Game 56: Los Angeles Clippers (37-18) vs. Sacramento Kings (22-33) - 3:30 PM ET

[TheNewEra]

Kings worked harder. So many stupid Clipper turnovers, carelessness.

Not sold on Zubac but wonder why he got so little minutes in 4th.

You have to get any minutes to get a little bit of minutes. This man doesn’t see the floor at all and Giles was a brutal matchup for Trez

[MartinToVaught]

We're not golden state. We don't need to have all these offensive weapons out there at all times. Sometimes you just need defense.

I know people didn't like it when I compared Doc to D'Antoni a while back, but this is precisely why I made that comparison. Doc legitimately doesn't seem to understand that all the scoring in the world doesn't matter if you can't stop the other team from scoring.

[TheNewEra]

We had the lead we just needed defense to close. You could feel the momentum of Lou and Harrell coming down when Lou went out. Shamet also needs his minutes to come down some

[Wammy Giveaway]

The dreaded 3-game losing streak has arrived. Teams who lose three in a row in the regular season are guaranteed to lose in the playoffs. No team in NBA history has ever recovered from a 3-0 playoff series deficit.

Doc Rivers plays these games as if it's the playoffs. Not necessarily a Game 7 elimination game, but ones where you walk into Game 4 knowing the end is near. For him, he now realizes all his team can do is play spoiler, tire his opponents as much as possible so that in the next round, they won't have enough energy to contend against their own opponent. "If I'm not advancing, nobody is - I'd rather have the other conference win than a defending champion repeat." But what if their opponent is a defending champion, or what if they lost in the Finals?

By losing three games in a row, their ceiling has been reduced from a Finals appearance to a conference finals visit. That's not bad, however, what it only does is enforce our worries about the Clippers: they're gonna need all seven games in the playoffs.

[esqtvd]

Kings worked harder. So many stupid Clipper turnovers, carelessness.

Not sold on Zubac but wonder why he got so little minutes in 4th.

You have to get any minutes to get a little bit of minutes. This man doesn’t see the floor at all and Giles was a brutal matchup for Trez

Giles 14 and 12, Trezz 16 and 10. The problem was not at center. It very seldom is. The problem was every Clipper sucked ass except Kawhi, Trezz and Lou.

Sham was 1-6, MM had 5 turnovers, 6 points and only 2 rebs in 32 minutes. Green was a non-factor again, and although he didn't hurt us, Reggie had nothing--probably not wanting to be a ballhog his first game with the team.

We were in this one until that 4 minute stretch without a bucket in the last half of the 4th. It happens. The Kings played on Thursday and beat a playoff team in the Grizz; we were obviously sluggish after 9 days off. The Jazz and Nugs lost their first game back too.

You shrug it off, move on, and pray for Pat to get back soon. I believe we are now 7-9 without Pat. He's our heart and soul.

[BenchOnaQUEST]

The dreaded 3-game losing streak has arrived. Teams who lose three in a row in the regular season are guaranteed to lose in the playoffs. No team in NBA history has ever recovered from a 3-0 playoff series deficit.

(...)
By losing three games in a row, their ceiling has been reduced from a Finals appearance to a conference finals visit. That's not bad, however, what it only does is enforce our worries about the Clippers: they're gonna need all seven games in the playoffs.

I don't know about that, but I'm starting to hate the Kings, man. They piss me off.
As of now I hate them just as much as I hate the Jazz, and the Warriors.

[Young Sterling]

Until we change this it would put a limit on our ceiling. Doc Rivers has been amateurish with these rotations in the 4th

I don't understand. Our rotations are fine throughout the game, we're super close and the game is always within reach in the fourth, and then Doc just puts in an offense at the expense of defense lineup which consistently kills us. Having Lou, Sham, and Trez running around in the 4th is just asking for trouble. Most guards beat that backcourt, and if Zu isn't there, Trez sure as hell ain't gonna provide any help defense unless he sags off his guy. Defensive liabilities all around. I'm sure the opposing team is relieved at the fact that during crunch time, Doc doesn't opt with the shut down defensive dog lineup, but instead throws a bunch of cats at you.. smh.

Tired of watching us give away these 4ths, so preventable... these rotations are ass

[SK21209]

I’ve gotten to the point where if everyone is healthy (huge if obviously), I don’t want Lou or Trez or Shamet out there closing games. We do not need them to.

[esqtvd]

Until we change this it would put a limit on our ceiling. Doc Rivers has been amateurish with these rotations in the 4th

I don't understand. Our rotations are fine throughout the game, we're super close and the game is always within reach in the fourth, and then Doc just puts in an offense at the expense of defense lineup which consistently kills us. Having Lou, Sham, and Trez running around in the 4th is just asking for trouble. Most guards beat that backcourt, and if Zu isn't there, Trez sure as hell ain't gonna provide any help defense unless he sags off his guy. Defensive liabilities all around. I'm sure the opposing team is relieved at the fact that during crunch time, Doc doesn't opt with the shut down defensive dog lineup, but instead throws a bunch of cats at you.. smh.

Tired of watching us give away these 4ths, so preventable... these rotations are ass

the best 5 were out there
who do you put out there? Morris, Reggie, Green?
McGruder LOL?

the problem wasn't defense, we only gave up 24 points
the problem was that they went 4 minutes without scoring
and missed easy, makeable shots
as Doc just said, it's not that they didn't come to play, it's just that they didn't play well
you just move on

[TheNewEra]

Kings worked harder. So many stupid Clipper turnovers, carelessness.

