GAME 64: Clippers (43-20) @ Suns (43-18)—Wednesday 7PM PDT

[collidingNeurons]

had to play like a pickup team with 3 starters out
no rotation, no familiar 5-man combinations

Suns were in their playoff rotation mode
we were in scramble mode

we did well to stay in it to the end
if the game mattered, Kawhi plays and we win

lighten up Francis

there's no question the clippers were missing more important pieces, but the Suns start Crowder and Saric is their first big off the bench normally so were missing 2 of their top 7

[TheNewEra]

Have to stop the damn turnovers

[NickP]

Who here thinks the clippers would have lost this game with Kawhi, Bev and Ibaka in the lineup? This group hung in there and had a chance against one of the better teams in the league. Give it a rest with your doom and gloom about first round exits.

[Captain Ballmer]

This team is in deep, deep trouble. I can just sense the incoming first-round exit to the Lakers.

Ty Lue is Doc 2.0. He is a terrible coach, period. Come playoff time, Zu will be glued to the bench again (and so will Mann, probably) while Patterson and Reggie get to cost us games because they're Lue's favorites. It's like we never fired Doc at all. Just a really lazy and disappointing hire, which was obvious from the moment it was announced.

Playoff P choked once again. Is there any doubt we win this game with SGA and Gallo? It's time for the fans to stop coddling and making excuses for him, he is getting paid $190 million and cost us a ton of draft picks on top of that, and has rarely ever performed to the "superstar" level for us in a meaningful game. If we don't at least make the WCF this year, he needs to be traded, period.

Kawhi needs to stop with the secrecy and "precautions" and get back on the court. The last thing we need is him trying to get his rhythm back during the playoffs.

Is anyone surprised that this team immediately went to **** as soon as they started getting media attention and being ranked #1 in the power rankings? It's just a mentally weak team that can't handle any expectations at all.

Hottakes all over the place. This is insecure mouth of you speaking.

Zubac's minute cut down for Pat pat because PHX never gave any breathe to our shooters. Rondo-Mann-Zubac trio kills the spacing. Pat Pat provided more respectable spacing but also let many offensive rebounds grabbed. Lue made a choice and paid the price.

PG scored his every basket(except the layup on the fast break) under huge attention, pressure. Again PHX played smart D on his spots and doubled him effectively. I think he did ok, not perfect but Ok. There were just too many of Rondo pounding the ball with closest defender 3-4 steps away, while Mann's defender clogging the dribble routes. Also there are many good shot opportunity he created wasted by Reggie-Marcus-Batum missing open shots. You shouldn't expect him to perform peak LBJ because you gonna be disappointed feel miserably to post things like that.

In Kawhi tough, I don't know how he feels physically, it's frustrating to me see him sitting on the bench like that. missed 3 games, came back for that Minny game and missed straight 4 games again. I'll give you that the team needs prep. with him and Bev and Ibaka on the court.

This loss isn't about team mentality, PHX is a contender with more health than us at the moment, took extra contribution from their bench in a night they prepared well, shoot well in their homecourt with a playoff clinch on their shoulder. They could beat anybody with the way things rolled tonight.

[RingColluder]

Read on Twitter

What? We lost that game and ran out of gas with an awful first quarter, its exhausting having people drive to the rim with ease.

Relying on Bev and Ibaka is a mistake. We have to assume they won't be ready or will get injured immediately.

[MartinToVaught]

Who here thinks the clippers would have lost this game with Kawhi, Bev and Ibaka in the lineup? This group hung in there and had a chance against one of the better teams in the league. Give it a rest with your doom and gloom about first round exits.

If you don't think there's a very good chance of a first-round exit if we're stuck facing playoff LeBron, you're crazy. It's not even doom and gloom, LeBron really is just that good.

The injury excuse can't explain everything. Regardless of injuries, we would have won this game if our $190 million "superstar" showed up when it mattered and if our coach was at all competent. Both of those are major issues that will bite us in the ass come playoff time no matter how healthy the team is. Just like last year, people are clinging to the comforting excuses that sound good while the script of how we're going to lose in the playoffs is written in front of us.

