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We;re not winning this game. Zu is injured. I really don't want to see them risk playing him with a knee injury.

I hope the clippers learned a valuable lesson. Don't f around and tank to get Luka Doncic instead of Damian Lillard and the blazers.

I hope the clippers can win tonight, but I don't expect it one iota.

Chris Paul to the Rockets for Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, Sam Dekker, Montrezl Harrell, Darrun Hilliard, DeAndre Liggins, Kyle Wiltjer, 2018 1st round pick and cash

It was the reverse farm trade that sent the Clippers back into the lottery. The trading of Paul broke the NBA record for most players packaged in a trade by one team. The previous holder: the Celtic's 2007 trade for Kevin Garnett, costing Boston five players, a 1st round pick and cash. Former Clippers coach Doc Rivers was in the middle of both trades, one where he watched Danny Ainge do it to form the Celtics Big 3, the other where he was in total control and was forced to do it, resulting in the breakup of a dynamic duo. The trade of Paul cost Doc his GM title, but when the second 3-1 collapse came in 2020, he lost his job entirely.

Beverley is the last remaining player left from the Chris Paul trade. He lived through the lottery season, the Revenge Of The Role Players, the Paul George conditional trade for Kawhi Leonard, and the Clippers current Mortal Kombat season. He is not a superstar, not an elite player, not a face of the franchise. He is a role player, a defensive specialist, an irritant, a rah-rah guy, somebody who can harass the opponent's best player in hopes of putting them in foul trouble or getting them ejected from a game. One time, he was the Clipper's heart and soul, the player his team couldn't win without. When Beverley was out, they played scared, lifeless, emotionally hurt. When Beverley was playing, the Clippers played without fear.

Beverley's torch has been passed on to a young Terence Mann, a 2nd round pick going on his second year. His 39-point breakout performance was what helped the Clippers complete their back-to-back 2-0 comeback to make the conference finals for the first time in franchise history. It is Mann who's lighting the Clipper's fire now, even if Beverley's role has been reduced to a part energizer bunny, part foul machine. And now, he might be tasked to do it once again.

Kawhi Leonard's status has remained a mystery, and it will stay that way until the team is eliminated. By withholding his true condition to his knee sprain/ACL injury, the Suns have been forced to assume that Leonard can come back at any time; as a matter of fact, he has been listed as Active ever since he went out, he could theoretically come off the bench and pull a Willis Reed. The Clippers are afraid that if they tell the truth, it will only help out the Suns, reducing their load of defensive schemes and assignments. A breaking news on Leonard's injury as "out for the rest of the season" will make the Clippers easily beatable.

In a 3-1 deficit, on the road versus the Phoenix Suns, commanded by a Chris Paul seeking revenge on his former team for stunting his Hall Of Fame legacy, the Clippers can no longer afford any margin of error. Every game an elimination, the Clippers will now have to win three games straight to advance to their first NBA Finals, and in a cruel twist of fate, it will require them coming back against the player they once truly loved, the one who made them relevant in the first place. Part of conquering your demons involves confronting your past, even if some heart strings have to be burned. Paul knows the pain of a 3-1 collapse and vows never to let it happen again, and he'll have to slay his old team to do it. The Clippers don't want to give Paul another 3-1 collapse, but if it's the only way to keep Kawhi Leonard, now that there are rumors of him wanting out due to mismanagement by the medical staff, they'll have no other choice.

Which side wins out: fear or revenge?

Make your choice now. I've left a poll up, and it will close at midnight tonight.

The tanking narrative is getting boring at this point. Tanking isn't what caused the Mavs to have a couple historically fluky shooting performances to extend that series. Tanking didn't make Lue wait until Game 3 every series to start adjusting. Kawhi's injury could have happened against any team.

If you need something to blame, blame that awful Pelicans-Suns-Nuggets stretch of games a couple weeks earlier that took us out of the running for the 1 seed. HCA throughout the playoffs and an easy series against Memphis sure would have been nice to have in hindsight. Some of us were pointing out what a missed opportunity that was at the time, but were accused of overreacting and being unreasonable.

It also would have been nice if we didn't choke all those games to crap teams like the Magic, Wizards and Warriors.

the suns win because they're healthier?

also emotions can't win anything. an emotion is strictly that, just an emotion. they cannot win or lose in an NBA game where the players themselves play.

also there are more than just two emotions. and beyond that, revenge is not an emotion.

I’m sure the guys will fight but there’s no room for error. All the losses had too many errors.

nickhx2 wrote:also there are more than just two emotions. and beyond that, revenge is not an emotion.

What would be a better emotion then, something akin to revenge? It's my current fallback word at this time, and it's got a strong narrative angle with the history to prove it.

i don't think i know that off the top of my head

MartinToVaught wrote:The tanking narrative is getting boring at this point. Tanking isn't what caused the Mavs to have a couple historically fluky shooting performances to extend that series. Tanking didn't make Lue wait until Game 3 every series to start adjusting. Kawhi's injury could have happened against any team.

