Game 9: LA Clippers (5-3) vs Phoenix Suns (3-4)

[og15]

The Starters

PGuard: #9 - Pablo Prigioni * SGuard: #25 - Austin Rivers

SF: #1 - Lance Stephenson * PF: #32 - Blake Griffin

Center: #6 - DeAndre Jordan

The Supporting Cast


34 - Paul Pierce * 11 - Jamal Crawford * 5 - Josh Smith

* 33 - Wesley Johnson * 45 - Cole Aldrich

*22 - Branden Dawson * 30 - C.J. Wilcox

12 - Luc Mbah A Moute




Starters

Eric Bledsoe * Brandon Knight * PJ Tucker * Markieff Morris * Tyson Chandler

Reserves

* TJ Warren * Jon Leuer * Alex Len

The Clippers (5-3) had their best 3-point shooting game of the season, going 12 for 27 after entering with an alarming 27.4 percent mark, but Dallas canceled that out by going 11 for 24 and shooting 55.3 percent from the field.

"They never were below 50 percent offensively the whole night, and we never were above 45 percent, so the fact that we were still in the game was great," coach Doc Rivers said. "That just shows how mentally tough we are."

The Suns (3-4) are trying to avoid dropping three straight. They've been off since Sunday's 124-103 loss in Oklahoma City, giving them three days to evaluate their most lopsided loss of the season. Turnovers were part of the focus after Phoenix committed a season-high 23 - its second time at 20 or more in three games.

"Just correcting a few little things we've got to clean up. Obviously some of the turnovers," Jon Leuer said. "Against some of these good teams that work in transition - like the Clippers that we're facing next or the Thunder - you've got to be really sound fundamentally."

http://www.nba.com/games/20151112/LACPHX/gameinfo.html

[Wammy Giveaway]

Even if the Clippers end up losing today's game to the Suns, they are guaranteed to win against the Pistons in their upcoming home game.

Per Basketball-Reference, Clippers are 11-1 in winning their games following back-to-back losses in the regular season.

[LACtdom]

Even if the Clippers end up losing today's game to the Suns, they are guaranteed to win against the Pistons in their upcoming home game.

Per Basketball-Reference, Clippers are 11-1 in winning their games following back-to-back losses in the regular season.

I'm not sure if this is sarcasm lol

[nickhx2]

not sure wammy knows what guaranteed means.

[Wammy Giveaway]

Even if the Clippers end up losing today's game to the Suns, they are guaranteed to win against the Pistons in their upcoming home game.

Per Basketball-Reference, Clippers are 11-1 in winning their games following back-to-back losses in the regular season.

I'm not sure if this is sarcasm lol

That stat I posted, it's real.

(all under Doc Rivers)
Year 1: http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/LAC/2014.html
Year 2: http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/LAC/2015.html

Look at the Game Results bar.

[nickhx2]

11-1 means there's a loss in there, though

[Wammy Giveaway]

11-1 means there's a loss in there, though

But it does mean that the Clippers under Doc are exceeding likely to prevent 3-game losing streaks than succumbing to them. Doc treats his games like the playoffs. Theoretically, losing three games in a row is the equivalent of a playoff sweep. No NBA team has ever recovered from a 0-3 deficit in the playoffs. Doc takes these back-to-back losses pretty seriously.

[Forte IV]

Pablo and Austin will start

[tweet]https://twitter.com/latbbolch/status/665000249442766848[/tweet]

[BrotoNBA]

LETS GO BLAKE, LETS GO

[nickhx2]

first few possessions were great on defense. austin has really come into his own.

lance has really gotta stop being bad lance. the starters could be unreal if we figured himself out.

[LACtdom]

11-1 means there's a loss in there, though

But it does mean that the Clippers under Doc are exceeding likely to prevent 3-game losing streaks than succumbing to them. Doc treats his games like the playoffs. Theoretically, losing three games in a row is the equivalent of a playoff sweep. No NBA team has ever recovered from a 0-3 deficit in the playoffs. Doc takes these back-to-back losses pretty seriously.

But what's our record of getting out of the 2nd round? I don't like to get too caught up in those kinds of stats. Let's hope for a win even without CP.

[LACtdom]

With DJ Injured, surely Aldridge will get some minutes.

[nickhx2]

hmm. kinda thinking lance needs to play with the second unit. i liked him with the first because there's a ton of potential there and i thought he did some good things. but lance seems to be his usual ball-dominating self off the bench, which is precisely what you want if you want someone to cannibalize crawford's usage.

getting wes 20 mpg would be pretty good for us, too i think.

[og15]

Missed the DJ injury, what happened?

[LACtdom]

Missed the DJ injury, what happened?

He hurt his pec / shoulder on a block. was benched while trying to get feeling back into his fingers. He has come out again for the 2nd qtr so it is assumed it's just a 'stinger'.

[nickhx2]

really dunno. he kept waving it off, though. still in the game so i guess that's a good sign.

[LACtdom]

These injuries might be a blessing in disguise purely because it's giving our bench players more minutes to build chemistry and have shown some positive signs so far.

[nickhx2]

so, usually i don't care about dj's ft's because a bad shooter is a bad shooter.

but this year he is so bad that it's super -EV every possession he's hacked. but the worst part maybe is that doc's really mismanaging the hack a stuff so far. things like keeping crawford in on defense (lol?) when dj's gonna shoot anyway.

we really have to figure this out.

[clip set]

Yea 68 ortg for a quarter of every game isn't really sustainable

[nickhx2]

i also think dj hasn't really been the same guy he usually is or should be because the ft's are getting to him. the mavs stuff might be in his head a bit more than he'd like to admit, too.

also as i type this jamal passes up a wide open 3. this guy never ceases to amaze me. to doc's credit he pulls him pretty quickly.