Play-in Game 2: vs Pelicans 7:00pm PST on TNT

[Roscoe Sheed]

Proud of the team. Exceeded expectations all year and shouldn't have had to play for a chance at the playoffs when they earned the right all year. I hate Nosferatu money hungry ass

we lost to Wolves and Pelicans to get kicked out of playoffs while they are both in. Neither has a superior roster than us.

You think the Clippers available roster is better than the Pelicans? Almost nobody thinks that.

[madmaxmedia]

Not even mad. Relieved. It’s finally over. Too up and down with more lows than highs.

I’m not even going to hope all will be healthy next season. 5 months should be enough but we’ll see.

Vets can carry you a long way but this team needs to trust the young guys to contribute something.

It just sucks we have to wait so long to see what plans they may have.

This was a problem last year too. You can have some older players but when the entire team is near 30 and over, you can tell the difference. We have some younger guys who can play- Terence, Luke, Brandon even- but there's even a difference between young athletic lottery level athletes and most of our guys.

Overall we still have a lot of talent, the Norm/RoCo trade really helped our roster. Hopefully there's another move coming this offseason...

[madmaxmedia]

Lue said getting Leonard and PG back next season and things could be special.

Batum declined to say his choice on his PO but kept mentioning next season is going to be fun.

Jackson said he’s all ready smiling thinking about next season with Leonard and PG back.

RoCo said he loved the game again and it was because of this team. Of course he’d love to be back. Sees a long term fit. Wants to put himself in the best position to win a championship. Mentioned playing with Leonard and PG.

Anything can happen but I get Jackson and Batum vibes from RoCo when talking about loving the game again and being happy with the Clippers.

These are the vibes you hope to see, even after a disappointing play-in. You could tell the guys like playing together on this team, and that definitely counts for something. I'm cool with this season.

[Dynamix]

PG or no PG, you can't hope to be competitive against the Suns or Grizzlies if you can't put away the Wolves or Pelicans with a double digit lead heading into the 4th.

The play-in format would've seemed a whole lot better if we were the 9th or 10th seed, just like it did for LeBron after he trashed it last year. Personally, I'd be perfectly fine having a shot at the playoffs despite being under .500, just because missing our two best players got us there. So let's not put others down because we couldn't get it done.

Also, some final thoughts on Ty's adjustments and our overall rotations. Can't even imagine how many things he had to juggle this entire season, especially since PG/Norm came back with very little time left. He probably spent weeks awake thinking about at least 4-5 potential play-in/playoff opponents. Then you lose PG on frikin' game day. Luke could've helped a lot as well in either game. So yeah, I'm giving Ty a pass for not getting everything just right, like he's playing 2K, the players are machines, and the opposing coach doesn't exist. This wasn't exactly Doc with a full roster sending Trez out there to die against Jokic for an entire series.

Overall, this was a really fun season that won't even make the list of heartbreaks I've had since watching the Clippers. Next year, though, I better see a complete, balanced roster fight for a top seed and not afraid of anyone heading into the playoffs. There's no denying that we're getting close to that Blaking™ point, when "if healthy" just won't cut it anymore, and any move should be on the table.

[madmaxmedia]

Lue said getting Leonard and PG back next season and things could be special.

Batum declined to say his choice on his PO but kept mentioning next season is going to be fun.

Jackson said he’s all ready smiling thinking about next season with Leonard and PG back.

RoCo said he loved the game again and it was because of this team. Of course he’d love to be back. Sees a long term fit. Wants to put himself in the best position to win a championship. Mentioned playing with Leonard and PG.

Anything can happen but I get Jackson and Batum vibes from RoCo when talking about loving the game again and being happy with the Clippers.

Team will be back with a chip. And because of this season, the team knows they don't have to grind PG and Kawhi into the ground to make the playoffs. Just get there relatively healthy and they honestly could be favorites as many analysts believe the same

Frankly, a Suns series was probably not going to be much fun anyway. Phoenix is running on all cylinders and we still look like a pick-up team.

I wanted to see what a PG-led team (with healthy Norm) could do, but a PG-less team definitely was not going to be a fun series. I think the best case scenario was PG coming back in an elimination game maybe. It was definitely a gut punch to see PG go into COVID protocol literally today, but as Clipper fans we are used to it and keep looking forward...

[nickhx2]

move morris, keep batum and play him off the bench, re-sign covington and start him, move reggie to the bench and start powell in his place.

do whatever it takes to keep hartenstein even though that's not likely, and if any of reggie/batum/zubac starts playing like they're washed next season, move their asses so lue doesn't develop any insane ideas like playing them over the actual best players on the team.

oh look, now everyone in the starting lineup defends and does something useful (goodbye, guys who can't box out). oh look, reggie doesn't play 40 minutes in critical games now. oh look, now both the starting and bench lineups are much better balanced on offense and defense.

cya next season

[esqtvd]

Read on Twitter

[Clemenza]

Hard to take.

