February 13th, 2017

Blake Griffin could not be stopped.  The Clippers star Power Forward led the way with 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists, as LA routed the Jazz 88-72.

The Clippers played some of the best defense they have all season.  The Jazz shot a season low 33 percent from the field, and just 20 percent from 3-point land.

DeAndre Jordan chipped in with 10 points, 13 rebounds, and 3 blocks, while Austin Rivers added 15 points of his own.

LA has now won 9 straight games in Utah since 2012.  Griffin took control in the 3rd quarter, scoring 12 points, while beating up the Jazz inside and out.

Griffin knew it was all about the defense.  “I thought we just did a great job of giving them the shots that we wanted to give them, making them take tougher shots than they probably wanted,” he said.  I just liked our intensity to start. It was good from beginning to the end.”

Rudy Gobert had 10 points and 14 rebound for the Jazz, but Gordon Hayward was just 2-12 from the field, for 7 points on the night.  Hayward was hounded all night by Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.  George Hill was just 2-11 from the field as well.

The Clippers finished their five game trip with a 3-2 record, but have won their last three games.  They also moved a half game ahead of the Jazz for fourth place in the Western Conference.

February 12th, 2016

The Clippers made it two in a row with a 107-102 victory over the Hornets on Saturday night in Charlotte.  Blake Griffin had 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Austin Rivers added 18 points of his own.

The Clipps got off to a slow start, missing their first six shots, as Charlotte jumped out to an 11 point lead in the first quarter.  However, Griffin’s 11 points sparked the Clippers to a 29-27 lead at the end of the 1st.

LA’s bench did most of the damage after that, outscoring Charlotte 47-30, behind Jamal Crawford’s 22 points and 5 three pointers.  Crawford passed Vince Carter for the fifth-most 3-pointers made in NBA history.

Nicolas Batum had 25 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists for the Hornets.  Charlotte has now lost 9 of their last 10 games.

The Hornets came as close as 3 points in the final minute, but Blake Griffin rebounded a miss from Austin Rivers to help seal the win.  It was the Clippers first two game win streak since January 14th-16th.

The Clippers wrap up their road trip on Tuesday with a game against the Utah Jazz.  Then they’ll host the Hawks on Wednesday in their final game before the All-Star game.

July 3rd, 2013

The Clippers continued their busy off-season on Tuesday, acquiring guards J.J. Redick and Jared Dudley in a 3 team trade.  In exchange for Redick and Dudley, the Clippers sent forward Caron Butler and guard Eric Bledsoe to the Phoenix Suns, while the Milwaukee Bucks received two 2nd round picks from LA and Phoenix.  Surprisingly, many Clipper fans think their team got worse, but they are more mistaken than Chris Broussard and his multiple sources.

Since the end of the season, Eric Bledose’s name has been thrown around in trade rumors more than a hooker in Vegas.  Bledsoe has great athleticism, and is only 23 years old, but is extremely unproven.  He averaged 8 points and 3 assists in 20 minutes of playing time this year, but when Chris Paul went down with an injury, he failed to prove he can be a reliable starter.  In other words, Bledsoe’s value is more inflated than the stock price of Facebook.

In return, the Clippers acquired two potential starters who are very good shooters in Redick and Dudley.  Redick is a career 39% three point shooter, who averaged 14 pts and 3 assists with the Magic and Bucks last season.  Dudley may play some small forward for the Clippers, he’s 6 years younger than Caron Butler, and a reliable 40% shooter from 3 point land.

The Clippers had some discussions with Orlando for Aaron Afflalo, and Toronto about Demar DeRozan.  However, in typical Clipper front office fashion, they leaked to every media outlet possible all the big names they were chasing, even though it probably was never realistic to acquire those players.  It isn’t very often you will be able to trade a backup point guard and an aging small forward for a player who can score 20 points a game.  The Clippers were trying to make everyone think they could swap a Volvo for a Porsche, which caused much of this disappointment.  Coincidentally, this blabbing probably led to collapse of the Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce trade to the Clippers as well.

Remember, the Clippers still have their full mid-level exception of $5 million to spend on another free agent, and they could also bring back small forward Matt Barnes to add depth.  LA has also been talking to free agent power forward Carl Landry, who was an effective bench player for the Warriors last season.

