ROUND 1, GAME #3 SUNS @ Clippers—THURS 7:30 PM NBA-TV/Bally

[clipperlover]

The thing that irks me about this game is that we weren't any less aggressive than them, but they ended up with 21 more FT attempts.

I think Suns more Tham doubled their average FT attempts per game.

Knew something was against us early when Booker pushed off with his forearm, but earned an and 1. I don't normally complain about calls, but the discrepancy was ridiculous.

[Clemenza]

This doesn't sound good at all. Kawhi might be done ya'll

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[nickhx2]

thus far there has been zero indication that paul george is feeling ready enough to come back and play. if anyone is judging it based off the short clip of him shooting before the first suns game, that's something i'd say is ill-judged

this probably sounds preachy/soap-boxy but i kinda don't care because there is a contingent of people on this board who are borderline-conspiracy theorists with these injuries - they cry when the front office says "return date TBD". they make suppositions on when a guy is available to play or when they're not available to play. it's tiresome. but the logic that people leap over is that sometimes injuries just don't have a timetable. if i'm being agnostic, sure it could be smoke and mirrors. or? maybe it's just the simplest conclusion and nobody knows because paul george's knee simply isn't ready, or that kawhi is not ready either - because there's a universe of difference between dealing with various levels of pain/discomfort, versus dealing with the pain of something that is structurally weakened and not fully intact.

kawhi will literally always be dealing with the latter. the fact that paul george has been out for weeks clearly indicates that he is as well. and given it's a knee sprain, there's stuff in there that was stretched out more than it ever should be - and sometimes that stuff takes a stupid amount of time to recover even with dedicated rehab.

i expect kawhi to be ready because from everything we've seen over the past couple years, this is par for course for him - intermittent blips of when he isn't available due to tight scheduling. and obviously it's been worsened by the ACL injury and recovery. as for PG, i don't think anybody should expect anything from him, and if he happens to be available? we should consider it extremely fortunate.

[Quake Griffin]

When do we learn Kawhi is also out for Game 4?

[Roscoe Sheed]

The thing that irks me about this game is that we weren't any less aggressive than them, but they ended up with 21 more FT attempts.

I think Suns more Tham doubled their average FT attempts per game.

Knew something was against us early when Booker pushed off with his forearm, but earned an and 1. I don't normally complain about calls, but the discrepancy was ridiculous.

it would be nice to just one time get a really favorable whistle at home that teams like the Lakers and Warriors get. I can't remember that ever happening

[nickhx2]

yeah, i hear that

life is tough as a clipper fan

[Dynamix]

I'm not going over every single call the Suns got, a lot of them were intentional fouls, whatever. But after that blatant missed call on the Russ fastbreak, you have to start asking some questions.

And then that Bones shot going in and out...

After Reggie and Mook (glad he got a few playoff minutes and made that wild shot), seems like Batum is the next guy to run out of juice under our eyes. Still able to contribute defensively, but we need more than that.

At least we have RoCo as the always ready veteran with the shortest leash in the league. Maybe could've used his length and active hands in those micro lineups, but who am I to question the coach, he clearly has a lot to deal with right now.

Felt bad for Russ and Norm, most of all. Not sure how much more you can ask from them this series.

Maybe Kawhi gives it a go next game (if he was also playing hurt in G2, I sure as hell couldn't tell), but it has to be pretty serious for him to sit out like this. Can't feel too optimistic about anything other than maybe pushing the Suns to 6, as it stands right now.

P.S. Still waiting for that 20 piece from T-Mann. Maybe he's been saving it for PG's return in G5.

[Dynamix]

When do we learn Kawhi is also out for Game 4?

A few hours before the game, wouldn't have it any other way. Although I'm like 60% sure we'll see him out there in some form. Still feels surreal that he was playing hurt in the first two games.

I'm also wondering if our team's training staff and Kawhi's guys have any sort of collaboration, or is it more of a "daily scheduled phone calls between North and South Korea" type of situation.

