Game 19 : Los Angeles Clippers (13-5) @ Miami Heat (6-11) - 8:00 PM

[TheNewEra]

Laker fan here.

I know this a random piece of commentary to add, but you were all right about Montrezl Harrell.

He's not a winning player and a locker room negative. Congrats on your win tonight.

Is he pouting right now? When things weren't going his way, he would pout and not play with any real effort

Must be random tweets or messages. I just now checked his game logs and the last two games have been rough

[BlueNGold]

Laker fan here.

I know this a random piece of commentary to add, but you were all right about Montrezl Harrell.

He's not a winning player and a locker room negative. Congrats on your win tonight.

Is he pouting right now? When things weren't going his way, he would pout and not play with any real effort

Pretty much.

He was a no-show last night in Philly. Granted, he was matched up against Embiid, but he had a horrendous stat line and then followed it up again tonight with a mostly poor effort.

Dude is a hustler, but he is a locker room negative, IMO.

[Max Headrom]

Laker fan here.

I know this a random piece of commentary to add, but you were all right about Montrezl Harrell.

He's not a winning player and a locker room negative. Congrats on your win tonight.

Is he pouting right now? When things weren't going his way, he would pout and not play with any real effort

Must be random tweets or messages. I just now checked his game logs and the last two games have been rough

Laker fans have said the last couple of games that he's not even trying to contest shots

[BlueNGold]

Is he pouting right now? When things weren't going his way, he would pout and not play with any real effort

Must be random tweets or messages. I just now checked his game logs and the last two games have been rough

Laker fans have said the last couple of games that he's not even trying to contest shots

I can vouch for that.

Coupled with the fossil Gasol is just the makings for a tough situation.

I won't bring the mood down any further. Congrats on the win.

[Max Headrom]

Must be random tweets or messages. I just now checked his game logs and the last two games have been rough

Laker fans have said the last couple of games that he's not even trying to contest shots

I can vouch for that.

Coupled with the fossil Gasol is just the makings for a tough situation.

I won't bring the mood down any further. Congrats on the win.

Thanks and honestly, hopefully the Lakers can get a real big through trade or a buyout because I would LOVE to see the teams finally meet in the playoffs where both teams are at peak form with no excuses. Good luck

[playaloc916]

Proud of the team surrounding Jackson and consoling him. That wouldn’t have happened last season.

Tonight was a lot more like the 2018-19 team. But I think Kawhi and PG [who were absent tonight] are much more supportive this year than last, when they seemed to be their own team within a team.

Tonight even reminded me of that 2017-18 team that was half G-Leaguers, that were fighting for a playoff spot. Ty Wallace, CJ Williams, Sindarius D'ing people up... Good times...

[Scoundreldays]

Wow wished I watched the game tonight. Seemed like a hell of a game. Great win for the team!

[esqtvd]

Proud of the team surrounding Jackson and consoling him. That wouldn’t have happened last season.

Tonight was a lot more like the 2018-19 team. But I think Kawhi and PG [who were absent tonight] are much more supportive this year than last, when they seemed to be their own team within a team.

Tonight even reminded me of that 2017-18 team that was half G-Leaguers, that were fighting for a playoff spot. Ty Wallace, CJ Williams, Sindarius D'ing people up... Good times...

CJ and Ty are out of the league but I was happy to see Sindarius hooked on with the Pels--even if he is averaging one more point than a dead man.

[Clemenza]

Just saw some Laker fans call a former Clipper player "Montrash" on another message board.. Yikes!

[LamarWho]

Must be random tweets or messages. I just now checked his game logs and the last two games have been rough

Laker fans have said the last couple of games that he's not even trying to contest shots

I can vouch for that.

Coupled with the fossil Gasol is just the makings for a tough situation.

I won't bring the mood down any further. Congrats on the win.

Going from McGee/Howard to Gasol/Harrell is a pretty big downgrade defensively. It's more evident when playing against a skilled 5 like Jokic and Embiid.