Although the Clippers are doing a good job of adding quality role players and depth around Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, their success will largely depend on how much Blake Griffin’s post game  improves, as well as their half court execution.  Still, good organizations that are proven winners usually don’t blab about all the big names they are chasing to give them credibility.  That’s something the inexperienced and unproven Clipper organization is still learning.

June 23rd, 2013

I just have one question for Chris Paul:  How did you do it?  How did you convince Donald Sterling to pay Doc Rivers $7 million per year?  You must have slipped some roofies in his drinks at dinner the other night.  Maybe you called Charlie Sheen and he supplied you with some of his cheap hookers for the night to show Donald a good time which softened him up?  Well, whatever it was, it worked.  The Clippers have agreed to a deal in principle with the Celtics for Doc Rivers to become their next head coach.  Rivers will be paid $21 million over the next 3 years.

The Clippers will send the Celtics a first round pick in the 2015 draft as compensation for Rivers. The deal still needs to be approved by the NBA, but that isn’t expected to be an issue.  However, acquiring Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce could prove to be another challenge for the Clippers, as the league will likely frown upon adding players in a separate deal.  The NBA has a policy against making deals that are contingent upon one another, and David Stern has shown he will institute his ridiculous rules whenever he damn well pleases.

This saga has dragged on for over a week now, with a great deal of posturing back and forth.  The Clippers tried to put pressure on the Celtics by leaking that they had begun to discuss the financial parameters of a contract with Byron Scott.  The Celtics countered by calling a press conference for Monday announcing that Doc Rivers was staying in Boston.

The bottom line however, is that Chris Paul had more leverage than anyone in this deal.  If the Clippers had any hope of keeping Paul, they had to get this deal done, and Paul urged Donald Sterling to make this happen.  One always has to wonder how Sterling will screw things up, but this time, it was Paul who saved the day.

June 21, 2013

The Clippers on again, off again trade with the Boston Celtics is off again.  In this bizarre saga that has unfolded over the last week, the Clippers were initially trying to acquire Celtics coach Doc Rivers and Kevin Garnett for DeAndre Jordan and 2 1st round picks.  However, NBA Commissioner and Dictator David Stern would not allow the deal because it is against NBA rules to trade coaches.  It is also against NBA rules to make two trades that are contingent upon one another, which further complicates the Clippers ever acquiring both Rivers and Garnett.

Nevertheless, the Clippers claim their focus shifted to acquiring just Doc Rivers and worry about Garnett later.  But if that’s the case why wasn’t this deal done days ago?  The Clippers were going to give up two 1st round picks in the initial proposal, and now they are reportedly only offering one 2nd round pick.  Really?  This deal is being held up over draft picks that will eventually be terrible first round picks anyway?  This smells fishier than a Florida election, and Donald Sterling is behind it.

The Clippers had initially called off the negotiations earlier in the week, until Chris Paul urged the front office to keep negotiating.  Paul also sat down with Clippers broadcaster Ralph Lawler this week, and Lawler tweeted he was informed by Paul that he badly wanted to play for Rivers.  Despite these pleas from the team’s franchise player, Sterling never had any intention of giving any coach a 5 year deal, let alone paying him nearly $7 million per season.

Donald Sterling simply does not value his coaches.  When Sterling fired Bill Fitch in 1998, he refused to pay him, and even sued him when he claimed he wasn’t looking for another job.  When he fired Mike Dunleavy in 2010, he refused to pay him, and was eventually forced to pay $13.5 million after an arbitrator made him.   When he hired Vinny Del Negro in 2010, the Bulls were paying part of his salary.  Now he’s got Byron Scott high on his list or replacements because the Cavs are paying part of his salary.

This saga won’t officially end until the Clippers actually hire a new head coach, however, Donald Sterling thinks were as dumb as Miss Teen South Carolina.  Sterling and the Clippers front office will come to Chris Paul and tell him they tried really hard to bring in Doc Rivers, but they’ll claim the league stopped it.  Now, Paul has the right to do whatever he wants because he’s a free agent, and if he leaves town the Clippers will be bombed back to the stone age.

The Clippers had a chance to completely alter the trajectory of their franchise for the next decade over the coming weeks, starting with making Doc Rivers their head coach.  Hiring Rivers would not only guarantee that Paul would re-sign with the team, but he would give the team instant credibility, and rid them of all the previous skepticism about the franchise.  The acquisition of Garnett and eventually Paul Pierce would have made them the favorite to win the Western Conference next season, and an instant championship contender.  Even after Garnett and Pierce retire, free agents would be lining up to play with the Clippers.