[RingColluder]

had to play like a pickup team with 3 starters out
no rotation, no familiar 5-man combinations

Suns were in their playoff rotation mode
we were in scramble mode

we did well to stay in it to the end
if the game mattered, Kawhi plays and we win

lighten up Francis

I admire your positivity

I forgot how you dealt w last year's collapse but I'm curious to know

[RingColluder]

Rather have him on the floor instead of Mann just standing in the corner and getting burned off ball and screens. At least be aware to switch. Mann isn’t a starter capable player yet. Hopefully Kawhi comes back and he can go back to his old role

I wouldn't. Mann brings so much hustle, energy, ball movement, and all the little things. The total antithesis of what Kennard does who brings absolute nothing along w Reggie when his shot isn't falling. And I trust Reggie's irrational confidence and occasional hot streaks more than Kennard who constantly gets in his own way and has somehow miraculously become a WORSE defender than Reggie.

Kawhi comes back it solves a lot of the offensive issues you have w Mann. I'm taking him 1000x out of 1000x over Reggie and Kennard as a starter.

His hustle is negated a lot by not touching the ball and the team can’t run a lot of plays for him. Team is 1-2 in the Reggie and Mann combination because it’s a bad fit. Unlike Luke to sometimes the betterment or fault Reggie is a ball dominant player so Mann spends a lot of time standing around doing nothing. Don’t see Reggie and Mann fitting because Reggie isn’t going to let him handle as much and when Reggie doesn’t have the ball it’s usually with George

Like I said, when Kawhi comes back and plays w Mann it'll ease a lot of your concerns regarding that. We have ENOUGH guys who can score on the starters, what we need is someone who can do all the things we don't want PG and Kawhi doing so they can save their energy.

[RingColluder]

This team is in deep, deep trouble. I can just sense the incoming first-round exit to the Lakers.

Ty Lue is Doc 2.0. He is a terrible coach, period. Come playoff time, Zu will be glued to the bench again (and so will Mann, probably) while Patterson and Reggie get to cost us games because they're Lue's favorites. It's like we never fired Doc at all. Just a really lazy and disappointing hire, which was obvious from the moment it was announced.

Playoff P choked once again. Is there any doubt we win this game with SGA and Gallo? It's time for the fans to stop coddling and making excuses for him, he is getting paid $190 million and cost us a ton of draft picks on top of that, and has rarely ever performed to the "superstar" level for us in a meaningful game. If we don't at least make the WCF this year, he needs to be traded, period.

Kawhi needs to stop with the secrecy and "precautions" and get back on the court. The last thing we need is him trying to get his rhythm back during the playoffs.

Is anyone surprised that this team immediately went to **** as soon as they started getting media attention and being ranked #1 in the power rankings? It's just a mentally weak team that can't handle any expectations at all.

Hottakes all over the place. This is insecure mouth of you speaking.

Zubac's minute cut down for Pat pat because PHX never gave any breathe to our shooters. Rondo-Mann-Zubac trio kills the spacing. Pat Pat provided more respectable spacing but also let many offensive rebounds grabbed. Lue made a choice and paid the price.

PG scored his every basket(except the layup on the fast break) under huge attention, pressure. Again PHX played smart D on his spots and doubled him effectively. I think he did ok, not perfect but Ok. There were just too many of Rondo pounding the ball with closest defender 3-4 steps away, while Mann's defender clogging the dribble routes. Also there are many good shot opportunity he created wasted by Reggie-Marcus-Batum missing open shots. You shouldn't expect him to perform peak LBJ because you gonna be disappointed feel miserably to post things like that.

In Kawhi tough, I don't know how he feels physically, it's frustrating to me see him sitting on the bench like that. missed 3 games, came back for that Minny game and missed straight 4 games again. I'll give you that the team needs prep. with him and Bev and Ibaka on the court.

This loss isn't about team mentality, PHX is a contender with more health than us at the moment, took extra contribution from their bench in a night they prepared well, shoot well in their homecourt with a playoff clinch on their shoulder. They could beat anybody with the way things rolled tonight.

PG had 4 points in the 4th. I don't care if your teammates are G Leaguers, that can't happen. And 5 turnovers, 4 assists? How are we supposed to take him seriously playing like that?