Not sold on Zubac but wonder why he got so little minutes in 4th.

You have to get any minutes to get a little bit of minutes. This man doesn’t see the floor at all and Giles was a brutal matchup for Trez

Giles 14 and 12, Trezz 16 and 10. The problem was not at center. It very seldom is. The problem was every Clipper sucked ass except Kawhi, Trezz and Lou.

Sham was 1-6, MM had 5 turnovers, 6 points and only 2 rebs in 32 minutes. Green was a non-factor again, and although he didn't hurt us, Reggie had nothing--probably not wanting to be a ballhog his first game with the team.

We were in this one until that 4 minute stretch without a bucket in the last half of the 4th. It happens. The Kings played on Thursday and beat a playoff team in the Grizz; we were obviously sluggish after 9 days off. The Jazz and Nugs lost their first game back too.

You shrug it off, move on, and pray for Pat to get back soon. I believe we are now 7-9 without Pat. He's our heart and soul.

It played a factor on top of those things

Harry Giles came into the game with 9:27 of the 4th Kings 92-91
In that span from then the finish
Harrell- 3 points 1 rebound and one steal
Giles- 7 points 5 rebounds and one block (team won by 9)

Not to mention the poor defense let the Kings to post up and beat us on screens. Don’t even blame Trez but the last 4 and half minutes he was clearly getting worn down. Lou and Trez has a run in the 4th but we can’t act like they were not in the lineup that gave up the orginal huge lead.

I’m terrified what the bench will look like when Jackson is playing with them

[Yogatti]

Funny how everyone was so confident that his team will reach the finals when doc has never led the clippers past the 2nd round. I wouldn't feel comfortable at all no matter how stacked the roster is because of how incompetent doc rivers is as a coach

[MartinToVaught]

The problem was every Clipper sucked ass except Kawhi, Trezz and Lou.

Yeah, the player with 8 turnovers, who also made Kent Bazemore look like a superstar defensively, was great today. Meanwhile, the player with 15 rebounds in 20 minutes sucked ass.

Your agenda is becoming more absurd than ever. Just admit that you were wrong about Zubac and stop ruining every game thread.

[TheNewEra]

Until we change this it would put a limit on our ceiling. Doc Rivers has been amateurish with these rotations in the 4th

I don't understand. Our rotations are fine throughout the game, we're super close and the game is always within reach in the fourth, and then Doc just puts in an offense at the expense of defense lineup which consistently kills us. Having Lou, Sham, and Trez running around in the 4th is just asking for trouble. Most guards beat that backcourt, and if Zu isn't there, Trez sure as hell ain't gonna provide any help defense unless he sags off his guy. Defensive liabilities all around. I'm sure the opposing team is relieved at the fact that during crunch time, Doc doesn't opt with the shut down defensive dog lineup, but instead throws a bunch of cats at you.. smh.

Tired of watching us give away these 4ths, so preventable... these rotations are ass

We need to kill the full bench units. We were down 3 when starters began to be subbed out and ended were down 14 by early second quarter. It takes so much energy to climb back from huge leads by the other team

[esqtvd]

The problem was every Clipper sucked ass except Kawhi, Trezz and Lou.

Yeah, the player with 8 turnovers, who also made Kent Bazemore look like a superstar defensively, was great today. Meanwhile, the player with 15 rebounds in 20 minutes sucked ass.

Your agenda is becoming more absurd than ever. Just admit that you were wrong about Zubac and stop ruining every game thread.

I'm really tired of you twisting my words. Zubac is fine. He got 20 minutes. But after a very good first half, we fell behind by 10 and we got back into the game when Doc yanked him in the 3rd.

Our problem was not at center. It is hardly ever at center. That's what I mean by Planet Zubac, the same handful of people repeating the same crap over and over in every game thread and ignoring the other 8 people on the floor where the game is actually being lost or won. The actual game is not even being discussed. That's the only agenda going on here.

So enjoy your meal.

[MartinToVaught]

How did not playing Zu in the second half work out for us? Oh yeah, another embarrassing loss, and another step towards those old Lob City results of a fourth seed and early playoff exit.

Nobody's twisting your words, your exact words were that every Clipper except for Kawhi, Trez and Lou "sucked ass." Now you're backpedaling because this statement is absurd to anyone who watched the game.

You are right about one thing: the problem isn't at center. The problem is our coaching.

[TheNewEra]

Read on Twitter

Doc has legit issues and he is beyond blind

Nobody plays a player a quarter and a half and especially a energy role player. 4 or 5 minutes Trez was clearly getting burned out and you could see the Kings scheme to make him help or beat him for playing off. Giles screening Shamet or cuts were a slow grind.

What’s the point of having so many scorers when you can’t even score

[TheNewEra]

Reggie/Lou/Sham were terrible combinations most of the game on defense. This was the main concern bringing him in

[esqtvd]

it happens ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Read on Twitter

[TheNewEra]

Read on Twitter

We scored 2 points in the last 6:02 so the decision was to not play the player who gave you a higher chance for second chance points ?

[Yogatti]

Evey game is like this. Trezz playing the entire 4th quarter while Zubac gets no minutes and we end up losing to **** ass teams like the kings and hawks. Doc doesn't coach to win games, he has an agenda and only plays favorites. He would rather lose with trezz in the closing line-up then win games with Zubac.

How exactly are the clippers going to win a title when the head coach is doing ridiculous stuff like this