RD 1 GAME 4: DEN (1-2) @ LAC (2-1)—SAT 4/26 3 PM, TNT

[KL2]

If the league doesn’t suspend him they have some explaining to do.

I didn’t know the rule and I didn’t get very far is BS. Better angle. He’s not near the bench and he stormed the court. Took 3 coaches to get him.

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[Roscoe Sheed]

It is horrendous that kawhi only shot 3 free throws- he should have shot at least 10 with how physical they were playing him. Also, all 3 of the fouls called against him were false. They even got one wrong on replay

[Jay555]

It is horrendous that kawhi only shot 3 free throws- he should have shot at least 10 with how physical they were playing him. Also, all 3 of the fouls called against him were false. They even got one wrong on replay

This is supposed to be the best series in R1, so they ain't let us go up 3-1.

We got this. We played trash and still had the chance to win it.

Like I said before G1, Clips 4-2.

[donemilio21]

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Why surprised. The refs looked the other way on a lot of things. Can they send this to the league though? Wouldn’t this be a suspension?

I wonder if our coaching team should have a plan for a situation like this. Its the fricking playoffs. Not regular season. Gotta have a plan.
I know some of you wont agree with me but Swallow your pride, and let the Nuggets throw punches. If it wasn't for Zu and Norm, Gordon and maybe Braun would have been ejected in this situation. Have one of the guys leave the bench, send fricking Eubanks or Christie out to be the enforcer, let them get suspended. Gotta make some chess moves.

[skn02]

I think the league wants a 7 game. So it's going to be 3-3 with the decider in Denver.

That's letting this team off the hook. They choked game 1 and were a complete no-show for three quarters tonight. That's not the refs or league, it's the same old Clippers. They do this **** every year in the playoffs.

At least now we know they aren't a serious contender and can adjust our expectations accordingly. Serious contenders actually put teams away in the playoffs.

Holy ****, how pessimist can you be? There were plenty of World champions gotta get through grueling 7 games series even in the first round to win it all. All you do is just be negative and everything not turn the right way, it's end of the world for you. I get it that you don't want to have any expectation so you cant be disappointed but all you say is just negative ****, how about give them credit for fighting back down 22 in the 4th, and the Refs clearly got an agenda to give Nuggets any close calls to extend the series in best of their abilities.

[wakelaunch1]

This is a massive problem. Kawhi has to be great. We should have blown the doors off Denver. We let them dictate the pace and the physicality. We changed it up too late and made a late comeback.

I feel like we had all the momentum going into the series and we gave that up. There is no way this shouldnt be 3-1 or even 4-0. Clippers are a better team. But as someone else said we FAFO.

[wco81]

This is a massive problem. Kawhi has to be great. We should have blown the doors off Denver. We let them dictate the pace and the physicality. We changed it up too late and made a late comeback.

I feel like we had all the momentum going into the series and we gave that up. There is no way this shouldnt be 3-1 or even 4-0. Clippers are a better team. But as someone else said we FAFO.

Clilppers as a team are shooting very well in the 4 playoffs games so far. Besides KL, Harden, Powell and Zubac are shooting high percentages. KH, Harden, Powell and Batum all at 40% or greater from 3.

Clippers can't ask for better offense, especially after they let PG walk to get more rotation players and salary cap flexibility Powell really leveled up.

But yeah they really could have swept or be up 3-1. That last play, looks like Nuggets were playing for Gordon to rebound the ball. Jokic drew Zubac and KL away to contest his 3 and Gordon just wasn't boxed out at all. Not sure Harden could box him out anyways but Gordon got a running start to catch the ball uncontested.

[MartinToVaught]

I think the league wants a 7 game. So it's going to be 3-3 with the decider in Denver.

That's letting this team off the hook. They choked game 1 and were a complete no-show for three quarters tonight. That's not the refs or league, it's the same old Clippers. They do this **** every year in the playoffs.

At least now we know they aren't a serious contender and can adjust our expectations accordingly. Serious contenders actually put teams away in the playoffs.