[esqtvd]

had to play like a pickup team with 3 starters out
no rotation, no familiar 5-man combinations

Suns were in their playoff rotation mode
we were in scramble mode

we did well to stay in it to the end
if the game mattered, Kawhi plays and we win

lighten up Francis

there's no question the clippers were missing more important pieces, but the Suns start Crowder and Saric is their first big off the bench normally so were missing 2 of their top 7

Crowder is their 5th best player, a marginal 10 ppg NBA starter, and Saric is their 7th man. Neither one is Kawhi Leonard. The Suns still kept their rotation intact nicely with Craig and Kaminsky, who are their 8-9 men.

We were throwing spaghetti at the wall in our rotation and still played them even over the last 3 quarters with Mann, Kennard, Patterson and Reggie combining for over 1/3 of our minutes [95]--whereas in the playoffs I don't expect Mann and Reggie to get more than 15 or 20 each, and for Patterson and Kennard to barely get any at all. This meant nothing.

BTW, the Clippers won the season series 2-1 should we catch them in the standings.

[TheNewEra]

This team is in deep, deep trouble. I can just sense the incoming first-round exit to the Lakers.

Ty Lue is Doc 2.0. He is a terrible coach, period. Come playoff time, Zu will be glued to the bench again (and so will Mann, probably) while Patterson and Reggie get to cost us games because they're Lue's favorites. It's like we never fired Doc at all. Just a really lazy and disappointing hire, which was obvious from the moment it was announced.

Playoff P choked once again. Is there any doubt we win this game with SGA and Gallo? It's time for the fans to stop coddling and making excuses for him, he is getting paid $190 million and cost us a ton of draft picks on top of that, and has rarely ever performed to the "superstar" level for us in a meaningful game. If we don't at least make the WCF this year, he needs to be traded, period.

Kawhi needs to stop with the secrecy and "precautions" and get back on the court. The last thing we need is him trying to get his rhythm back during the playoffs.

Is anyone surprised that this team immediately went to **** as soon as they started getting media attention and being ranked #1 in the power rankings? It's just a mentally weak team that can't handle any expectations at all.

Hottakes all over the place. This is insecure mouth of you speaking.

Zubac's minute cut down for Pat pat because PHX never gave any breathe to our shooters. Rondo-Mann-Zubac trio kills the spacing. Pat Pat provided more respectable spacing but also let many offensive rebounds grabbed. Lue made a choice and paid the price.

PG scored his every basket(except the layup on the fast break) under huge attention, pressure. Again PHX played smart D on his spots and doubled him effectively. I think he did ok, not perfect but Ok. There were just too many of Rondo pounding the ball with closest defender 3-4 steps away, while Mann's defender clogging the dribble routes. Also there are many good shot opportunity he created wasted by Reggie-Marcus-Batum missing open shots. You shouldn't expect him to perform peak LBJ because you gonna be disappointed feel miserably to post things like that.

In Kawhi tough, I don't know how he feels physically, it's frustrating to me see him sitting on the bench like that. missed 3 games, came back for that Minny game and missed straight 4 games again. I'll give you that the team needs prep. with him and Bev and Ibaka on the court.

This loss isn't about team mentality, PHX is a contender with more health than us at the moment, took extra contribution from their bench in a night they prepared well, shoot well in their homecourt with a playoff clinch on their shoulder. They could beat anybody with the way things rolled tonight.

Needed more Rondo and he did a good job slashing when the defender sagged off. Mann at 34 minutes felt like overkill even in this situation you could of tried Coffey to maybe get more shooting and more Zu run. Also could of used Boogie passing in the post as another option to get shooters open when Rondo is our bench lead scorer

[esqtvd]

had to play like a pickup team with 3 starters out
no rotation, no familiar 5-man combinations

Suns were in their playoff rotation mode
we were in scramble mode

we did well to stay in it to the end
if the game mattered, Kawhi plays and we win

lighten up Francis

I admire your positivity

I forgot how you dealt w last year's collapse but I'm curious to know

I had enough of the subject in the off-season and more than enough in the latest incarnation. This is a new year.

I thought PG did fine tonight with 25 points, 10 rebs and 3 steals. He ain't Kobe and he ain't Kawhi. He could have used a little more help out there tonight, but everybody's playing one or two notches higher in the rotation than they will when we're at full strength. I think we'll cream these punks when we are.

[Scoundreldays]

Bummer we lost, but I didn't really expect us to win without Kawhi against the Suns.