[esqtvd]

i imagine the suns are happy to win but also have to be concerned that it was that close without kawhi

a lot for us to look forward to on saturday. let's just hope kawhi's ready to go

We pull this to 2-2 and it is a best of 3 series. Now, Lue knows that he can throw even more at Phoenix with this 5 guard line-up in stretches. Durant, Chris Paul and Ayton were gassed. As a bonus, PG will likely be back by Tuesday, but Clips won't announce until Tuesday aftenoon.

this is the playoffs- Kawhi and PG should both play on Saturday unless they really can't move properly.

They can recover in the off-season- these games are too critical.

What is the point of "protecting the investment" if they aren't even allowed to play when it matters?

The Kawhi-PG Era simply has not been enjoyable for more than a few scattered weeks at a time. I can't believe we're looking at YEAR FIVE for Kawhi and PG next year. It's all a blur. Always under a cloud. In fact, it's not really an "era" at all like Lob City was. The Kawhi-PG Era is just a series of pickup games.

Another new lineup, and yet another pickup team again tonight. All props to them and to Ty for finding SOMETHING that worked at the end there to make a game of it.

BTW, KL is listed "day-to-day," and I'd think PG won't appear until we're facing elimination, if at all. We're staring at yet another lost season. It's like the Kawhi-PG Era never even really started.

[Roscoe Sheed]

We pull this to 2-2 and it is a best of 3 series. Now, Lue knows that he can throw even more at Phoenix with this 5 guard line-up in stretches. Durant, Chris Paul and Ayton were gassed. As a bonus, PG will likely be back by Tuesday, but Clips won't announce until Tuesday aftenoon.

this is the playoffs- Kawhi and PG should both play on Saturday unless they really can't move properly.

They can recover in the off-season- these games are too critical.

What is the point of "protecting the investment" if they aren't even allowed to play when it matters?

The Kawhi-PG Era simply has not been enjoyable for more than a few scattered weeks at a time. I can't believe we're looking at YEAR FIVE for Kawhi and PG next year. It's all a blur. Always under a cloud. In fact, it's not really an "era" at all like Lob City was. The Kawhi-PG Era is just a series of pickup games.

Another new lineup, and yet another pickup team again tonight. All props to them and to Ty for finding SOMETHING that worked at the end there to make a game of it.

BTW, KL is listed "day-to-day," and I'd think PG won't appear until we're facing elimination, if at all. We're staring at yet another lost season. It's like the Kawhi-PG Era never even really started.

The one true chance they had with everybody healthy was in the bubble and they choked it away

[esqtvd]

this is the playoffs- Kawhi and PG should both play on Saturday unless they really can't move properly.

They can recover in the off-season- these games are too critical.

What is the point of "protecting the investment" if they aren't even allowed to play when it matters?

The Kawhi-PG Era simply has not been enjoyable for more than a few scattered weeks at a time. I can't believe we're looking at YEAR FIVE for Kawhi and PG next year. It's all a blur. Always under a cloud. In fact, it's not really an "era" at all like Lob City was. The Kawhi-PG Era is just a series of pickup games.

Another new lineup, and yet another pickup team again tonight. All props to them and to Ty for finding SOMETHING that worked at the end there to make a game of it.

BTW, KL is listed "day-to-day," and I'd think PG won't appear until we're facing elimination, if at all. We're staring at yet another lost season. It's like the Kawhi-PG Era never even really started.

The one true chance they had with everybody healthy was in the bubble and they choked it away

But Lou and Trezz were lousy and simply not ready to play after the 3-month layoff. Zubac was on a minutes restriction to start the bubble and Harrell missed all 8 seeding games due to a death in his immediate family. Shamet tested positive for COVID and was in isolation and was horrid when he did play, shooting 29% against Denver. Beverley came to the bubble, then left for a family matter then ended up missing most of the first round with an injury.

And if you recall, the Clippers voted not to play in the Bubble but were overruled by the other teams. They didn't even want to be there.

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2020/08/26/lakers-clippers-vote-to-cancel-rest-of-playoffs-every-other-team-votes-to-continue/


I mean, you're right, the Bubble was their best shot because KL and PG were healthy, but the team was a mess.

