Game 31: Clippers (13-17) vs. Blazers (20-13)

[manohman]

Where: The Rose Garden
When: December 30th, 2009, 7:00 PM





Injury report:

Clippers
Marcus Camby (hyperextendedleft knee) is questionable.
Blake Griffin (Left Patella) and Kareem Rush (Right ACL) are out.

Blazers
Greg Oden (Broken Left Patella), Travis Outlaw (Left Foot), Nicolas Batum (Right Shoulder), Joel Przybilla (Ruptured Right Patella) and Rudy Fernandez (Right Leg) are out.

[PlinkingPanda]

Nice thread. It'll be tough even with all the injuries Portland has. They're still winning games. What's Dunleavy's excuse? Oh.. He's a crappy coach.

[mj_shoefanatic]

Very nice thread setup.
Go Clipps!!!

[mkwest]

Great thread.

I just wish I knew what team was showing up to play for us.

Kaman seems to be the surest thing, and playing against their depleted front court only works into his favor. One thing that he has to improve on is limiting his turnovers. He has had 14 in the last 3 games. He's averaging 23.5 & 10.6 in the last 8 games.

Baron is coming off of a huge performance and should be feeling a bit more motivated. He's shooting 60% from the field in his last 2 games and has hit 39 of his last 45 free-throws. He also has done pretty well in limiting his turnovers. In the 6 games prior to Sunday night's game, he has had an A/T ratio of 5.3, which is very impressive.

Gordon has clearly been struggling offensively and is shooting under 34% from the field in the last 6 games.

Butler seems to be playing more how we hoped that he would. He has scored in double digits in 5 of the last 8 games while shooting 43.6% from downtown.

Thornton has struggled offensively in the last 2 games. He's also been in foul trouble in 7 of our last 9 games. Hopefully he is able to get out of that funk. He's our best offensive rebounder outside of Kaman and Camby, as well as our most efficient clutch scorer.

[clippermitch]

I hope the team is not over confident after the big win vs the Celtics. Also, I hope they don't just mail it in thinking about the Sixers.

I watched the sixers beat the blazers the other night and what killed them was EB's inside scoring and AI's penetration. If Kaman can put up 25 and Baron can score 20 and dish 10, we might have a chance. Roy went off for like 40+ so EJ has to make him work on the defensive end.

I'm starting the think the Randolph trade was a mistake. Blake has been out all season and now Camby is hurt. Have you guys seen what Randolph has done lately???

Anyways, I hope we can win this one.

[mkwest]

I'm starting the think the Randolph trade was a mistake. Blake has been out all season and now Camby is hurt. Have you guys seen what Randolph has done lately???

I am glad that Z-Bo is playing well. He made a commitment before he was traded to come into this season in better shape physically and mentally. He always gets the typical cancer/problem child/empty stat talk, whenever he is brought up. The fact is that he's always played in bad situations. If you put him next to Timmy, he's probably a champion by now. Memphis did not look like an ideal situation with all of the ball dominant players (even before Iverson), but things are looking much better than originally thought. The talent was there, but would the chemistry? He's passing, rebounding like a mad man and scoring efficiently. I'd like to see him get the credit he is due.

In retrospect, it's easy to say we got rid of the wrong guy. The thing is that the other likely option was Kaman, who happens to be having a pretty good year himself. Randolph is a 4 and Kaman is a 5. If Randolph were here, he and Blake would be battling for minutes at the 4 or Blake would be logging heavy minutes at the 3. Especially if Kaman and Camby were still on the roster. I say this because Blake would probably be playing right now if we kept Randolph, since he ended up getting injured against Craig Smith whom we wouldn't have had.

[SD2042]

Great thread bro. Best of luck the the Clips tonite. Hopefully they won't get cocky against the Blazers. Last thing they need to do is underestimate the Blazers depleated frontline and assume the game is automatically won. It's the NBA, no such thing as gimme games.

[azncorruptedo17]

It's the NBA, no such thing as gimme games.

Proven with the celtics win

[illastrate]

I respect the Blazers because they haven't used injuries as an excuse at all. Dumbleavy, on the other hand, said this "We've had an awful run with this, but my track record is that I have not lost with my players. I have lost without my players, but I haven't lost with my players".

[PDXKnight]

Clippers win 100-80. Blazers just got blown out by the 76ers and Kaman will own Howard and Aldrdige.

[mkwest]

Camby is back in the starting lineup tonight.

[clipperdrew]

Great thread, I'm really feeling the set-up.

I'm really interested to see how DJ performs tonight. He's coming off his best game of the season.

Let's go Clipps!

[PlinkingPanda]

Camby is back in the starting lineup tonight.

Nice. We really need to pound them in the paint. I'll be pissed if Kaman plays poorly.

[clipperdrew]

If Kaman doesn't beast on Juwan Howard down-low tonight he needs to go.

[mkwest]

Come on EJ.

[mkwest]

Aldridge hobbling over to the bench.

[manohman]

Sloppy start so far.

[TheNewEra]

Come on we need to focus

[mkwest]

Sloppy start so far.

Sloppy and stagnant.

[mkwest]

Please grab a rebound.