Game 24 : Boston Celtics (11-9) @ Los Angeles Clippers (17-6) - 10:00 PM

[esqtvd]

Lue also said that he thought Leonard could have moved the ball quicker on those blitzes but would look at the film.

I agree but I also thought players stood around watching. Ball movement wasn’t the only thing that went stagnant.

Lou Will said they haven’t had that conversation yet about how much time PG will miss. But have to stay positive and next man up mentality.

Kennard actually had a good aggressive game but I’m going to my grave that foul was what killed our momentum.

Probably right. But as the biggest critic of Kennard here since Day One, I'm only looking for positives at this point. Job One is to nail his gift-wrapped open threes and not blow his defensive assignments. JJ Redick. Surely that's his ceiling here?

I can't remember JJ Redick ever LOSING us a game because he was never on the floor when he could lose us a game and was seldom on the floor when he could win us one.

{Although Brother Kelphus took me to one }

[TheNewEra]

Next 4 games against a bunch of guards that love to shoot the ball. We need to get sharper on our defensive principles and stop fouling shooters and take care of the ball

[Roscoe Sheed]

For whatever reason, it just seemed like a game the Clippers were destined to lose. Stagnant offense in the 2nd half, Celtics getting red hot in the 3rd, Thompson making clutch free throws, and Walker playing what seems like his first good game of the season just in time for the Clippers. Critical call also went against them (Edwards kicked his leg out- strange refs still get calls wrong on replay).

[esqtvd]

Such a strange game that Ibaka and Kennard only had one bucket between them in the second half and it’s still only one basket if you add Reggie.

Lue might tweak the starters again

Well observed. It's not about Xs and Os. The NBA is about who, not what.

That might sound facile but that's true of every team and every business too. Thermopylae.


Lou never quits. He's a Clipper. I won't quit on him either. I'll be OK if he's traded and it's an upgrade but Lou is the LEAST of our problems.

Kawhi = 37 minutes. Team-worst minus-9. Team-high 28 points, team-high 11 rebs.
Lou = Team high plus+3, 2nd team-high 18 points, team-high 6 assists


I think Zu is a Clipper too. I've been keeping faith with him. And although he can leave town next summer, I think more and more, Kawhi is feeling like a Clipper too. He can go elsewhere but this is HIS team. Not Doc's and not Ty's. Not Ballmer's.

Kawhi's Clippers. He brought PG here. He nodded when Doc was fired. He nodded when Ty was hired. He nodded when PG was given a lifetime contract. Can you walk away from your own team?

[esqtvd]

tonight's game thread in a nutshell

Read on Twitter

[TheNewEra]

That was still a fun game overall considering the issues

[TheNewEra]

Such a strange game that Ibaka and Kennard only had one bucket between them in the second half and it’s still only one basket if you add Reggie.

Lue might tweak the starters again

Well observed. It's not about Xs and Os. The NBA is about who, not what.

That might sound facile but that's true of every team and every business too. Thermopylae.


Lou never quits. He's a Clipper. I won't quit on him either. I'll be OK if he's traded and it's an upgrade but Lou is the LEAST of our problems.

Kawhi = 37 minutes. Team-worst minus-9. Team-high 28 points, team-high 11 rebs.
Lou = Team high plus+3, 2nd team-high 18 points, team-high 6 assists


I think Zu is a Clipper too. I've been keeping faith with him. And although he can leave town next summer, I think more and more, Kawhi is feeling like a Clipper too. He can go elsewhere but this is HIS team. Not Doc's and not Ty's. Not Ballmer's.

Kawhi's Clippers. He brought PG here. He nodded when Doc was fired. He nodded when Ty was hired. He nodded when PG was given a lifetime contract. Can you walk away from your own team?

Lou getting traded for me has always been about the fit and needs of the team. I don’t think Lou is completely done but the front office made moves that make keeping him and being competitive at a high level and playoffs difficult

-Traded for Luke Kennard a player that has a similar skill set and ALL of the same weaknesses

-we instantly paid Kennard without seeing him play a minute of ball while also keeping the similar player in the same role

-Knowing we needed point guard improvement in the offseason we brought back the same players

-We knew Patrick Beverly is/was injury prone and there was no escaping this fact so having him as the only consistent capable guard defender (outside of PG) was a head scratcher

-Terrance Mann didn’t expand his role or game enough and we didn’t help ourselves in the draft or 2way contracts in this area

[Roscoe Sheed]

tonight's game thread in a nutshell

Read on Twitter

Who is this guy?