If you need something to blame, blame that awful Pelicans-Suns-Nuggets stretch of games a couple weeks earlier that took us out of the running for the 1 seed. HCA throughout the playoffs and an easy series against Memphis sure would have been nice to have in hindsight. Some of us were pointing out what a missed opportunity that was at the time, but were accused of overreacting and being unreasonable.

It also would have been nice if we didn't choke all those games to crap teams like the Magic, Wizards and Warriors.

No, I blame the tanking because the tanking was blatant. This wasn't Oh let me play my starters 15 mins like the nuggets did against the blazers to secure the 3rd seed. Jokic only played 15 mins. This is sitting Kawhi and PG for two games and giving a g-leauger 20 shots when Luke Kennard is on the floor. The last game, the lakers were locked into the 7th seed already and if they won that game, they could have gone up to 3rd seed

Historically, the clippers have done very well against the blazers. Even with Doc, they've done historically well. It would have been a five game series. Max. You know this. Everyone knows this. Damn lillard shoots like 20% from the field against the clippers.

Sucks that Zu might be out but I'm not really impressed by the Suns tbh. One hot shooting game from somebody and we can win this game. Of course seeing somebody heating up from three would be shocking the way we've been shooting these last couple of games

don't think anyone's been impressed with them lol

Clemenza wrote:Sucks that Zu might be out but I'm not really impressed by the Suns tbh. One hot shooting game from somebody and we can win this game. Of course seeing somebody heating up from three would be shocking the way we've been shooting these last couple of games

There's really been no impressive teams in the playoffs because all the stars went out to injury. I believe Kawhi, KD, LeBron are a cut above all these guys. Look at the shooting percentage for these guys. Look at the basketball IQ presented by these guys, the lack of composure and so forth, and that includes our team. We're down 1. What do we do? we iso for PG, he takes a contested jumper. That's not smart basketball.

Kawhi leonard would be dog tired and try to drive to the rim. That's the difference between him and PG or really other players like that. LeBron would do the same. KD, etc. They know what their team needs in that very moment to win the ball game and even put a mental note in the heads of the opponent. 2pts isn't just 2pts as lebron would say.

I'm impressed by the resilience of the clippers, but I wouldn't really say the clippers played really smart basketball, particulary this series. I feel even without kawhi, we could have beat these guys. We could have been 2-1 or 2-2 at worse, but we didn't execute. mins added up.

I don't know what to make Kawhi not sitting on the bench, but I have to think if he was, they would have more composure in the moment and he would keep them locked in. His facial expression when PG cut the lead to 6 is the exact expression I want the leader to have. No emotion. We're not in the lead and the game isn't over. We just cut it to six. Imagine if he was down there in those huddles. They would hve been much more composed. Not taking bad shots, etc.

I get he moves his own way, and I'm not really knocking it. I'm just saying what could have happened if it was down there in the time outs and calming guys down and keeping them poised. Maybe they win game 4.

Kawhi's reaction made me immediately remember this classic:



Bird's reaction starting around 1:32

one of the most memorable moments in nba history for me, actually

bird just reacting like, we have a job to do and it's not over

Zu is out tonight. Someone in Phoenix sacrificed their first born for all the injured teams they've faced. And they're not even playing good, just healthy, THAT'S IT!

It would be great to win, but definitely not expecting. More worried about more people getting injured because of the scheduling. Still proud, this team fought hard.

At this point, maybe this will be a trap game for the Suns and they'll lose? That's all I got.

All we can do is fight until the end (or at least until the game is absolutely clearly out of reach), if we do that then I won't be unhappy with the game regardless of the outcome.

I don't think the tanking/ not tanking is relevant, with 10-15 games left the entire playoff ladder was in flux. There's too many 'butterfly flaps its wings' factors here to blame anything for our current injury state.

We weren't the best regular season team in the West, definitely not good enough that not winning the West automatically meant we didn't try to. We went on a great run right after the break but had swoons before and after before any playoff seeding scenarios began. That second half swoon hurt the most IMO, and by the start of the playoffs anything in the Top 4 was fine with me.

Clemenza wrote:Sucks that Zu might be out but I'm not really impressed by the Suns tbh. One hot shooting game from somebody and we can win this game. Of course seeing somebody heating up from three would be shocking the way we've been shooting these last couple of games

With each injury it obviously gets harder and harder, but I still think a win is possible here. If Booker or someone else is on fire then we won't have the guns to compete, but if we still put in the effort on D and Bev still goes out there like a man possessed we can exert some impact on their offense. At our offensive end yeah someone is going to have to get hot, I think the most likely candidates are Mann and Kennard as they are the youngest and freshest at this point, and we need at least adequate shooting from PG and Reggie.

Basically, zero margin for error.