Filed under: General
Some people; including David Berri of TrueHoops, believes that this years Clippers team could be the best Clippers team ever.
Looks like the young studs will be sticking around for a while. This is a bigtime move for the Clip show.
Ok so it doesn’t have the same ring that it does when Manny Ramirez says it, but listen, all is doing well in Clipper land. Sure I failed to do my job as a blogger, and stop writing about halfway through the season. But thanks to a lucky draw in the draft, and perhaps my short term memory, I am back again for another year, and have nothing but optimism for the upcoming season. Blake Griffin, the #1 college player in the country, is now going to be starting for your favorite hometown Clippers.
Blake Griffin, the #1 pick in this years NBA draft, is now a Clipper, and has a lot of pressure on his back to turn this ship around.
What can be more exciting than that? Nothing, thats what. So stick around, because if your here, I’m here, and Blake Griffin is here, its gonna be a good year!
Filed under: Games and Stats | Tags: Baron Davis, Clippers, Dwayne Wade, Marcus Camby, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, Zach Randolph
It has been a while. I needed to take a break while the Clippers were playing with a team that couldn’t even break top 10 in the Big East. Now Randolph, Camby and Baron Davis are all back, and they looked rusty last night. The Clips shot 43% from the floor as a team, once again failing to reach the 50%, which, when they reach it, they usually win.
Zach Randolph came back and scored 21 points while grabbing 5 rebounds. Baron Davis coming off the bench had 9 points, 9 assists and 4 steals. And Marcus Camby missed a triple double by only grabbing 7 boards.
Zach Randolph is playing well since his return, scoring 21 last night coming off the bench.
For the most part the new additions did not help the Clippers, they were out rebounded and turned the ball over more than the Miami Heat who went on to win 119-95. Only 4 Clippers scored in double figures and Dwayne Wade scored 32 points.
All the guys are back, now they just need to get back into sync. The Clippers continue their road trip on Wednesday verses perhaps the best team in the league, the Orlando Magic. Right now it all about getting the flow of the team back together. Losses don’t really hurt us.
Filed under: Games and Stats | Tags: Al Thornton, Baron Davis, Clippers, Eric Gordon, Kevin Durant, Marcus Camby, Oklahoma City Thunder
Al Thornton's lightning scoring, 34, helped the Clippers de-rail the Thunder last night.
The team showed a different face last night versus the Thunder. In the past few games the team had kept games close by playing solid team ball, getting the bench players involved, and getting a spread of points from all places. That was not the case last night.
Kevin Durant scored his points, 46, but it was not enough to top the Clippers and their two young stars who just happened to, finally, play great games the same night. Eric Gordon finished the game with career high numbers, scoring 41 points while shooting 12-19 from the floor and 5-7 from beyond the arc. Al Thornton played an amazing game as well scoring a season high 34, and there wasn’t much scoring from anyone else.
In many ways the young rookie Gordon willed the team to this win. ”I wanted to win this game so bad,” he said in a postgame interview. It appears that Gordon and Thornton were able to put the team, of which there were only 8 dressed players for the game last night, on their backs.
Eric Gordon willed the Clippers to a win last night contributing a career high 41.
After all the talk and hype about how great the these two young stars are it sure is nice to see just what they can do. Now add in Baron Davis and Marcus Camby.
Filed under: Games and Stats | Tags: Al Thornton, Andrew Bynum, DeAndre Jordan, Eric Gordon, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Los Angeles Lakers, Steve Novak
Although it was a 108-97 loss, last nights game against the Lakers wasn’t all bad for the Clips. The undermanned Clippers hung tough with the Lakers for two, lost ground in the third, and fought their way through the 4th quarters. They forced 13 turnovers while only commiting 10 themselves, and they held Kobe to only 18 points.
Rookie DeAndre Jordan is starting to get the hang of this NBA thing, he had a career high 23 points and 12 rebounds and 4 blocks. He looked exceptionally athletic for a man of his size. He said the game has slowed down for him and it looked it last night. He has proven to have good hands and a high basketball IQ.
DeAndre Jordan stepped up in a big way last night on his way to the first of perhaps many double doubles in his NBA career.
Steve Novak is also another bright spot for the Clippers. He came off the bench to provide 14 points, shooting 4-5 from three while giving the Lakers’ Lamar Odom a constant issue on the offensive end. Novak is a liability on the defensive side of the ball, both Odom and Bynum had big games, but he has proven that he can shoot very consistantly from everywhere on the floor even in traffic with a hand in his face. Eric Gordon, who defended Kobe for most of the night was able to pitch in 16 and Al Thornton added 20 more.
