GT: Clippers vs. Spurs

[Nolan]

When: 8:30 PM ET, December 28, 2011
Where: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX



VS



Starting Lineups:

Clippers:
PG - Chris Paul
SG - Chauncey Billups
SF - Caron Butler
PF - Blake Griffin
C - DeAndre Jordan

Spurs:
PG - Tony Parker
SG - Manu Ginobili
SF - Richard Jefferson
PF - Tim Duncan
C - DeJuan Blair

Well 1-0 so far this season so lets see if we can make it 2-0 against the Clippers. This is going to our first look at the new lob-tastic Clippers and this is going to be a very tough game.

The key to winning this game is going to stopping the pick and roll. Paul's passing combined with the Clippers athletic bigs is going to a major problem. So we're going to have to do our best to shut down and disrupt those passing lanes.

Go Spurs!!

[Donald Kaufman]

Lob City was a little less lob than they might of liked in their first game together, but they looked good anyway.

Should be a good game. I remember every game with them last year was tight, I expect the same competitiveness from them this time around.

Let's take it to 'em!

[Ballings7]

This could be bad.

I think Clippers win here

[co_laper]

Same here, this could be a Clippers win.

I'm hoping it's not since we're not on back to backs and we need to take care of homecourt. So I hope we don't lose this one.

[Donald Kaufman]

Caught the 2nd half, it was over by then. Great win, really held CP3. Nice all-round offensive night for the team, Manu looking really sharp to start the year. Parker had a good night but isn't as aggressive as I'm used to seeing, I'm sure he'll get there as the year goes on. RJ with the nice shooting night! Blair was in beast mode too, though I'd like to see him hit the glass a bit more.

No Lob City in San Antone tonight!

Onto Houston for the back-to-back!

[LyMinh]

Most impressive

[co_laper]

Wow, there's not much too hate about that game.

Our defense was active. Offense was awesome. I've been so used to seeing our backup PGs like Jacque Vaughn and Chris Quinn, I forgot we once had Speedy Claxton. In a lot of ways, I thought TJ Ford reminds me a lot of what Speedy used to give us.

About RJ, I think we all should forget about what was our expectation when we traded for him, what his game used to be, and what his contract is. He's basically the Post-injury Sean Elliott now. Good enough defensive player and is a shooter. As an Elliott clone, I guess he's alright.

Blair started the game well and continued to get minutes. That's gonna be a theme of the season IMO. When he plays well early, he gets his minutes. If not, he might not get over 15 minutes despite starting the game.

Great signs from Tiago, Kawhi, and James. Tiago continues to be solid defensively. Kawhi's best attribute right now is his rebounding ability. James Anderson continues to be really assertive offensively trying to make plays. It's good to see, but I just hope it doesn't become a situation where he's doing too much. Right now, I think we're still trying to figure out what he can or cannot do offensively.

[Stella Artois]

Don't know if anybody noticed but we made all of our FT (15/15). When was the last time we managed to do that ?

[Nolan]

Didn't catch all of the game because of work, but I did manage to catch most of the 1st and 3rd quarters and I have to say I was impressed with what I say. The defense looked great, we did a great job of taking the lane away from Griffin and Jordan and we did an amazing job on CP3.

[Ballings7]

Great win, - wow

Surprising

I really thought that as well about Ford-Claxton, co_laper

[co_laper]

I thought Paul deferred too much to Billups and Blake when he's obviously the best player there and should be the one orchestrating everything. I think he knows that Billups don't want to be strictly a SG so he lets Billups play the point sometimes and the Clippers as a team allowed Blake to go ISO on offense way too much. And I noticed that other than Paul, that whole Clippers team don't really like to move the ball. Lots of guys looking for their own shots in that club. And that goes all the way to the bench. Gomes, Foye, Mo Williams, Brian Cook, they all look to shoot everytime. And then Butler doesn't get enough touches being the 4th option. Billups does nothing else than launch threes now since he doesn't handle the ball enough as a point guard and he's not capable of getting to the lane or post up SGs like he can againts PGs.

Clippers will win games based on talent alone but they're obviously not familiar with each other yet.