Game #22: LAC vs Indiana hoosiers

[Roscoe Sheed]

can't say i agree that he hasn't made the transition. his series against the spurs showed he was willing and last year pre-injury showed the same. he's been more deferential for sure this season but he certainly has it in him. it's not something that worries me, especially when we know he can go full bore in the playoffs.

That's what I was about to say too. However the match ups in that series heavily favored Blake, but it was great he took advantage of it

I know cp3 is a pass first pg but he is way too passive sometimes, especially when the team is struggling

[og15]

As sloppy as they were, if the bench wasn't massively awful, they win this game. The 4 main starters were all at least +5 when on the court, soo...maybe you don't play Pierce anymore? Not that the other bench guys are without fault, but still.

[mattd13]

not to make excuses but the refs were awful. how many times did jj get killed and not one free throw. at least 2 of those missed calls could have been game changers. I am still amazed, as some of you are, at how doc sees that he needs jamal on the floor when he can not defend. Austin is not a defensive player. he gets beat off the dribble at will and then gives up. send him to the d-league. on a positive note I did see felton come in before Austin. hopefully that will continue.

[QRich3]

So, this is one instance of what happens when defenses are aggressive in sagging off Luc, even if he has a good enough shooting night. They were really aggressive not only with Luc, but also ignoring Paul off the ball, and that hurt us so much. Our offense still needs a lot of work, even if it's been the most stably elite thing we've had in the last half a decade, and I'm still not sure we can get away with this tight spacing when we play the good teams in the postseason.

The bench is still a problem too, and it's a deeper problem than playing Pierce over Wes or not.

[Pacers_Freak]

Last night our announcers made a comment that the Clips had not had more than 1 day off the whole season? Is that true? That is a long stretch without a couple of days off. I thought it showed. Pacers looked rested (which they should have been) and I thought the Clips looked tired. Agree with your comments about cP3 needing to be more aggressive. Especially with Teague on him. Best of the luck the rest of the season!

[nickhx2]

Last night our announcers made a comment that the Clips had not had more than 1 day off the whole season? Is that true? That is a long stretch without a couple of days off. I thought it showed. Pacers looked rested (which they should have been) and I thought the Clips looked tired. Agree with your comments about cP3 needing to be more aggressive. Especially with Teague on him. Best of the luck the rest of the season!

yeah, it's true, not since start of season. i think by the time the NOLA game hit it was something like 17 games in 29 nights? since the very beginning it's been a game every other day and if the team was "lucky" they'd get a back to back too. literally never heard of a schedule as dense as this team has played and i'm still in disbelief that the schedulers thought that it was ok.

[og15]

The schedule has certainly not been favorable. They will have two days off before GS though which is at least nice.

[og15]

So, this is one instance of what happens when defenses are aggressive in sagging off Luc, even if he has a good enough shooting night. They were really aggressive not only with Luc, but also ignoring Paul off the ball, and that hurt us so much. Our offense still needs a lot of work, even if it's been the most stably elite thing we've had in the last half a decade, and I'm still not sure we can get away with this tight spacing when we play the good teams in the postseason.

The bench is still a problem too, and it's a deeper problem than playing Pierce over Wes or not.

Doc needs to let go of small ball bench and go big, but that requires either Austin or Jamal out of the rotation so that they also have a proper PG. The best balance of offense and defense on the bench is probably Felton/SG/Johnson/Bass/Speights

They honeymoon period from the start of the season is over and now they have to start making some serious evaluations

[nickhx2]

i mean they should, they aren't likely to though based on how they approached last year lol. then just going off of free agency in resigning both austin and crawford and then looking at how doc's trying to shoe horn austin as a SF, i think it's pretty clear an earnest evaluation process is for naught.

[Don Tommy]

I was in LA for the weekend and almost went to see the game, but instead took my wife to Downtown Disney. Thank God I did! She grew up in IN, so us getting swept by them this year really hurts... really really hurts!

[Pacers_Freak]

Last night our announcers made a comment that the Clips had not had more than 1 day off the whole season? Is that true? That is a long stretch without a couple of days off. I thought it showed. Pacers looked rested (which they should have been) and I thought the Clips looked tired. Agree with your comments about cP3 needing to be more aggressive. Especially with Teague on him. Best of the luck the rest of the season!

yeah, it's true, not since start of season. i think by the time the NOLA game hit it was something like 17 games in 29 nights? since the very beginning it's been a game every other day and if the team was "lucky" they'd get a back to back too. literally never heard of a schedule as dense as this team has played and i'm still in disbelief that the schedulers thought that it was ok.

I don't care what anyone says... fatigue is an issue. Y'all will get rested up and have a chance to make a nice run. Enjoy!