[collidingNeurons]

had to play like a pickup team with 3 starters out
no rotation, no familiar 5-man combinations

Suns were in their playoff rotation mode
we were in scramble mode

we did well to stay in it to the end
if the game mattered, Kawhi plays and we win

lighten up Francis

there's no question the clippers were missing more important pieces, but the Suns start Crowder and Saric is their first big off the bench normally so were missing 2 of their top 7

Crowder is their 5th best player, a marginal 10 ppg NBA starter, and Saric is their 7th man. Neither one is Kawhi Leonard. The Suns still kept their rotation intact nicely with Craig and Kaminsky, who are their 8-9 men.

We were throwing spaghetti at the wall in our rotation and still played them even over the last 3 quarters with Mann, Kennard, Patterson and Reggie combining for over 1/3 of our minutes [95]--whereas in the playoffs I don't expect Mann and Reggie to get more than 15 or 20 each, and for Patterson and Kennard to barely get any at all. This meant nothing.

BTW, the Clippers won the season series 2-1 should we catch them in the standings.

I wasn't comparing the absences as equal and even said that in my post, but I have watched every Suns game this year Kaminsky hasn't even been in the rotation for a month before the last two games when Crowder and Saric started missing games. Crowder is a marginal offensive threat but adds a ton on defense and in the toughness department and is a vital part of the rotation, anyway best of luck and good game, I hope we get a playoff series between the two teams at full strength, would mean both at least made second round and think it would be a fun series

[esqtvd]

there's no question the clippers were missing more important pieces, but the Suns start Crowder and Saric is their first big off the bench normally so were missing 2 of their top 7

Crowder is their 5th best player, a marginal 10 ppg NBA starter, and Saric is their 7th man. Neither one is Kawhi Leonard. The Suns still kept their rotation intact nicely with Craig and Kaminsky, who are their 8-9 men.

We were throwing spaghetti at the wall in our rotation and still played them even over the last 3 quarters with Mann, Kennard, Patterson and Reggie combining for over 1/3 of our minutes [95]--whereas in the playoffs I don't expect Mann and Reggie to get more than 15 or 20 each, and for Patterson and Kennard to barely get any at all. This meant nothing.

BTW, the Clippers won the season series 2-1 should we catch them in the standings.

I wasn't comparing the absences as equal and even said that in my post, but I have watched every Suns game this year Kaminsky hasn't even been in the rotation for a month before the last two games when Crowder and Saric started missing games. Crowder is a marginal offensive threat but adds a ton on defense and in the toughness department and is a vital part of the rotation, anyway best of luck and good game, I hope we get a playoff series between the two teams at full strength, would mean both at least made second round and think it would be a fun series

I had Payne in there too. Crowder and Saric were not missed tonight and the main point is that the Suns were running smoothly with rotation players while the Clips were a fire drill, getting heavy minutes from guys who won't get many [or even any] in the playoffs.

I hope we get the Suns too but mostly because I'm less afraid of them than everyone else.

[Clemenza]

Bummer we lost, but I didn't really expect us to win without Kawhi against the Suns.

All I know is, he needs to play against Denver on Saturday

[Scoundreldays]

Bummer we lost, but I didn't really expect us to win without Kawhi against the Suns.

All I know is, he needs to play against Denver on Saturday

Agreed I hope he is healthy enough

[NickP]

All game threads should now be Obituary threads moving forward.

[TrueLAfan]

Well, I hated the loss for the reason the loss wasn't that bad; we actually had a chance to win it. We lacked cohesion, especially among the starters. Nobody had a really bad game—it’s just that we had different players rise up at different times, and couldn’t get 3 or more together and ride them. CP3 just carried Phoenix in the second half and we couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Really, our D play at G was poor all night--sorry Reggie and Terence. If Phoenix gets 64 points out of CP3, Booker, and Payne, they’re going to be hard to beat. They were.

[playaloc916]

Tough loss. This game was winnable, but likely needed perfect execution/adjustments/lineups late in the game. Some of the late game lineups I didn't particularly agree with (got killed on the glass, I wonder if Boogie could've helped there), and some dumb turnovers.

Unfortunately, this will be a recurring theme until Kawhi starts playing again (would be similar if you take the best player off any other team). If you take this team "as-is" (no Kawhi, no Ibaka), then yes, it's hard seeing the team going deep into the playoffs with the current roster. That's why Kawhi better just be resting up for a dominating playoff performance, or else I think expectations should be lowered accordingly.