Seriously, what is going on here?
Preview/ Game Thread (1015+ comments)
Final Box Score
Blog Buddy: Clips Nation : Now THAT's Really More Like It
Warriors Nation and Clippers Nation. Clippers North and Warriors South. We're like peanut butter and jelly, Redman and Method Man, milk and cookies, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, Donald Sterling and housing discrimination, Chris Cohan and tax evasion, Windows Vista and Cntrl + Alt +Dlt-- we just go together. So naturally I went to tonight's festivity at the Roracle (or should I say the Boracle?) with my main man Clipper Raj. Getting blown out at home by a long time frenemy tonight was pretty unexpected, but hey at least Clipper Raj had a great time out!
Jump for the reasons why our buddy Clipper Steve decided it was an opportune time to kindly host Clips Nation + GSoM Night 1 in SoCal.
Clippers Backcourt vs. Warriors Backcourt
- Let's get this one out of the way first. The Bad News: Stephen Curry (-13) probably had the worst night of his NBA career tonight. The Good News: At least he got that one of his system early. Curry was shooting blanks (1-5) and getting abused on defense (fouled out) by the bigger and more imposing Clips guards for the entire duration of his 21 minutes out there tonight. We'll go easy on the rookie.
- Monta Ellis (-29) just doesn't look like that Ellis to the Rim of 2008. Baron Davis not being there to guard the opposing team's best backcourt player and provide low-mistake ball handling and distributing the rock sure does hurt. But as my man Feltbot will tell you things have changed, Monta Ellis is not a star. Not anymore. Monta's J is way off and his court vision and decisions were very shaky tonight (SIX turnovers).
- To go cliche on you for a second Baron Davis (+26) looked like a men among boys tonight. BD looks absolutely chiseled and in fantastic shape. He pretty much had his way with anyone the Warriors threw at him. He was savvy. He was smart. He was hungry and diving for loose balls. He was picking pockets (4 steals). He even hit 61.5 of his shots coming into the game shooting well below 40%. He is missed.
- Eric Gordon (+29) also looked like a men among boys tonight. Gordon looked wise beyond his years. He abused the Warriors backcourt with his scoring. The Clippers have had their fair share of bad draft picks over the years, but they sure got this one right. A Dizzle-Gizzle backcourt is more than serviceable.
- I'm easily in the top 1% of Anthony Morrow (-10) fans, but that was a sad performance. He looked like a one-trick pony out there and that trick wasn't quite working right. What made Morrow particularly intriguing last season was his rebounding in addition to his stellar shooting. It didn't look like Ammo was that interested in trying to clean up the glass tonight. His usual scrappiness and effort on defense wasn't there at all either. Not that he was the only Warrior in this regard, but Morrow was a defensive liability all night long. Very disappointing.
- Oddly enough even Stephon Marburry's cousin Sebastian Telfair got in on the fun. The Warriors backcourt (particularly Morrow) just couldn't hang with this guy. 13 points (50% FG), 6 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block in under 20 minutes? Telfair outplayed both Ellis and Curry in Oakland. That's not supposed to happen... ever.
- By the way what's up with all those losers booing Baron Davis at the Oracle? What's there to boo? Boom Dizzle is not here because 1) Robert Rowell couldn't wait to get him out of here so he could foolishly build around Monta Ellis and 2) Elton Brand pulled a sucka move. Not once did BD ever publicly whine like "Captain" Jack about his teammates. BD lost a prime year thanks to the silly roster Chris Mullin assembled around him and Coach Mike Montgomery's complete incompetence as Warriors head coach. Did you see BD complaining about that? Boo the "Captain", not the beard. Along with Nellie, Jason Richardson, Al Harrington, Mickael Pietrus, Matt Barnes, and yes even Stephen Jackson, Baron Davis made this team relevant for one fine spring and then some. Show some gratitude and class.
- C.J. Watson sighting! Acie Law sighting! That means 1 of 2 things- 1) the Warriors are blowing out some unsuspecting squad or 2) the Warriors are somewhat expectedly getting blown out. Unfortunately tonight it was the latter.
Clippers 1, Warriors 0
Clippers Frontcourt vs. Warriors Frontcourt
- Chris Kaman (+19) must have had his calendar marked for this game or something. He looked very, very good. Sure the Warriors were physically overmatched all night long against him mostly due to injuries to Andris Biedrins and Ronny Turiaf, but that was an All-Star caliber performance tonight from Kaman. 22-9 through 3 ain't no joke, especially when it looks that easy. Don't be surprised if Kaman is donning an All-Star jersey in February. His competition in the West really isn't that tough either. Our man Matt Steinmetz has more in It's Early, But Chris Kaman Breaking Out. (Seriously Matt got off easy! He can choose to write about the Clips and not the Warriors for FanHouse.) Elton Brand made a really dumb decision ditching Kaman- that would have been a top 4-5 combo, especially with Dizzle-Gizzle in the backcourt and Camby up front.