Kawhi has nobody to blame but himself for last night’s loss.

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I think PG has been better than kawhi this season. He was definitely missed last night. It also doesn’t help that Jackson produced nothing

[MartinToVaught]

Five followers and joined in October. Maybe it's esqtvd's burner account.

[og15]

It's also very telling how this team basically needs to blow teams out from start to finish. Fourth quarters are a nightmare for this team when they actually have to be clutch. Between that and all the defensive liabilities on our roster, I'm not really seeing a recipe for playoff success here.

I think your statistical interpretation is biased here. Yes, the Clippers don't lose in blowouts, 1 blowout loss all season, so then every time they lose it is a close game. So on a negative side we can say "this means they can't win unless they blow out teams", but then should they never lose games? If they never lose close games, they would be 23-1, teams have to lose at some point in time. This hyperbole is basically suggesting they basically can't lose any games. On the more balanced side, we can look at that and say that they are always in every single game, win or lose, which is not a bad thing, it means you always give yourself a chance to win it. But giving yourself a chance doesn't mean you'll always win.

Clippers so far as 7-4 in games decided by 8 pts or less, so I'm not sure I would say they "have to blow teams out from start to finish", not an accurate hyperbole.

The loses within 8 points are to Utah, San Antonio (no PG), Brooklyn, Boston (no PG). Go up to 9 pts and we can add Atlanta (no PG or Leonard). So even in those close losses, 2/4 had no PG (yes Boston also didn't have Brown), and one was a game that is pretty irrelevant in judging the team (no PG or Leonard).

[TheNewEra]

Still don’t have a timeline with Beverly. I hate our medical staff

[esqtvd]

tonight's game thread in a nutshell

Read on Twitter

Who is this guy?

probably someone on this board lol
it's a joke about the board every time we lose [or even get behind] not the team

[esqtvd]

Such a strange game that Ibaka and Kennard only had one bucket between them in the second half and it’s still only one basket if you add Reggie.

Lue might tweak the starters again

Well observed. It's not about Xs and Os. The NBA is about who, not what.

That might sound facile but that's true of every team and every business too. Thermopylae.


Lou never quits. He's a Clipper. I won't quit on him either. I'll be OK if he's traded and it's an upgrade but Lou is the LEAST of our problems.

Kawhi = 37 minutes. Team-worst minus-9. Team-high 28 points, team-high 11 rebs.
Lou = Team high plus+3, 2nd team-high 18 points, team-high 6 assists


I think Zu is a Clipper too. I've been keeping faith with him. And although he can leave town next summer, I think more and more, Kawhi is feeling like a Clipper too. He can go elsewhere but this is HIS team. Not Doc's and not Ty's. Not Ballmer's.

Kawhi's Clippers. He brought PG here. He nodded when Doc was fired. He nodded when Ty was hired. He nodded when PG was given a lifetime contract. Can you walk away from your own team?

Lou getting traded for me has always been about the fit and needs of the team. I don’t think Lou is completely done but the front office made moves that make keeping him and being competitive at a high level and playoffs difficult

-Traded for Luke Kennard a player that has a similar skill set and ALL of the same weaknesses

-we instantly paid Kennard without seeing him play a minute of ball while also keeping the similar player in the same role

-Knowing we needed point guard improvement in the offseason we brought back the same players

-We knew Patrick Beverly is/was injury prone and there was no escaping this fact so having him as the only consistent capable guard defender (outside of PG) was a head scratcher

-Terrance Mann didn’t expand his role or game enough and we didn’t help ourselves in the draft or 2way contracts in this area

All true. What I'm saying is that if you look around the NBA, quality minutes by backups are in short supply. Lou is being asked to do things outside his strengths and is still giving us adequate play. And his greatest strength--instant offense--is not what we really want, at least at this stage.

As the longest-tenured Clipper [along with Bev], he deserves more respect and affection, especially since he's the least of our problems. I'm fine with a trade but there's no magic bullet out there--Kennard is a perfect example of how shallow the league talent pool is.

[MartinToVaught]

Kennard's performance has absolutely nothing to do with "the league's talent pool." It's entirely poor decision-making by the front office. I don't know why they're so obsessed with the Pistons' castoffs, but Avery, Reggie and Luke have all been terrible here. I'm seeing a theme here.

