Game #65: Clippers @ GSW Thursday 3/2 7 PM—TNT

[nickhx2]

a kawhi return is quite fascinating, i agree.

i mean let's say nets are like "WE BACK AT IT" and they want kawhi

i mean uh yeah send us bridges and some picks, hard to say no, right?

[esqtvd]

The team has played like sh*t all year long. Kawhi out, PG out, experimenting, tinkering, old age, tired legs, etc. We seemed to finally finally have something brewing with our new additions and won two in a row right before the all star break but PG and more than likely Kawhi still wasn't feeling confident about their teammates and wanted Russ. And its not all on Russ its just the fact that you threw everything into the garbage to recreate the team with 20 games left and fighting to stay in the ultra tight playoff race.

I wanted to keep rollin with Mann as starter and our three new additions added in. We didn't need Russ but we had to roll with it and hope for the best as we had no choice in the matter whatsoever as fans of the team. Now everybody's game is turned upside down. Norm, Mann, and EJ were looking pretty stellar but now they're struggling big time. PG is struggling and on top of it all seems more excited about his new podcast and is making bad statements about his role to the media. Kawhi has been balling but he's still Kawhi which means absolutely no leadership and more load management with no end in sight. There seems to be a coach-player-and front office clash going on. Unless there's some type of miracle where we can turn this thing back around -I'm hoping- but it looks like this season is over with. PG and Kawhi if healthy are still considered really good pieces. Get two different hauls for both of them. Stop star chasing and dig in and build it the right way like the path we were on before going after Kawhi. Clear these old guys out of here. They don't even want to play half the time. Can't open a new arena with a bad product.

Yup. Kawhi looks very annoyed he has to bust so much ass to keep us competitive.

He had a decent game but 32 minutes, 21 points, 7 rebs and 0 assists is not superstar quality.

Poole played 32 minutes too and had 34 points. Jordan Effin Poole. And let's not get started on PG. 27 minutes, 11 points.

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That's another thing I'm starting to get annoyed with. "Poor Kawhi, it sucks that he has to play with these guys" but as the true superstar of the team when has he said f*ck it and went for 40-50 points at least once a week like all the superstars are doing in the league these days? He's rested for half the season so a few games like that should be on the table right?

Yup. They laughed when I kept propping Reggie but that man bled for this team.

What's our record since they dumped him? And who is there to like on this team? Mann and Zu, I guess, the oldest Clippers. Coffey. That's about it. The rest just work here.

And maybe not for long.

[clipperlover]

So dejected last night because of the lack of effort. You can't just blame any one person. We had good shots, but when almost everyone is off on the same night, it makes it very hard to blame any particular individual.

However, this team's biggest problem appears to be mental. If you a shooting such a horrible % from 3, why continue shooting them. Drive and try to earn three the hard way. They just kept trying the same thing over and over. They have to be smarter than that.

An example of the mental aspects were in the 3rd Qtr. We were in the bonus with 8:20 to go in the 3rd. When you get into the early bonus, you don't settle for 3 pt shots. You drive and either they try to avoid fouls or you get fouled and shoot free throws. We never drew another foul until less than 2 minutes left in the quarter. We missed 5 3 pt attempts after we were in the bonus. Compare that to GS who were able to not only get in the bonus with over 6 minutes to go in the quarter, but to get there while getting PG in serious foul trouble.

Hate PG for all of his dumb play, but his foul trouble was a huge factor in the 3rd. Once he exited the game with over 6 minutes to go, the wheels completely fell off the defensive wagon. We were only outscored in the quarter 16-8 when PG sat. We were outscored 26-8 the rest of the way. It was 66-63 when Westbrook and Plumlee subbed out. It was 69-83 when Westbrook came back in. T-Mann, Gordon, Powell and Batum gave Kawhi no help.

I am not going to blame Kawhi for being out tonight. He has played heavy minutes from Friday night every other night through last night. Starting Sunday through the 18th, we get several days rest between games. Getting Kawhi extra rest before a tough match-up against a top team we haven't faced yet this year makes sense. We don't need his defense tonight because there won't be much played.