[esqtvd]

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[GamecockFan1024]

So sick of this ****.

[og15]

This doesn't sound good at all. Kawhi might be done ya'll

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Those sound very, mmm...non-optimistic

[madmaxmedia]

this is the playoffs- Kawhi and PG should both play on Saturday unless they really can't move properly.

They can recover in the off-season- these games are too critical.

What is the point of "protecting the investment" if they aren't even allowed to play when it matters?

The Kawhi-PG Era simply has not been enjoyable for more than a few scattered weeks at a time. I can't believe we're looking at YEAR FIVE for Kawhi and PG next year. It's all a blur. Always under a cloud. In fact, it's not really an "era" at all like Lob City was. The Kawhi-PG Era is just a series of pickup games.

Another new lineup, and yet another pickup team again tonight. All props to them and to Ty for finding SOMETHING that worked at the end there to make a game of it.

BTW, KL is listed "day-to-day," and I'd think PG won't appear until we're facing elimination, if at all. We're staring at yet another lost season. It's like the Kawhi-PG Era never even really started.

The one true chance they had with everybody healthy was in the bubble and they choked it away

No we were rolling against Utah right until Joe Ingles pushed him on that fast break. We were definitely improved over the year before, and would have at least made the Finals. Right until that moment, our trajectory was actually looking fine even if that was the peak. A healthy Kawhi and PG plus our vets last good year in 2021-22 could have at least made a deep playoff run as well.

But instead, there may not be a single iteration in this great infinite multiverse where things actually came together for the Clippers...

[KL2]

This doesn't sound good at all. Kawhi might be done ya'll

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Yeah, he’s not playing again this season. But they’ll keep telling us he’s day to day and rehabbing like his life depends on it. Gotta keep the opponents guessing is he playing or isn’t he? Where have we heard this song before?

[madmaxmedia]

This doesn't sound good at all. Kawhi might be done ya'll

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Those sound very, mmm...non-optimistic

Yeah it sounds bad. All I can hope for is that the quotes were somewhat out of context, as in the next sentence was, "but he's looking better and I can't wait to see him on the floor Saturday!"

[Roscoe Sheed]

The Kawhi-PG Era simply has not been enjoyable for more than a few scattered weeks at a time. I can't believe we're looking at YEAR FIVE for Kawhi and PG next year. It's all a blur. Always under a cloud. In fact, it's not really an "era" at all like Lob City was. The Kawhi-PG Era is just a series of pickup games.

Another new lineup, and yet another pickup team again tonight. All props to them and to Ty for finding SOMETHING that worked at the end there to make a game of it.

BTW, KL is listed "day-to-day," and I'd think PG won't appear until we're facing elimination, if at all. We're staring at yet another lost season. It's like the Kawhi-PG Era never even really started.

The one true chance they had with everybody healthy was in the bubble and they choked it away

No we were rolling against Utah right until Joe Ingles pushed him on that fast break. We were definitely improved over the year before, and would have at least made the Finals. Right until that moment, our trajectory was actually looking fine even if that was the peak. A healthy Kawhi and PG plus our vets last good year in 2021-22 could have at least made a deep playoff run as well.

But instead, there may not be a single iteration in this great infinite multiverse where things actually came together for the Clippers...

they did look better in 21 but I didn't think they had a realistic chance after Kawhi got injured

[clipperlover]

"Symptoms got worse after Game 2," Frank said before Game 3. "Obviously, if we weren't comfortable with [Leonard] playing [in Game 2], we wouldn't have. But after the game, things didn't get better. They got worse. So we will rule him out and kind of take it day by day."

My guess would be that something swelled up. Hopefully, the swelling goes down with rest. I am trying to remember the play in Game 1 where he might have aggravated something. I remember a play where Chris Paul did one of his underhanded cheap shots, but not sure if that affected Kawhi's landing.

I expect Kawhi to be back for the matinee.

Lol:

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[KL2]

When do we learn Kawhi is also out for Game 4?

They usually put the injury report out around 5 pacific time. Even if they know Leonard is out now I expect we’ll get a doubtful or questionable listed. Maybe a game time decision.