As for Lou, just because he's been here a long time doesn't mean he's immune from criticism. It's not disrespectful to point out that he doesn't fit with our current team, it's just stating obvious facts. Far from being the least of our problems, he's one of our biggest problems because he's a defensive liability and a poor playoff performer.

[Roscoe Sheed]

Kennard's performance has absolutely nothing to do with "the league's talent pool." It's entirely poor decision-making by the front office. I don't know why they're so obsessed with the Pistons' castoffs, but Avery, Reggie and Luke have all been terrible here. I'm seeing a theme here.

As for Lou, just because he's been here a long time doesn't mean he's immune from criticism. It's not disrespectful to point out that he doesn't fit with our current team, it's just stating obvious facts. Far from being the least of our problems, he's one of our biggest problems because he's a defensive liability and a poor playoff performer.

I agree mostly about Lou- however, he could be very much needed in PG is out for an extended period. We need somebody that can get their own shot besides Kawhi.

[esqtvd]

Lou- however, he could be very much needed in PG is out for an extended period. We need somebody that can get their own shot besides Kawhi.

Instead of douching Lou he deserves respect from the fans for doing whatever the team needs. And if there were better quality minutes out there we could trade him for, we already would have. You go to war with the team you've got, not the one you wish you had. Lou is the least of our problems. Senior gets paid double what Lou makes and is doing less. He has the worst plus/minus on the Clippers over the past 2 weeks but Lou gets the smack.

[And Zubac has been crap too.]

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/traditional/?sort=PLUS_MINUS&dir=-1&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612746&DateFrom=01%2F23%2F2021&DateTo=02%2F06%2F2021

[og15]

I don't believe in hating on players for not becoming what they never showed they were and were not signed to do. I don't think anyone is doing that.

No one thought Lou Williams could defend well and no one has ever mistaken him for a floor general, so of course I'm not simply going to hate on him for not being those things, makes no sense.

Lou Williams has tried on defense, so I can't complain much, and on offense he tries to do what the coaching asks of him, can't hate there. So no Clippers fans should really have anything against Lou Williams for the most part, and in general, people haven't done that.

All that said, wanting him to be moved or saying he doesn't fit is not about him as a person or even his contract, but about the skills he does/does not have and what this team needs. Nothing wrong with that.

The problem is that with his deficiencies, trading him for a guard that's capable of playing 24+ mpg and would fit this Clippers team better is not something that can just be done as the options for that kind of player is not really there. If the option was there, the team would have done it.

I've checked a bit on matching contracts and trying to see opposing team needs, etc, and I don't currently see the actual trade that can be made. The teams with guys like George Hill are going to hold on as long as possible to get the best asset (eg: 1s round pick). If Lou is going to nab a better fitting guard who isn't underperforming, it's most likely going to be at the deadline to a team that is just desperate to move a guy for some asset and decides "a 2nd round pick is better than nothing". Clippers have some Detroit 2nds and also on from Atlanta, so those could be valuable. The upcoming Clippers ones aren't going to be that enticing to a team.

[esqtvd]

I don't believe in hating on players for not becoming what they never showed they were and were not signed to do. I don't think anyone is doing that.

No one thought Lou Williams could defend well and no one has ever mistaken him for a floor general, so of course I'm not simply going to hate on him for not being those things, makes no sense.

Lou Williams has tried on defense, so I can't complain much, and on offense he tries to do what the coaching asks of him, can't hate there. So no Clippers fans should really have anything against Lou Williams for the most part, and in general, people haven't done that.

All that said, wanting him to be moved or saying he doesn't fit is not about him as a person or even his contract, but about the skills he does/does not have and what this team needs. Nothing wrong with that.

The problem is that with his deficiencies, trading him for a guard that's capable of playing 24+ mpg and would fit this Clippers team better is not something that can just be done as the options for that kind of player is not really there. If the option was there, the team would have done it.

I've checked a bit on matching contracts and trying to see opposing team needs, etc, and I don't currently see the actual trade that can be made. The teams with guys like George Hill are going to hold on as long as possible to get the best asset (eg: 1s round pick). If Lou is going to nab a better fitting guard who isn't underperforming, it's most likely going to be at the deadline to a team that is just desperate to move a guy for some asset and decides "a 2nd round pick is better than nothing". Clippers have some Detroit 2nds and also on from Atlanta, so those could be valuable. The upcoming Clippers ones aren't going to be that enticing to a team.

very ace points but you don't actually read this board do you