January 22: Los Angeles Clippers

[mcHAPPY]

Question of the Day:

Will Bargnani play? Oh yeah, Bayless too.


Chris Paul has missed the last 4 games. Is he playing today?


Anyone caring to place a bet on the number of Clipper dunks? I'm saying 9.


A lot has been made of the Clippers this year since the trade for Chris Paul. Some things to consider in my attempt to discredit them:

1) they have had an easy scheduled schedule thus far. In case that is not clear, they have played 13 games where the majority of the league has played 15-17.

2) they have played 9 of 13 games at home with today being 10 of 14.


*A late breaking afterthought*

DeMar and Amir homecoming game!

[Chr1s1anL]

Andrea will not play, Bayless will play. Chris Paul is out but, Caron is back. I say they get 5 dunks. Its Rasual home coming too.

[akashsingh]

the chat is down! p.s. anyone know any good links to the game? forever greatful.

[octothorp]

This is a whole new level of ugliness. Last three games, they've been outscored in the first quarter by a total of 83-39, for an average deficit of almost 15 points.

[Joey]

This game is BRUTAL. Ugh.

We NEED Andrea back.

This is a whole new level of ugliness. Last three games, they've been outscored in the first quarter by a total of 83-39, for an average deficit of almost 15 points.

Wow.. Fun Fact!

[Apostis]

http://www.ilemi.me/41308/1/Watch-Lo...ronto-Raptors/
http://www.sportlemon.tv/v-2/14/176/v-357620.html

[Joey]

Despite being 0-4 I like what I've seen from Bayless thus far.

[Soft Euro]

Last game Aldridge had a career high in rebounds and now Jordan has already more rebounds than his season high in the first half. I remember how we blamed Bargnani for this last year. What can we do now?

[Joey]

Last game Aldridge had a career high in rebounds and now Jordan has already more rebounds than his season high in the first half. I remember how we blamed Bargnani for this last year. What can we do now?

Was going to make a similar point Euro.
I'm DYING for that energy around the basket that Bargs has been bringing this season (never thought I'd say that, but it feels SO good.)

[Soft Euro]

A positive tonight: our defense on freethrows looks very good; we are keeping their freethrow% below their fieldgoal%.

[mcHAPPY]

Lets be perfectly clear.... this was not a 12 point game. It felt like a 30 point spread most of the game.

Lets start with the positives:
Kleiza, Gray, and Barbosa (despite an open layup miss) had a decent game.
DeMar managed to contribute in other ways (8 rebs, 8 ft's, and 3 steals).
Nice to see Bayless back - struggled shooting but at least showed a pulse and had 5 dimes.

Lets go to the negatives:
DeMar continues to struggle shooting (4-19).
Amir - wow, 2 dreadful games. I hope Casey gives him the opportunity to go on the inactive list because the last 2 games he would have been more useful there.
ED - wow, dreadful. I hope Casey gives him the same choice. Last year versus the Clips 13/14 and 21/11. This year? 7/5 in 31 minutes.
Calderon - easily worst game of the year for him.


When DeMar, Ed, and Amir were on the bench, the Raps were a better team today. That is sad and frustrating for me as a fan. Around 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter, Jack starts giving some sober thoughts for the Raptor faithful. He mentioned BC and Casey will have some serious decisions to make with regards to players future with the team. I can't remember but, someone correct me if I'm wrong, I thought he made references to the idea of guys not being what they were thought to be - specifically high draft picks used on DD and ED.


Anyways, the losing streak is now at 8 with 4 more road games. Things are looking bleak - and the record is not the concern.



By the way I counted 10 dunks for the Clips. I don't think this is exact but there were more than 9.

[mcHAPPY]

Sad Stat Alert:

Bench had 58 points.
Starters had 33 points.

[Nilanka]

That's basically why I started the "Is the future not as bright?" thread, because after a quarter of the season, the players we once had high hopes on (I.e. DeMar, Davis, and to a lesser extent, Bayless) have done very little to cement themselves as valuable pieces moving forward. Extremely disappointing.

[stretch]

This season is torture.

[Puffer]

I was surprised to see, watching the game on my PVR, that the Raptors offensive sets didn't look bad. They actually played pretty good D as well. Devlin made the point in the 3rd at the 33 minute mark, that the starting 5 had scored 8 points between them.

That isn't from lack of talent. That is a mental space issue. The Clips weren't playing that great a defence. You could see Derozan second guessing his shots. And the Raps were clearly focused on Griffin, allowing Jordan to have his way with them. The team shot 36% which isn't going to win them any games, and that shooting was elevated by Grays 3 for 3, Babosa's 7 for 12 and Klieza's 5 for 10. The starters shot 9 for 40. You can't blame Casey's offensive sets for that. Those numbers are waaaay more about your confidence level than anything else. Somehow these guys have got to get their heads in a better place.

The Raps had more offensive rebounds than the Clips, largely because of all their misses. They were only out rebounded by 4. They had fewer turnovers than the Clips. They were behind in assists, but no wonder.

Aside from the atrocious shooting by the starters 1-5 Davis, 4-19 Derozan, 0-0 Amir, 1-8 Calderon they played pretty well. If the rest of the starters could have matched JJ's 3-8, Raps would have been in the game.