Kept thinking, who misses an entire year on a non-catastrophic knee injury.

Well, for 25 years now, bCk to saying "yeah, but next season...."

I'm old and that refrain is getting old too.

Dude did not suit up one time for the team this year. That's crazy

[esqtvd]

Code: Select all

Coffey 4 minutes minus-9
Hart 6 minutes minus-10
Mann 37 minutes minus-9
Zu 13 minutes minus-4
Powell 24 minutes minus-9

____________________________________________

coach tried everything

ADD:

Read on Twitter

[Clemenza]

Not even mad. Relieved. It’s finally over. Too up and down with more lows than highs.

I’m not even going to hope all will be healthy next season. 5 months should be enough but we’ll see.

Vets can carry you a long way but this team needs to trust the young guys to contribute something.

It just sucks we have to wait so long to see what plans they may have.

This was a problem last year too. You can have some older players but when the entire team is near 30 and over, you can tell the difference. We have some younger guys who can play- Terence, Luke, Brandon even- but there's even a difference between young athletic lottery level athletes and most of our guys.

Overall we still have a lot of talent, the Norm/RoCo trade really helped our roster. Hopefully there's another move coming this offseason...

Pels

Jose Alvarado- undrafted G League player who just signed a real NBA deal
Herbert Jones- 2021 second round pick(#21)
Trey Murphy -2021 first round pick(#17)

These three torched us tonight and have been improving daily. That's almost on par with what we're working with as far as youth is concerned. The Pels played their kids especially since they don't have an abundant of vets ahead of them and a vets first rule from the head coach and in the end won the game and will advance to the playoffs. Meanwhile we got Reggie, Mook, and company playing 40 plus minutes and gasping for air at the end

[og15]

Proud of the team. Exceeded expectations all year and shouldn't have had to play for a chance at the playoffs when they earned the right all year. I hate Nosferatu money hungry ass

we lost to Wolves and Pelicans to get kicked out of playoffs while they are both in. Neither has a superior roster than us.

Yep, there is nothing to proud with this ****. Two double digit lead in the final quarters erased by young teams. We choked two times in a row, single elimination games. If there should be someone to proud it's Wolves and Pelicans with their youth proved their Nba careers.

Hopefully this was the final game of Morris in Clippers uniform. We need youth playing.

Coaching can be quite hard. If you lose there's always something else you could have done, but that doesn't mean it would have worked either. The Clippers main problem was that they can't create shots late in games, their energy and hustle was there.

Clippers won the 3rd 38-18, 10 point lead. There were two options then #1, rest Reggie and Morris who combined for 22 pts in the 3rd for about 4 minutes, hope you maintain the lead with them on the bench and then bring them back in to close. #2 Try to push the lead further with the same group.

Clippers went with the second option, it failed.

The Pelicans played Ingram, McCollum, Nance and Murphy 11+ minutes in the 4th. Clippers played Jackson, Morris, Mann and Covington 10+ minutes each. Jackson and Morris went 3/14 (two late desperation misses here too) and had 7 pts.

McCollum and Ingram who played 10 and 12 minutes in the third and then 12 and 11 minutes in the 4th combined for 14 fourth quarter points on 6/11. Murphy was also great for them.

In the end, CJ and Ingram being better at that first and second option role late in games was the biggest factor. Even with the offensive rebounds and all the other stuff, if that part was closer, Clippers would have won. It's just tough without those types of players and you really notice it when you don't have them. When the energy goes up and your actions are shut down and you have to make individual plays, you need guys that can do that. Reggie and Morris aren't those guys, but they tried.

[MartinToVaught]

The play-in format would've seemed a whole lot better if we were the 9th or 10th seed, just like it did for LeBron after he trashed it last year.

No, it would still be a horrible useless gimmick. We already had an 82-game play-in. We didn't need two more games that completely invalidate the previous 82.

[MartinToVaught]

Hard to take.

Kept thinking, who misses an entire year on a non-catastrophic knee injury.

Well, for 25 years now, bCk to saying "yeah, but next season...."

I'm old and that refrain is getting old too.

Dude did not suit up one time for the team this year. That's crazy

What's crazy is people ignoring that Kawhi tore his ACL and physically couldn't play, and acting like he chose to miss the whole season because he just didn't feel like playing.

[KL2]

Read on Twitter

Hard to take.

Kept thinking, who misses an entire year on a non-catastrophic knee injury.

Well, for 25 years now, bCk to saying "yeah, but next season...."

I'm old and that refrain is getting old too.

Dude did not suit up one time for the team this year. That's crazy

What's crazy is people ignoring that Kawhi tore his ACL and physically couldn't play, and acting like he chose to miss the whole season because he just didn't feel like playing.

I’m stumped that people act like he tweaked his ankle and refused to play through some pain. He tore his ACL and had surgery on July 13th. It’s been only 9 months. The usual recovery time is still 9-12 months.

Jamal Murray tore his ACL and had surgery on April 22nd and he’s not expected to return for their playoff run.