[nickhx2]

Last night our announcers made a comment that the Clips had not had more than 1 day off the whole season? Is that true? That is a long stretch without a couple of days off. I thought it showed. Pacers looked rested (which they should have been) and I thought the Clips looked tired. Agree with your comments about cP3 needing to be more aggressive. Especially with Teague on him. Best of the luck the rest of the season!

yeah, it's true, not since start of season. i think by the time the NOLA game hit it was something like 17 games in 29 nights? since the very beginning it's been a game every other day and if the team was "lucky" they'd get a back to back too. literally never heard of a schedule as dense as this team has played and i'm still in disbelief that the schedulers thought that it was ok.

I don't care what anyone says... fatigue is an issue. Y'all will get rested up and have a chance to make a nice run. Enjoy!

thanks!

[og15]

I think Blake is very capable of being "the man," but I don't think it will happen as long as CP3's here. He needs to be in a situation where he's the guy everyone looks to in order to unlock his full potential.

Honestly if you are that type of player, you just play like that type of player. We've been saying since 2013 that Blake can be "the man", and being the bigger, stronger, faster, more athletic guy, it's obviously more realistic for Blake to be the one that can take on the role of forcing scoring when needed. Blake gets the ball enough, he touches it on almost every possession and more than just about any big man in the league. The Clippers plays have options and he can decide to score and attack whenever he wants, but it's just not something he has consistently done. He's had stretches, but stretches are just that, stretches, and if we still need to be giving excuses for why he's not that player, then it might just be the reality that he isn't that player. Blake is 27 now, he'll be 28 before the end of the season, this isn't 23 or 24 or even 25 year old Blake Griffin anymore.

[GuyverX]

I think Blake is very capable of being "the man," but I don't think it will happen as long as CP3's here. He needs to be in a situation where he's the guy everyone looks to in order to unlock his full potential.

Honestly if you are that type of player, you just play like that type of player. We've been saying since 2013 that Blake can be "the man", and being the bigger, stronger, faster, more athletic guy, it's obviously more realistic for Blake to be the one that can take on the role of forcing scoring when needed. Blake gets the ball enough, he touches it on almost every possession and more than just about any big man in the league. The Clippers plays have options and he can decide to score and attack whenever he wants, but it's just not something he has consistently done. He's had stretches, but stretches are just that, stretches, and if we still need to be giving excuses for why he's not that player, then it might just be the reality that he isn't that player. Blake is 27 now, he'll be 28 before the end of the season, this isn't 23 or 24 or even 25 year old Blake Griffin anymore.

I think you are spot on. Why does Blake have to wait until CP3 is out the door before he takes over and dominates? Like you said, he touches the ball on almost every possession and it's up to him to start being aggressive and take over games. The truth of the matter is, he doesn't because he's not offensively gifted enough. Say Paul passes it to him at the elbow with a defender on him. What does he do? A) Take a tough step back jumper, B) Drive to the basket and results may vary depending on the defense, or C) Attempt to back his defender down and then pass it back to Paul at the 3 point line with the shot clock expiring. This is how it happens all the time. I've watched at least 3 years of this.

Griffin is a great all around player but he is not dominant. He doesn't have a go-to move to create his own shot consistently. It used to be he just out played guys physically and dunked on everyone his first couple years in the league. He can't do that anymore. It's not that he's saving for the playoffs. He physically can't do it anymore. When was the last time you saw a Blake Griffin spin move for any ally-oop dunk? I can't remember either. His mid range jumper has improved but I would not trust him to make that consistently if the game is on the line.

I don't know if Griffin has what it takes at this stage in his career to become a true dominant player. And if the Clippers wanted to win a title he needed to up his game to be considered in the discussion with guys like Durant, Curry, LeBron, etc. because CP3 is looking older each game.

[Neddy]

Griffin is a very good player, gifted with physical brute force to go with very fine "all around game" as many have already stated. I used to think he was a lot like Barkley when he first came into the league. his first full season was very much the round mound of rebound like. but now I think he is much closer to one of our former players, Danny Manning. Manning came in over-hyped, got hurt and used the injury and being on the clippers as excuses of his mediocrity. once he left us tho, his numbers plummeted. one can make an argument that his overall conventional stats being depressed had more to do with him playing less minutes, and that is true, but his best seasons in conventional or advanced stats were with us, when he hated being a clipper and wanted nothing more than to get the hell out.

Not that Griffin is trying to leave, the very opposite is the truth with him in terms of his desire to be a clipper, but his game, has become soft. his game is now more about mid range J, not as aggressive going to the basket, good passer for a big man and often too passive when he should take over, because he can't. Danny Manning, with all the college hype when he came in, he quickly learned that his game, despite his 6-10 size, was that of a tweener. he isn't exactly a PF and was not really a SF, but somewhere in the middle he was an excellent college player. Blake, unfortunately, has fallen into this trap where his offensive game is more suitable for a SF but he cannot guard any real SFs in this league, his strengh is there to compete with PFs but does not have length to be today's small ball 5.

maybe I'm wrong, but nowadays everytime I watch this team play, I see Danny Manning wearing #32 sporting ginger hair, not living up to the hype that once pegged him as the savior of this franchies.

just an old guy ranting.