- In addition to Kaman the ever-underrated Marcus Camby (+26) really protected the rim tonight. His 12 boards, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks were a fantasy hoops delight. The Warriors found out the hard way why this guy has a Defensive Player of the Year trophy at home. Andris Biedrins should be studying tape of this guy nightly. It's a reasonable goal for him to try to be Camby 2.0. The jumpshot won't be there, but there's no reason why the D and overall savvy can't.
- Thanks to Biedrins and Turiaf nursing injuries and Anthony Randolph's current funk, MIKEY! Moore (-20) got the start. When Larry Riley signed MIKEY! in the offseason I don't think he envisioned him playing 18.5 minutes in a single game, but honestly the Warriors really had no other options especially with Randolph racking up so many pointless fouls. He wasn't quite Ronny Turiaf Sr. out there tonight.
- It was pretty much more of the same from the big money veteran players on this team Stephen Jackson (-30) and Corey Maggette (-15). Lots of blanks (8-21 FG "good" for 38.1% FG) and questionable decisions with the rock (Jack with twice as many turnovers as assists). Thanks to poor front office decisions these guys have been thrust into roles they shouldn't have. Both are nice complementary vets, but nothing more. Sorry I know this is all like a broken record.
- Anthony Randolph's night (-8) can be summed up in one word: CLUELESS. For all those Nellie haters demanding the Randolph "play through his mistakes" this game is exactly why that's not a good idea. To reinforce or encourage anything Randolph did tonight would be a huge mistake. From not cutting off the baseline against an infinitely slower Kaman to trying random And 1 moves at the top of the key and launching several ill-advised jumpers (5-15 FG), Randolph was just not playing smart tonight. His statline of 13 points and 14 points (mostly collected in garbage time) are incredibly misleading. If he's going to routinely play like he did tonight and play for 30 minutes a game, the Warriors are not winning a single game the rest of the way. It's frustrating because we all had so much hope for the guy.
By the way did you know Stacey Dash was 29 when she played the part of teenage BBF Dionne in this movie? Amazing.
Clippers 2, Warriors 0
Sadly both The Forward and The Guard had horrible games.
Garbage Time in the 4th Quarter
Clipper Raj: So it looks like this game is about over.
AB1: You kidding man? We got you guys right where we want you.
Clipper Raj: You wanted us to be up by 30?
AB1: 30 points? That's only 10 makes from downtown from Anthony Morrow.
Clipper Raj: Riiiight. Keep dreaming.
AB1: How about I dream about the Warriors winning the lottery sweepstakes for a gifted power forward destined for greatness, but then that dream quickly turns into a nightmare as he injures his left patella, probably costing the team any chance at the playoffs, before he even plays his first game?
<golf clap> <golf clap> Blake Grffin: "That's not very funny at all."
Clipper Raj: Hey Grffin picked up 6 less fouls than your GQ boy Masala tonight.
AB1: Okay, yeah that's pretty "Unstoppable Baby!"
Clipper Raj: Speaking of the Unstoppable-ness...
AB1: Yeah what about it.
Clipper Raj: You know how you cats over at GSoM have that world famous mantra:
"UNSTOPPABLE BABY!"
Golden State Warriors rookie Marc Jackson to the Mavericks' bench, after hitting a lay-up during a 29-point loss (2000)
Well a new Clipper one for matches against the Dubs is about to be formulated today.
AB1: Whatchu mean man?
DeAndre Jordan's dunks and celebrations during garbage time were pretty hilarious.
Clipper Raj:
"UNSTOPPABLE BABY!"
LA Clippers DeAndre Jordan to the Clips' bench, after throwing down a nasty jam for the umpteenth time during a 28-point win in garbage time (2009)
AB1: Good one.
Clippers 118, Warriors 90
Tonight's award goes out to Coach Don Nelson. Nellie's about to irrationally get bashed left and right by the histrionic and randomly vengeful "Fire Nellie" crowd. I'm not sure why. Honestly what is the man supposed to do? Tonight was on the players. Injuries happen (Andris Biedrins and Ronny Turiaf), but the guys who were out there tonight were absolutely awful.
Did Nellie have the greatest coaching performance tonight? Doubtful, but tonight the players and their collective low hoops IQ, limitations, and raw-ness were the problem. Coaching was not the problem tonight. I give Nellie credit for not going AWOL.
A picture says a 1,000 words.
via s3.images.com
Video "highlights" courtesy of our friends at Yahoo! Sports and the NBA