GAME 61: Grizzlies (29-27) @ Clippers (41-19)—Wednesday 7PM PDT

[RingColluder]

everything else is talk

I don't see how can you say this when Paul George had 2 early fouls in the 1st quarter virtually ruining the entire gameplan and forcing Kawhi to do everything. That's not something Kawhi should be blamed for.

I hate LeBron, but if AD got into early foul trouble in a similar situation, I would excuse LBJ.

I hate saying ANYTHING nice about LeBron James too but if he was on the floor in the 4th quarter of Game 7 this NEVER would have happened.



IMPOSSIBLE. If not scoring, rebounds and assists. Getting to the line at least. And Kawhi and PG know it. That's why they came in this year without their heads up their asses.

Kawhi was gassed!! I'm not sure where to find the stats but at least 2 of those games, maybe 3 PG got into early foul trouble and forced Kawhi to basically be the sole playmaker for long stretches for the game. It's totally understandable on his part, and if PG did his part it wouldn't have even gotten to a game 7.

[TrueLAfan]

Kawhi was gassed!! I'm not sure where to find the stats but at least 2 of those games, maybe 3 PG got into early foul trouble and forced Kawhi to basically be the sole playmaker for long stretches for the game. It's totally understandable on his part, and if PG did his part it wouldn't have even gotten to a game 7.

I do have the statistics. You are compeltely wrong. PG played 21 minutes in the first half of Game 5, and didn’t get his fourth foul until there were only 29 seconds left in the game—and he fouled because we had to foul. He didn’t pick up his fourth foul until there were six minutes left in Game 6. He did have three fouls in the first half of Game 7—but didn’t pick up any fouls in the third, and played over 22 minutes in the second half. He averaged nearly 40 mpg in the final three games and never played under 38 minutes in any of the games. To say the Kawhi Leonard was "gassed" because of Paul Geroge is lunacy.

Look, you’ve clearly got some sort of grudge against Paul George. That’s your business. But you need to slow down on the crazy comments. Paul George played plenty in the final three games of last season and wasn’t seriously in foul trouble. He had a terrible game 7, but had really good games in Game 5 and 6. Even with the lousy fourth quarter in Game 6, we are talking about averaging 29.5-6-4.5, with a TS% of .634. His +/- was terrible—but so was Kawhi’s. So was Trezz's. Lou had a good +/-, but he was so lousy that I can barely conceive of someone playing worse—and then I remember Sham was there (sort of).

The point is that we lost because of a total team breakdown. We’ve got two superstars, so they bear the brunt of it—but pretty much nobody played well. Trying to point the finger at one person when it was clearly an overall breakdown is not just wrong, it’s bad for the team. Owning the loss as a group and moving forward as a team seems to be what we have been committed to this year, so good for us.

[RingColluder]

Kawhi was gassed!! I'm not sure where to find the stats but at least 2 of those games, maybe 3 PG got into early foul trouble and forced Kawhi to basically be the sole playmaker for long stretches for the game. It's totally understandable on his part, and if PG did his part it wouldn't have even gotten to a game 7.

I do have the statistics. You are compeltely wrong. PG played 21 minutes in the first half of Game 5, and didn’t get his fourth foul until there were only 29 seconds left in the game—and he fouled because we had to foul. He didn’t pick up his fourth foul until there were six minutes left in Game 6. He did have three fouls in the first half of Game 7—but didn’t pick up any fouls in the third, and played over 22 minutes in the second half. He averaged nearly 40 mpg in the final three games and never played under 38 minutes in any of the games. To say the Kawhi Leonard was "gassed" because of Paul Geroge is lunacy.

Look, you’ve clearly got some sort of grudge against Paul George. That’s your business. But you need to slow down on the crazy comments. Paul George played plenty in the final three games of last season and wasn’t seriously in foul trouble. He had a terrible game 7, but had really good games in Game 5 and 6. Even with the lousy fourth quarter in Game 6, we are talking about averaging 29.5-6-4.5, with a TS% of .634. His +/- was terrible—but so was Kawhi’s. So was Trezz's. Lou had a good +/-, but he was so lousy that I can barely conceive of someone playing worse—and then I remember Sham was there (sort of).

The point is that we lost because of a total team breakdown. We’ve got two superstars, so they bear the brunt of it—but pretty much nobody played well. Trying to point the finger at one person when it was clearly an overall breakdown is not just wrong, it’s bad for the team. Owning the loss as a group and moving forward as a team seems to be what we have been committed to this year, so good for us.

I'd like more specific stats on game 6 (when were his first 3 fouls at what time?), but yes he did pick up early fouls in game 7 which I'm sure you have the stats on but aren't mentioning. Game 5 I was mistaken on.

It's not "lunacy" when in game 7 you're ignoring my point that he did pick up early fouls, the most IMPORTANT game of them all.

I don't have a grudge against anyone, I was just severely disappointed with PG's play last season AND his affects on team chemistry. None of my comments are "crazy" you just happen to disagree with them and like me are selectively picking stats to show otherwise.