Holy ****, how pessimist can you be? There were plenty of World champions gotta get through grueling 7 games series even in the first round to win it all. All you do is just be negative and everything not turn the right way, it's end of the world for you. I get it that you don't want to have any expectation so you cant be disappointed but all you say is just negative ****, how about give them credit for fighting back down 22 in the 4th, and the Refs clearly got an agenda to give Nuggets any close calls to extend the series in best of their abilities.

I would be a lot less pessimistic if we hadn't watched this exact same series play out every year in the playoffs, usually with catastrophic results. Like, it's literally the exact same routine, even down to whoever we'd be playing next round (OKC in this case) getting a huge rest advantage over us if we win because they took care of business and, like always, we didn't. Just because I'm a fan doesn't mean I'm going to turn my brain off and not recognize obvious patterns.

I'm not saying legit contenders never get tested in a series, obviously. But any legit contender would have wrapped this series up quickly. Denver just fired their coach a couple weeks ago, Jokic's not having his best series, their roster is injured and has no depth. This is the kind of matchup a real title contender would be salivating for. The Clippers are making it a million times harder than it ever needed to be, just like all the previous Clippers playoff teams that were also not good enough to be real contenders. I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong, but I have a hard time expecting this to end any differently.

[MartinToVaught]

This is the same exact routine we have to watch play out over and over again in the playoffs every single year. And I don't think it's ever going to change until we go against our tendencies and get a real coach and a legit franchise player in the draft.

This loss wasn’t on the coach c’mon. Get a new angle. The players were sloppy and deficient most of the game until the 4th. Defense was not up to their standards. It sucks but this wasn’t Lue

Lue had a small-ball lineup in the game when we needed defense and rebounding. Lue refuses to change the starting lineup even though it's been net-negative all series. Lue is supposed to be an all-time great "players' coach"/ego manager but can't get his players to stay focused and motivated for longer than one game in a playoff series. Lue is supposed to be a wizard at adjustments, but we're 4 games in and he hasn't even picked the lowest-hanging fruit.

It's not all his fault, but Lue absolutely deserves part of the blame. He's being outcoached by an interim who was thrown into this job a couple weeks ago. After Vinny, Doc and now Lue, it's getting old going into every playoff series with a decisive coaching disadvantage.

[LamarWho]

This is a massive problem. Kawhi has to be great. We should have blown the doors off Denver. We let them dictate the pace and the physicality. We changed it up too late and made a late comeback.

I feel like we had all the momentum going into the series and we gave that up. There is no way this shouldnt be 3-1 or even 4-0. Clippers are a better team. But as someone else said we FAFO.

I thought we played like we are up 3-0 until the 4th quarter. Harden looked very passive for some reason, when was the last time he only attempted 2 treys? Kawhi has been just OK since that monster game 2, and it's not good enough.

[KL2]

Harden was passive. He had like 8 shot attempts through 3 quarters. It wasn’t the defense because he was picking them apart in the 4th. Law Murray alluded it to being an afternoon game but nah. It’s the playoffs. Gordon is playing on one leg and MPJ with one arm. They’re still hustling and giving it their all. Our guys are playing as if the series is over. That goes for the coaches too.

[KL2]

Remember when Lue said he’d make changes in game 3? Yeah it might not even happen in game 5 either. Only if we’re facing elimination in Law Murray’s opinion.

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[Clemenza]

Lackadaisical first half and an awful 3rd quarter. Amazing 4h but everything has to go your way when coming back from down 20+ points. Still should've won tho. Missed a million three pointers and free throws. Bogdan passed up a five foot floater or it could've became an ally-oop to Zu to kick it out to Kawhi for a bad three point shot. Then Kawhi took another bad three when he could've backed Murray down and go for his patented mid range elbow jumper. Don't let these guys off the hook. They have to come out with fire in these next two games. We're the better team, act like it!