The Clippers lead even up until late in the 2nd quarter but the Lakers came out of halftime with a spurt and slowly began to pull away. There was a lot to like out of this game. Many people expected it to be a big time blowout but the Clippers fought along the entire way. With guys like DeAndre Jordan and Steve Novak stepping up in the absence of 4 of the Clips 5 starters being injured, it gives us hope for the future and the quality of the bench for this team.
The Clippers host the Thunder on Friday, stay up, stay posted, and enjoy the cool weather.
Eric Gordon was picked by the Clippers with the 7th overall pick in last years draft. He was one of Dickie V’s Diaper Dandies and exploded onto the national scene just last year in basketball’s homeland, Indiana University. He could shoot, dribble, he found open teammates, and he could jump. He was one of many talented freshman last year and at just 20 years old he was well on his way to becoming a superstar in the NBA.
He may not look like much, he is only 6′3″. And whether is was his stout stature, the fact that he played at Indiana, or the fact that he was in the same freshman class as Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley, Gordon has, for the most part, been overlooked by everyone. But his game speaks loud enough to let his opponents know that Gordon is in the game.
Gordon is a stud, but the team and he perhaps himself do not know it yet.
It didn’t take long for Eric Gordon to ditch his position at the end of Dunleavy’s bench and become the starting shooting guard over veteran players like Ricky Davis.
All the scouts can say about Gordon is how much talent he has. And for any young prospect, the hardest part about becoming an NBA star is getting used to spotlight, and getting a good attitude. But give Eric Gordon time. It is not exactly easy for a kid from Indianapolis, who grew up playing in front of 1,000 people tops, to get comfortable in team that faces adversity in every single outing such as the Clippers do. It can’t be easy for him to adjust to the LA lifestyle. But I’m sure the 2.6 million can’t hurt.
The season is not going how the team has planned. And many believe that now is the time to begin focusing more of the teams efforts on developing their young stars (ie. Gordon). After all, if he is as talented as all the scouts seem to thing he is then the sky is truly the limit for this short but explosive future superstar.
Filed under: Games and Stats | Tags: Baron Davis, Clippers, ESPN, Kevin McHale, Marcus Camby, Minnesota Timberwolves, Zach Randolph
The Clippers (9-30) host the Minnesota Timberwolves (12-16) at 12:30 today.
In their previous meeting on December 6th the Clippers beat the T-Wolves 107-84. Many things have changed since then.
Since then the Clippers have suffered many injuries. They had Zach Randolph, Baron Davis, and Marcus Camby healthy then. None of these players are likely to play today.
The T-Wolves were struggling a lot more back then and their head coach Randy Wittman was fired two days after the loss to the Clips. Since then Kevin McHale has turned the team around a little bit and they come into this game winning 7 of their last 10.
The Clippers beat the T-Wolves by a large margin back in December, but both teams have gone through many changes since then.
86.3% of the people who have voted on ESPN.com believe the T-Wolves will win this game and they are 18% favorites. Im not convinced that the Clippers will be such pushovers. Although they will no doubt be playing without Marcus Camby they will be playing in front of a fired up crowd, looking for their 2nd win in a row. Also, many of their role players are coming into this game with a great deal of confidence.
The matchup is a good one, lets see if we can start a winning streak.
Filed under: Opinion | Tags: Brian Skinner, Clippers, Fred Jones, Marcus Camby, Mardy Collins, Ricky Davis
Last week I wrote an article blaming the losing streak on the Clippers lack of depth. I said guys like Brian Skinner, Mardy Collins, Ricky Davis and Fred Jones did not belong on the Clippers, let alone in the NBA, but their performance against the Bucks on Saturday night brought a tear to my eye. 
As Marcus Camby was down in the 4th quarter, with the Clippers on their way to their first win in a month, it looked like the injury bug was going to bight the boys in red and blue again. But that was not the case. Veteran Brian Skinner decided it was time to step his game up, and he did so, scoring 18 points while grabbing 8 rebounds and 4 blocks.
Mardy Collins had a double double! 12 points, 11 assists and 4 steals on the side.
Ricky “Icky” added 13 points which I believe never happened.
And Fred Jones didn’t score and had 4 turnovers but you know what? The Clippers won so I must give all of these guys credit. I called them out, they showed up, we won. If I had known that all it would take would be some criticism then I would have done it a while ago!
