you recommend for games against the weaker sisters.

But frankly, giving key minutes to guys like Coffey who are not going to get playoff burn is pointless, RoCo is simply not up to speed yet, and with Mann, I think the feeling is what you've seen is what you're gonna get. We need to invest PT in Powell, Wall and Kennard [and eventually RoCo, if he's not dealt] to see if we can upgrade from there.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/clippers/story/2022-12-29/clippers-boston-celtics-nba-game-recap-kawhi-leonard

In a Western Conference this muddled where no single contender has distanced itself from the chase pack, the injuries and inconsistency haven’t cost the Clippers much ground in the seeding race. But with a front-loaded schedule that features only 21 games after the All-Star break, there will soon be increasingly fewer opportunities to find their foothold, to leave games like this feeling as though they’d put the pieces all together.

“We got the guys to make plays, make shots, we got the guys to get stops,” said Paul George, who scored 24 points. “We got all the recipe for the little stuff but it’s just how we play, regardless of who we play, it’s how we play.”

Wall is washed. He needs to be playing in China. He only has straight away speed. No Lateral quickness, zero defense, an awful jump shot, and zero ability create easy looks in the half court for his teammates. The offense is stagnant with him. He has a -80 +- rating this season. Also he cant play back to backs. He should be getting 5-10 minutes of garbage time action, if any.

[esqtvd]

No one on this roster needs to be putting in over 35 MPG right now. We should have 6+ players in double figures every night. We need all hands on deck between now and the All-Star break. We kick ass over this stretch and we set ourselves up for the rest of the season.

I think this was a temperature check to see where we stand--and to show where we need to go. With Kawhi and Wall sitting out b2b and guys getting generous days off from nagging injuries, we pretty much HAVE been doing what you recommend for games against the weaker sisters.

But frankly, giving key minutes to guys like Coffey who are not going to get playoff burn is pointless, RoCo is simply not up to speed yet, and with Mann, I think the feeling is what you've seen is what you're gonna get. We need to invest PT in Powell, Wall and Kennard [and eventually RoCo, if he's not dealt] to see if we can upgrade from there.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/clippers/story/2022-12-29/clippers-boston-celtics-nba-game-recap-kawhi-leonard

In a Western Conference this muddled where no single contender has distanced itself from the chase pack, the injuries and inconsistency haven’t cost the Clippers much ground in the seeding race. But with a front-loaded schedule that features only 21 games after the All-Star break, there will soon be increasingly fewer opportunities to find their foothold, to leave games like this feeling as though they’d put the pieces all together.

“We got the guys to make plays, make shots, we got the guys to get stops,” said Paul George, who scored 24 points. “We got all the recipe for the little stuff but it’s just how we play, regardless of who we play, it’s how we play.”

Wall is washed. He needs to be playing in China. He only has straight away speed. No Lateral quickness, zero defense, an awful jump shot, and zero ability create easy looks in the half court for his teammates. The offense is stagnant with him. He has a -80 +- rating this season. Also he cant play back to backs. He should be getting 5-10 minutes of garbage time action, if any.

Could very well be. We need to find out for sure.

More minutes for Mann and Coffey are not the answer either though. We have plenty of wings. I'm not down on them but what they got, we don't need. We need another PG. Reggie should be playing 20-24 mpg and no more.

But you're right--Wall is teetering on the edge of unplayability.

[madmaxmedia]

It’s crazy that Wall looks so old out there when he’s only 32. Obviously the injuries have taken a huge toll, but he’s roughly got only 29 year old legs with all the missed games.

The form on his shot never looked very good to me, and looks worse now (results wise.) His release point is so low, it looks like he’s shotputting a lead ball and I think it impacts your feel on the release.