The bigger issue is that we may have 2 superstars but last season (this season especially recently PG has been better), one plays within the team play whereas PG would fall closer to a Carmelo Anthony who plays iso ball and stifles ball movement, causes turnovers and team chemistry. This is all going back to last year, where can I see at what times PG and others picked up fouls? I don't see it on a typical box score.


Calling me in this manner bc of a difference of opinion seems to be a common thing with PG supporters. But I have MANY opinions, and just bc you disagree w one isn't "lunacy" whatsoever.

[TrueLAfan]

In Game 6, Paul George picked up his first foul about three minutes into the game, and got called for an offensive foul with 6:48 left in the first quarter. The Clippers were up 13-8; PG went to the bench for the remainder of the quarter. The Clippers extended the lead to eight. He played 10 minutes in the second quarter without a foul, finishing the first half with 17 points, and the Clippers extended the lead further. The second half did us in—Denver outscored us by 29. PG was 3-11 from the field. But wait a sec—he was 3-6 from behind the arc, and was taking it to the basket and drawing fouls. He was 7-7 from the line in the second half. That means he ended up with 16 points on those 11 shots; good efficiency. He also had 2 assists, three steals and a block in the second half. Just to put this in perspective, PG had nearly half (16 out of 35) of the Clipper’s points in the second half of game 6. Zu, Marcus, PatBev, JaMychal, Sham and Trezz played a combined 60 minutes in the second half and scored—wait for it—two points. So, please, let’s not pretend that PG’s two early fouls (to answer your question, he got his third foul with 8:41 left in the third, and his fourth foul with six minutes left in the game) were significant. It is not true.

And, yes, PG picked up two early fouls in game 7. But the Clippers played okay in the first half. Not great by any stretch, but okay. Denver was a good team. We went into the locker room at halftime up by a bucket. Explain how PGs fouls affected the team if we were ahead. The problems set in after halftime. We were miserable. That graphic esqtvd keeps posting is painful, but should be looked at over and over. It tells the biggest part of the story. PG was horrendous; 1-7 from the field and 1-6 from three. Kawhi was 1-11 in the second half, and 0-4 from three. Neither he nor PG went to the line. But, like I keep saying, there was plenty of blame to spread around; Marcus or Lou didn't go the line in the second half, and they were a combined 1-7 from the field. Trezz had 8 in the second half, but 4 of those were from 2 buckets when it was all over. Same with Lou’s only basket of the game—it came with 20 seconds left in the game. Sham had been invisible for most of the series, but he never got a chance in game 7. Reggie never got any real run in the series. Those are offensive players and that’s a Doc decision. Plenty of blame to spread around. I’ll agree that a real whole lot of it falls on PG and Kawhi in Game 7, though. But PG’s “early fouls”? Pretty much irrelevant.

And Game 6 had less blame—at least not for PG. And not much in game 5 either--26-6-6 on 18 shots with two blocks and a steal and no turnovers hardly makes you scapegoat. And—really. If Kawhi Leonard was “gassed,” as you say—as a just turned 30 year old professional athlete that was well rested going into the playoffs—then f&#@ng shame on him. Or on the Clippers training staff. Or both. Don’t try and blame that on someone else, though.

Same with“forced Kawhi to basically be the sole playmaker for long stretches for the game.” For Christ’s sake man, Paul George played 37 minutes a game in the playoffs. Take out the Game 5 blowout where no Clipper played 30 minutes a game—and PG is at 38 mpg. What “long stretches” are you talking about? The guy whose assist numbers fell of the most in the postseason was Lou. Kawhi’s assist percentage is virtually identical in the regular season and playoffs; his usage was actually down in the playoffs. What you are saying is provably untrue. This is not a difference of opinion.

Look, PG had a poor playoffs last year. Actually, he had the little meltdown in games 2-4 against Dallas … and he seemed to have recovered from that. In the next eight games, he was largely terrific. Then came Game 7—but I’ll keep saying it. We lost in the second half. PG was a big part. Kawhi was a big part. Lou was lousy--he was a big part. We didn’t make any lineup shifts. Plenty of blame to go around there. But these crazy “PG’s fouls made Kawhi be the primary ballhandler too often!” or “Kawhi was exhausted—it’s because of PG’s early fouls!” ideas are pretty much nutball.

[nickhx2]

it's like facts win every time or something

[esqtvd]

The point is that we lost because of a total team breakdown. We’ve got two superstars, so they bear the brunt of it—but pretty much nobody played well. Trying to point the finger at one person when it was clearly an overall breakdown is not just wrong, it’s bad for the team. Owning the loss as a group and moving forward as a team seems to be what we have been committed to this year, so good for us.

That's where I've been trying to leave it. 4 people were blamed [fairly or unfairly] and were packed off. Everybody else is HERE NOW and we might as well cheer for them. I do think everybody came in humbled and with the right businesslike attitude. Last year was last year; let the dead bury the dead.