Preseason Game 1: Clippers @ Trail Blazers 10/7 @ 7pm (PDT)

[mj_shoefanatic]

Outside of the mediocre outing from the bench loved DJ's activity on both ends of the court. Hoping that he can be consistent with this in the regular/postseason. Solid preseason W.

[mkwest]

CLIPPERS TAKE ‘FIRST STEPS’ IN PRESEASON OPENER

“We just have to keep working defensively and offensively,” Rivers said prior to Tuesday afternoon’s practice at the Clippers Training Center. “Offensively, I’m not that concerned. It’s just timing. We don’t have half of our stuff in. I, honestly, liked the effort and the buy-in. That’s the first step, everything else follows.”

There were times, though, in which Crawford appeared tentative. In Associate Head Coach Alvin Gentry’s offensive system, the West’s leading scorer off the bench last season is trying to strike a balance between moving the ball and getting his own shot.

“I’m trying to make other people better,” Crawford said Tuesday. “I don’t want to feel out of place by just going outside of the system. There were a bunch of times I could have easily gone 1-on-1 or whatever, but I was would feel out place if I did that.

“If I can master it or be good at it, I think it adds a different element that I haven’t necessarily had. If I can be good at both, I think it just gives us more options.”

Eric Patten, Clippers.com

[QRich3]

I still just have been able to watch the game right now, well actually I could only see the 1st half so far. And while I know it's the first preseason game and we shouldn't be drawing any serious conclusions from it, it just lowered my optimism about the season quite a bit.

Jamison and Mullens just look like a bad joke in there, they'll probably rival Shaw/McGee for the most comedic couple in the league next year. At our expense
I know it's preseason and all, but they just looked like they didn't even give a sh*t in there, leaving the paint open at every possesion, not even looking to grab defensive rebounds, chucking every not-so-open shot like there's no tomorrow (even if he just hit the center of the backboard and airballed the previous 2 shots in Mullens' case). And the hilarity reached absurd levels when they tried to set the same screen at the very same spot, leaving Collison with a baffled look not knowing very well how to react. It's like they've been reading everything that made us skeptic about them and decided to do a parody about it.

I'm now hoping for Hollins to play over 15MPG, which is not a situation you want to find yourself in, or for Doc to find some kind of rotation for those two to never ever be on the court together, or not on the court at all, period.

I'm not sure I like what they're trying to do with Blake on offense either, he's just not a good midrange shooter and insiting on giving him that shot every time, or have him face up from the elbow all the time, is probably not gonna do anything for him other than frustrating him. I thought he got the best results last year when he posted up deep and caused mismatchs with his good court vision. I thought when they said they wanted him to face up it was gonna be deep in the low block already, I don't like him starting plays facing up from the high post.

DJ looked great, it's clear all this motivation Rivers is putting on him is working very well, and while there was not much defensive structure in the game as a whole, you can clearly see good things happen when he's roaming the paint on defense. Highlight blocks and dunks aside, he looked very energetic but still poised and focused, if he can learn to make good reads on defense he can actually be all we've been hoping for him to be all these years. He needs to stop swatting the ball out of bounds when a teammate is next to him after a block though.

Still, there was not a lot of structure to the game on either of the teams and you could see guys weren't taking themselves too seriously out there, but I've been anxiously waiting to see how the new team is gonna mesh so those were my overreactions/1st impressions.

[mkwest]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcZX9NijvgM[/youtube]