[esqtvd]

Just saw some Laker fans call a former Clipper player "Montrash" on another message board.. Yikes!

Trezz is easy to scapegoat--he's louder than his game

he's an overachieving 2nd-rounder with a very flawed game, but is still 4th in minutes and 4th in points on the Lakers--slightly better in every category [points, rebs, plus/minus, even FTs] than Kuzma, who gets no hate whatsoever

so it goes

frankly, he should be your 5th or 7th-best player but Gasol's such a mess that Trezz gets more burn than he should
I see he's also playing 15 mpg with Wes Matthews, whose plus/minus with everybody, even AD, is bloody awful [team-worst minus-1.1 overall]


https://www.nba.com/stats/lineups/traditional/?Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&GroupQuantity=2&TeamID=1610612747&sort=PLUS_MINUS&dir=1

FTR, Trezz' plus/minus for the Clips last year was plus+4, 5th-best on the team
Trezz is plus+2.2 for the Lakers, 8th
Kuzma is plus+1.0, 12th

[Roscoe Sheed]

Tonight was a lot more like the 2018-19 team. But I think Kawhi and PG [who were absent tonight] are much more supportive this year than last, when they seemed to be their own team within a team.

Tonight even reminded me of that 2017-18 team that was half G-Leaguers, that were fighting for a playoff spot. Ty Wallace, CJ Williams, Sindarius D'ing people up... Good times...

CJ and Ty are out of the league but I was happy to see Sindarius hooked on with the Pels--even if he is averaging one more point than a dead man.

I'm surprised Ty never caught on anywhere. True, he can't shoot, but he is effective at other aspects of the game like dribble drives and was a decent defender if I remember correctly.

[Roscoe Sheed]

i openly wonder if this team actually has everything it needs by replacing beverley with jackson in the starting lineup.

the bench defense fixes itself and the starting lineup improves some on ballhandling and playmaking (though at the expense of defense, of course).

i mean it's just an aberration of a game but, still. stuff to ponder.

Reggie's boneheaded decisions down the stretch just now are the perfect example of why he isn't starting and probably shouldn't be on the roster at all.

Reggie definitely can make some head scratching plays, but in some ways he is a better player than Beverley and Lou Williams. Definitely better offensive player than Bev and a better defender than Lou. I don't mind him getting minutes.

[MartinToVaught]

Laker fan here.

I know this a random piece of commentary to add, but you were all right about Montrezl Harrell.

He's not a winning player and a locker room negative. Congrats on your win tonight.

Basically ever since Trez left Drew Rosenhaus' agency and went back to Klutch Sports, he's been one of the league's biggest divas. I can't say I'm surprised that he's already stirring up locker-room drama on his new team.

I wonder if he'll try to blame LeBron or AD when he disappears in the playoffs, just like he did to PG last year. Something tells me it won't work nearly as well for him this time around since the media won't just blindly run with his side of the story.

[NickP]

Speaking of trez, some guys will never learn that it's not always about points scored. Trez is garbage everywhere else.

[nickhx2]

Laker fan here.

I know this a random piece of commentary to add, but you were all right about Montrezl Harrell.

He's not a winning player and a locker room negative. Congrats on your win tonight.

Is he pouting right now? When things weren't going his way, he would pout and not play with any real effort

Pretty much.

He was a no-show last night in Philly. Granted, he was matched up against Embiid, but he had a horrendous stat line and then followed it up again tonight with a mostly poor effort.

Dude is a hustler, but he is a locker room negative, IMO.

yeah, most clipper fans had a lot of justification in wanting to see him gone. all anyone had to do was go back and watch his play in the denver series to see that he was the biggest culprit in those 3rd quarter catastrophes.

objectively he was the worst player for the clips for two postseasons in a row. but it was that combined with his locker room toxicity that ended his tenure here.

i am curious, though, on what you've observed this season that makes you feel he's a locker room negative. for us it was pretty obvious he was the one complaining about paul george and kawhi getting rest days off.