[clipperlover]

Was in the house yesterday. Absolutely deafening down the stretch. Was sitting in the corner up from the Clippers bench, so I am still re-living moving my head from Jokic's shot to seeing Gordon grab and dunk the ball. Looked good in the stadium and not going to blame the refs for anything. There was a lot of contact by both sides that they swallowed the whistle on. The fact they did the smart thing and called off-setting technical fouls allowed these two teams to compete.

If you look at the box scores yesterday, they are basically even across the board. The difference is that one team was playing as though their season was on the line and the other team was the Clippers. Clippers role players did not step up. All of the Nuggets starters are 2 years removed from winning a ring, so they were hyper focused to not go down 3-1. They didn't want to go home knowing any return back to Intuit would come with their season on the line. Now, they go home with less pressure.

Any issue that it was a day game is Ballmer and the management team's fault. You will have to play day games in the playoffs. Not scheduling a few Saturday or Sunday afternoon games during the season is something they can control.

As far as coaching goes, I am not worried at all. They know this is a marathon and not a sprint. They are making strategic decisions with the marathon in mind. In Game 2, we didn't want to go home down 2-0, so Kawhi stepped up and had a monster game. Game 3, Kawhi took a back seat and the role players stepped up. There are line-up combinations that Ty has not even used yet. Him sticking with Bogi yesterday was super ballsy. I though when we cut it to 4 that he would have brought Dunn/DJJ back for D, but he stayed with the Bogi who rewarded him with a HUGE put back basket. I thought during the last timeout that he would have put DJJ/Dunn/Batum in, but all of the guys remained in their warmups. Ty didn't feel like putting someone cold in.

Not seeing a lot of talk about our own terrible FT shooting in front of the wall the last 2 games. I think we missed 4 straight in Game 3 in the 4th. Kawhi, Harden and Powell all missed FTs in the 3rd.

Despite everything, here are some things to take note of:
1. Clips are giving up less than 100 ppg through 4 games. Denver's starting 5 had their best offensive game of the series and they still only scored 101. As long as our D holds, our O will get on track. Their D will not continue to hold. We have 2 days off before the next game and then every other day (with travel) if it goes 7.

2. Kris Dunn had more minutes played in Game 1 than his entire career playoffs prior. His only other time in the playoffs was 2021. He played limited minutes and in front of sparse crowds. He will adjust.

3. DJJ started for the Mavs team that went to the NBA Finals last year. Ty will unleash him when needed.

[clipperlover]

Lackadaisical first half and an awful 3rd quarter. Amazing 4h but everything has to go your way when coming back from down 20+ points. Still should've won tho. Missed a million three pointers and free throws. Bogdan passed up a five foot floater or it could've became an ally-oop to Zu to kick it out to Kawhi for a bad three point shot. Then Kawhi took another bad three when he could've backed Murray down and go for his patented mid range elbow jumper. Don't let these guys off the hook. They have to come out with fire in these next two games. We're the better team, act like it!

Add to that bad decision making Harden's going so early on our last possession. You can't get beat if they don't get another shot attempt. Would rather lose by missing our own shot.

[KL2]

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[esqtvd]

Lackadaisical first half and an awful 3rd quarter. Amazing 4h but everything has to go your way when coming back from down 20+ points. Still should've won tho. Missed a million three pointers and free throws. Bogdan passed up a five foot floater or it could've became an ally-oop to Zu to kick it out to Kawhi for a bad three point shot. Then Kawhi took another bad three when he could've backed Murray down and go for his patented mid range elbow jumper. Don't let these guys off the hook. They have to come out with fire in these next two games. We're the better team, act like it!

Amen.

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[KL2]

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[CodeBreaker]

One final defensive possession, and Ty Lue chose to keep Powell, Bogdan, and Harden on the floor... I wonder what the heck were they thinking?

[clipperlover]

One final defensive possession, and Ty Lue chose to keep Powell, Bogdan, and Harden on the floor... I wonder what the heck were they thinking?

Easy. He was thinking that none of the guys on the bench had played since the 3rd quarter and were no longer warmed up. He went with the people that were warmed up and were responsible for holding the Nuggets to 14 pts in the qtr at that moment.