The only thing that ticked me off with Leonard’s situation was I felt we were teased about a return this season. Comments from players about holding the fort down until he returns. Lue saying he’s not going to get too excited about his progress and giving little updates to acting like he had no idea where Leonard was at in his recovery. The little workout teases to telling the media they couldn’t film his surprise shoot around. The beat writers saying he was way ahead of schedule to one day saying time had ran out for a return. We could never get an honest (imo) answer and I think that’s shady for fans.

[Clemenza]

Hard to take.

Kept thinking, who misses an entire year on a non-catastrophic knee injury.

Well, for 25 years now, bCk to saying "yeah, but next season...."

I'm old and that refrain is getting old too.

Dude did not suit up one time for the team this year. That's crazy

What's crazy is people ignoring that Kawhi tore his ACL and physically couldn't play, and acting like he chose to miss the whole season because he just didn't feel like playing.

I'm not saying he wasn't hurt I was simply bugging out on the fact that he didn't play one minute this season. That's all my comment was about. Of course he's injured. You're the one who always brings up the trade - that he orchestrated- rag on PG, and how OKC is getting our pick after every loss. Which one is it? Not to mention us fans were strung along all season that he might be coming back and you can't get one solid word or sentence out of Kawhi and it becomes frustrating asf

[ERClips]

Hated to see it end this way but wasn’t really surprised. Always looking forward to next season.

I know we haven’t seen him play any pro games yet but I wondered what you guys thought of Preston’s future as our point guard? Not necessarily starting but as the backup. Since it’s an area we definitely need to address & he’s already here I’m hoping for a bright future for him

[Akklaim1]

One thing we can’t ignore is that this was our 11th straight year of finishing above .500. With All the years of Sterling ownership, that’s just unreal.

[TheNewEra]

move morris, keep batum and play him off the bench, re-sign covington and start him, move reggie to the bench and start powell in his place.

do whatever it takes to keep hartenstein even though that's not likely, and if any of reggie/batum/zubac starts playing like they're washed next season, move their asses so lue doesn't develop any insane ideas like playing them over the actual best players on the team.

oh look, now everyone in the starting lineup defends and does something useful (goodbye, guys who can't box out). oh look, reggie doesn't play 40 minutes in critical games now. oh look, now both the starting and bench lineups are much better balanced on offense and defense.

cya next season

Hartenstein likely won’t be pursued after hard with how badly he played and his issues all season on defense, fouling and not being strong enough. Another year of people were complaining but Zu was the only big they had to lean on and even Ty said he should of brought him back in. Clippers need a back up big that can defend and stay healthy with real size.

[TheNewEra]

Hated to see it end this way but wasn’t really surprised. Always looking forward to next season.

I know we haven’t seen him play any pro games yet but I wondered what you guys thought of Preston’s future as our point guard? Not necessarily starting but as the backup. Since it’s an area we definitely need to address & he’s already here I’m hoping for a bright future for him

Everyone has talked about Preston in high regards on the staff and media. He won’t start but there was mentioning if things go well he could be a primary backup by sometime next season. He hasn’t played any ball since summer league so I believe they go after another point guard as they develop him in the gleague and bench role next year.

[TheNewEra]

we lost to Wolves and Pelicans to get kicked out of playoffs while they are both in. Neither has a superior roster than us.

Yep, there is nothing to proud with this ****. Two double digit lead in the final quarters erased by young teams. We choked two times in a row, single elimination games. If there should be someone to proud it's Wolves and Pelicans with their youth proved their Nba careers.

Hopefully this was the final game of Morris in Clippers uniform. We need youth playing.

Coaching can be quite hard. If you lose there's always something else you could have done, but that doesn't mean it would have worked either. The Clippers main problem was that they can't create shots late in games, their energy and hustle was there.

Clippers won the 3rd 38-18, 10 point lead. There were two options then #1, rest Reggie and Morris who combined for 22 pts in the 3rd for about 4 minutes, hope you maintain the lead with them on the bench and then bring them back in to close. #2 Try to push the lead further with the same group.

Clippers went with the second option, it failed.

The Pelicans played Ingram, McCollum, Nance and Murphy 11+ minutes in the 4th. Clippers played Jackson, Morris, Mann and Covington 10+ minutes each. Jackson and Morris went 3/14 (two late desperation misses here too) and had 7 pts.

McCollum and Ingram who played 10 and 12 minutes in the third and then 12 and 11 minutes in the 4th combined for 14 fourth quarter points on 6/11. Murphy was also great for them.

In the end, CJ and Ingram being better at that first and second option role late in games was the biggest factor. Even with the offensive rebounds and all the other stuff, if that part was closer, Clippers would have won. It's just tough without those types of players and you really notice it when you don't have them. When the energy goes up and your actions are shut down and you have to make individual plays, you need guys that can do that. Reggie and Morris aren't those guys, but they tried.

You can feel Jackson and Morris were going to burn out early in the 4th