Instead, Donald Sterling is finding a way to screw this up.  Throughout the negotiations, several members in the Celtics organization were reportedly baffled by the Clippers erratic demands, and were unsure where the decisions were coming from.  To make matters worse, the Clippers have slowly begun to alienate Blake Griffin, when their front office started rumors of a potential sign and trade to the Lakers for Dwight Howard.

The Clippers are at a pivotal point in the history of their franchise.  If someone in the organization could actually convince Sterling to step up and spend money, they could actually have a championship contender next season and beyond.  However, it doesn’t even seem that Chris Paul can convince him.  Soon enough, they could return to being the same old Clippers.

May 4th, 2013

Just another typical night on the LA sports scene.  The Clippers were expected to make a nice playoff run to build upon last season’s success, and then get punked in the first round by Memphis.  Oh there’s much blame to go around in this one!

It starts with Blake Griffin, who looked more like Kathy Griffin in this series.  Griffin averaged a pedestrian 13.2 points and 5.5 rebounds in this series, while only shooting 45%.  His counterpart, Zach Randolph, ate him for lunch by averaging 20.8 points, 8 rebounds, while shooting over 56% from the field.  For good measure, Randolph, also put his exclamation point on the series by putting Griffin in an MMA style choke hold in the 3rd quarter.

Then there’s Vinny Del Negro, who will likely be the first to take the fall for this debacle.  It took 5 games and 3 more quarters for Vinny to realize that his team should play some zone defense to try and slow down Z-Bo and Marc Gasol, who were beating his teams brains in.  For some reason, Del Negro thought it was a good idea to play Jamal Crawford only 12 minutes, which seems strange for a team desperate for some play makers outside of Chris Paul.

I guess it’s also pretty tough to win when you’re starting center is making $10 million a year, and is averaging 3 points and 6 rebounds.  You would think by year 3, Blake and DeAndre would be able to develop some real basketball skill, as opposed to just dunking.

Now there’s the real threat of CP3 leaving the Clippers in July, and bombing them back to expansionism.  Funny how Dwight Howard and Chris Paul have both refused to answer questions about their free agency all year, yet Howard is viewed by most people as a bad guy, and Paul is viewed as a good guy who will probably stay.  Both of these guys are definitely going to evaluate if there is a better situation for them elsewhere, and their identical post game comments after their final game suggest they are leaving the door open for a departure.

I still think Howard and Paul would probably even like to play with each other if the opportunity presents itself.  Depending on where the salary cap number is for next year, the Rockets may be able to come close to offering both of these guys max contracts.  So can the Atlanta Hawks, which are located in Howard’s hometown, and much closer to Paul’s home in North Carolina.  Be afraid Laker and Clipper fans….be very afraid.

May 1st, 2013

The Clippers are blowing it.  Now that the Lakers have been eliminated, the Clipp Show has the chance to completely dominate the Jock Talk LA headlines for the next month.  Now it’s starting to look like they might only be getting attention for another week.

Lionel Hollins is coaching circles around Vinny Del Negro.  Since the Clippers took a 2-0 lead, Hollins has played more through Z-Bo and Marc Gasol, and managed to get the ball out of CP3’s hands on pick and roll plays.  Del Negro has been unable to adjust to the Grizzlies new game plan, and now his team, and his job, are on on the verge of elimination after getting punked on their home floor.

Those that say coaching means nothing in the NBA, and that it’s all about the players have no idea what they are talking about.  The playoffs are where we get to see who can actually coach and who can’t.  How about playing a little bit of zone to slow down the Grizzlies big men?  What about moving Chris Paul off the ball so he’s not so easy to double team? Del Negro needs to get creative quickly or else he’s going to be the first one to take the blame for the Clippers downfall.

As if things weren’t bad enough, now the Clippers have to deal with injuries to both Blake Griffin’s ankle and Chris Paul’s thumb.  Although both will probably play through the injuries, it certainly won’t help their chances.

The bigger issue for the Clipps is the lack of development that is now apparent in Blake Griffin’s game.  Griffin looks like a human highlight reel during the regular season, but is getting exposed as a player with limited basketball skill in the playoffs, especially when going up against two highly skilled big men.  Until Griffin learns to develop some post moves, and is a bigger threat in the pick and roll, the Clippers half court offense will continue to be ineffective.  By his third year in the league, there should have been more development.  That’s an adjustment that Vinny Del Negro can’t make.