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Clippers' Nick Young expected to start in Game 2 on Wednesday

Nick Young is expected to start in place of injured small forward Caron Butler when the Clippers play Game 2 of a Western Conference first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday. The Clippers lead the series, 1-0.

Young has been effective off the bench.

He was especially good in that role Sunday, when he scored a team-high 19 points and hit three consecutive three-point shots late in the fourth quarter to help his team complete an improbable 99-98 comeback win after trailing by as many as 27 points.

“He had a big role for us in Game 1 and he’s going to have a bigger role now that Caron is out,” Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro said Tuesday.

“I’m just ready for whatever,” Young said.

“Bobby has been watching a lot of film,” Butler said. “He’s prepared for this challenge. Nick is as well.”

Baxter Holmes, LA Times

A night to remember in Memphis for Ralph Lawler and Clippers

"The single most momentous moment in franchise history," Lawler proclaims. "I'll be talking about this one when they start shoveling dirt on me: 'Hey, wait a minute, folks, let me tell you about that night back in 2012.' "

He tells his producer to get him a video copy of the fourth quarter so that he might treasure it forever.

Back at the team hotel after the game, Clippers players, coaches and staff and the Lawlers meet in a restaurant to replay something they still cannot believe really happened.

"The guys are just pinching themselves," says Lawler, no one wanting to leave and it's almost 3 in the morning. "I'm hugging Chris Paul's mother and it's just so cool.''

For a second, he concedes, he gives a thought to the Memphis columnist who has labeled him dumb and arrogant. He wonders how his night might be going, he says, but then Lawler is feeling too good to really care.

TJ Simers, LA Times

Blake Griffin's rough second act

It has been more brutal than brilliant to watch. The joy of discovering him as a rookie has been marred by a second act of painful grimaces, flagrant fouls and hard knocks. Griffin has been fouled flagrantly more than any other player in the league last year (10 times) and this year (five times). The next highest total over the same two-year span? LeBron James' seven.

On the night Griffin began growing his playoff beard, we walked out of the arena together. He moves slowly after games. His body was still numb after icing down for 20 minutes in the locker room. As he thawed out, the pain started. I asked what he made of it all.

Griffin shook his head and said: "People keep telling me that everybody has to go through it at some point."

He doesn't mean everybody, of course. Only would-be superstars have to pass through an initiation process this rigorous.

It's a compliment, though it doesn't feel like it all the time. The place he intends to go is earned, not given.

"This year, I'm under the microscope," Griffin says. "I'm really being critiqued in every single area, which is fine."

"I'm just trying to do my job and my part to make this a team that people respect," Griffin said on the day he reported to camp in December.

"I want to put expectations on our team that are high. That's kind of the way I've always been, and I want to put those expectations on our team as well."

"Just the attitude and the way we go about doing things now is completely different from my first year," Griffin said. "Our expectation is to make the playoffs, but we're not just OK with that. Now it's about expanding on that, pushing ourselves, getting ready to be in contention for championships."

Ramona Shelburne, ESPN Los Angeles

All flash, Clippers are easy to hate

Let us go back to an earlier game this season, the Grizzlies and the Clippers, with the Clippers broadcast team of Michael Smith and Ralph Lawler on the call.

Smith was talking about the Grizzlies-Spurs playoff series last year, when Lawler came blundering in.

Lawler: "They got very lucky because Manu Ginobili got hurt. That was a fluke first-round win."

Smith: "I agree. There was no way they beat 'em with a healthy Ginobili."

Which makes Lawler and Smith both arrogant and dumb. Ginobili missed exactly one game of the playoff series last year. As opposed to, say, Rudy Gay, who missed the whole thing.

But what else would you expect from the Clippers duo? They're the perfectly insufferable spokesmen for a perfectly insufferable team.

So, yes, Memphis, you are free to start loathing the Clippers with all your heart. It's part of the fun of a playoff series. This time, it also makes good sense.

The Clips are all flash and arrogance. They're the NBA's nouveau riche.

The Clippers are owner Donald Sterling, an accused racist and confirmed boor and lout.

The Grizzlies are grit and grind. The Clippers are Lob City.

The Grizzlies are Zach Randolph, bouncing from city to city, finally making an all-star team in his ninth year. The Clippers are Blake Griffin, the anointed one, making the all-star team as a rookie because he can jump real high.

Indeed, that may be the best word to suit the Clippers. They're ultimately fake. They're from a fake city (Los Angeles) with a fake tough guy (Griffin) and a fake broadcast team. A fluke?

Geoff Galkins, Commercial Appeal

thanumba2clippersfan wrote:I keep feeling bothered that Butler is out. I wish we didn't have to play this series without him.

ejftw wrote:TJ Simmers, though I'm not a fan of his, killed it with his article.

No Butler hurts, but I think Simmons should start but Young still log 30 of the 48 minutes at SF.

ejftw wrote:Well, other options are Gomes, Leslie and Martin. Martin can't play the three for more than spurts at a time, Leslie is too young and just a highflyer at the moment, and Gomes is one no one wants to see. I was wishing near the end of the year, VDN would give Gomes a chance to redeem himself, but that didn't happen and Simmons might just be the best option.

kombayn wrote:I really think VDN should start Bobby Simmons. Our bench has been extremely effective against other second units. Plus the pick-n-roll game plus going inside-out will help the Clippers a lot having effective jump shooters like Randy Foye & Bobby Simmons wide open.

mj_shoefanatic wrote:C'mon MAN Young earned that starting spot based on game 1's numbers just saying.