[Clemenza]

Good to see that we're bonding and gelling this year.. LOL

[esqtvd]

Is he pouting right now? When things weren't going his way, he would pout and not play with any real effort

Pretty much.

He was a no-show last night in Philly. Granted, he was matched up against Embiid, but he had a horrendous stat line and then followed it up again tonight with a mostly poor effort.

Dude is a hustler, but he is a locker room negative, IMO.

yeah, most clipper fans had a lot of justification in wanting to see him gone. all anyone had to do was go back and watch his play in the denver series to see that he was the biggest culprit in those 3rd quarter catastrophes.

objectively he was the worst player for the clips for two postseasons in a row. but it was that combined with his locker room toxicity that ended his tenure here.

i am curious, though, on what you've observed this season that makes you feel he's a locker room negative. for us it was pretty obvious he was the one complaining about paul george and kawhi getting rest days off.

Spot on, Nick. Trezz had to go, true. But it might have been because told the truth; he put his finger on it in that January 2020 outburst after a humiliating 26-point HOME loss to the Grizz, that there was a culture problem with [presumably] Kawhi and PG.

https://clutchpoints.com/clippers-news-montrezl-harrell-rips-la-after-26-point-loss-to-grizzlies/

Jovan Buha of The Athletic also got the the ax for reporting the gory details, like Kawhi and PG's PRIIVATE pregame locker room. I mean wtf up with that????


As to performance, in my layman's opinion, Trezz was clinically depressed in last year's playoffs after the death of his grandmother, the most important person in his entire life. Add to it that he was out of practice since March, out of shape too after missing most of the pre-playoff bubble, and he was a complete basket case throughout. [The ultimate irony being that he led the Clippers with 20 points in that Game 7 debacle when KL and PG evaporated.]

Before that, in the 2018-19 playoffs, he was a creditable 18.5 ppg on a league-high 73% shooting. Per 36 minutes--25 ppg and 7.5 rebs. Last year was a one-off, I think.


I do agree that he's a lousy defender but I'd also say he's hardly the alone in that in today's NBA. And if defense is underrated, I'd also say that OFFENSE is underrated when you're creating your own points--as Trezz does--instead of waiting to be spoon-fed them by more talented teammates.

There's a reason Trezz is getting 24 minutes a game on the world champion Lakers--even if [as is usually the case] it's because they don't have anybody better. You've got to get those minutes somewhere--see Jeff Green--who averages 27 minutes a game in the playoffs with 6 teams, now working on his 7th!!

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/greenje02.html#playoffs_per_game


As for Trezz being some locker room cancer with the Lakers, I agree wholeheartedly that we need some evidence. I hate saying anything nice about LeBron James but still at age 36, that man still comes to play EVERY night. If Trezz is making noises, it's gotta be out of frustration with his own play. His minutes on the court with LeBron in particular are just not meshing, and it's probably because of a shortcoming of basketball IQ on Trezz's part--and that's the one thing that heart and effort just can't cover up.

[esqtvd]

Good to see that we're bonding and gelling this year.. LOL

not gonna start any trouble but KL, PG and PB weren't there...


All I'll say is that 2018-19 was fun because there were no expectations. When you're on a championship or bust trip, it's not supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be work. Look at these game threads. A lot like work and if we lose it's all about finding somebody to blame.

Hell, even if we win, there's somebody to blame. Lou's washed up. Reggie's garbage. But with the help of Batum's unearthly 3-balls, it was Reggie [38 minutes, 16/8/6] and Lou [17/5/4] who won us this game.

We assume Kawhi, Paul, and Pat were watching at home. And a little envious, watching their Clippers out there giving it hell and enjoying the ride. When they get back, it's back to the grind for everybody. Expectations.

[MartinRiggs]

I didn't expect a win so well done to the players.

To make things better,Blake was top scorer in Pistons win over Lakers.

Morris,Kennard and Zubac will have to step up a little in next games though.