Post-Game Thread, Clippers - Home

[bobheckler]

Someone call a doctor, I've got whiplash!

I'm not sure anybody could have beaten the Clippers last night.  Not the Spurs, not GSW.  They were doing everything right and their shots were dropping.  They took 84fgas last night and 32 of them were 3ptrs.  We took 93fgas and only 31 of them were 3s.  So, for all you who think we take too many 3s, the team that beat us last night took more and a higher percentage of their fgas were 3s too.  The difference was that they hit 41% of theirs and we hit only 26% of ours.  Taking is not as important as making (duh!).

Michael Young is the color commentator for the Clippers.  He was the 1989 Celtics' #13 pick.  He never really made it here, playing 2 1/2 seasons overseas and 2 1/2 seasons in the NBA with one of those years with LAC.  That year was apparently all it took to land this job.  He acknowledges having a soft spot in his heart for the Celtics.  How he keeps his job as a LAC announcer amazes me.

They had two 34 point quarters to start the game.  Not satisfied with that, they came out of halftime and hung 37 on us in the 3rd.  We were down 35 points with just 4:20 left in the 3rd quarter.  It was all working for them.  They were moving the ball from side-to-side and they were hitting their shots from, well, anywhere they damn well felt like taking them.  They shot 60% in the 1st quarter, were "down" to 54% at the half and were at 56% after 3.  We whittled it down to 26 points by the end of the 3rd, fueled by a mini-run by Tyler Zeller and Kelly Olynyk but still, we were down 26 with just 12 minutes left to play.  How were we to know that was when the Clippers' gravy train was going to pull into the station and blow a gasket?

Still, through the entire game, absolutely insane shooting by the Clippers.  For us, it was business as usual.  42%.  Yuck.

1.  We all know JJ Redick is a great shooter but last night he was positively unconscious.  Every once in a while you see players get into that zone where it is all reflexes and no thinking an it is just all working.  That's where Redick was last night.  Bradley and Smart were all over him and it didn't matter.  27 points on 11-15.  What's more, he was 5-6 from 3 which means that he was 5-9 from 2.  It's not his % that's amazing, he's a shooter who was in rhythm, but that he actually took more 2pt fgas than 3s.  He's one of those players that cannot be allowed any sliver of daylight at all.  None.  He has been on a tear lately.  He has averaged 21.6ppg over the past 10 games while averaging only 16.1ppg for the season.  He dropped 26 on Washington and 20 against NOP within the last 5 games, so it isn't just us.  There is nothing more lethal than a pure shooter in rhythm, doesn't matter if it's Ray Allen, Marcus Thornton, our own Isaiah Thomas or Jonathon Clay Redick (I don't know where the 2nd "J" comes from).

2.  Once again, our bench brought us back.  Jerebko was a poor 4-12 but he had 8 boards, 2 steals and put in his usual energy.  Gigi is going to follow in Tom Menino's footsteps and become the next Italian mayor of Boston.  We couldn't throw the ball in the Atlantic and he came in and began the turnaround.  5-9, 2-4 from 3, for 12 points.  I get a kick out of listening to the various announcers around the league getting a kick out of saying "Luigi".  It's like they've never heard it before.  Kelly awoke from his recent coma and had 14 points on 6-11 including his fiery finish to the 3rd.  He scored 6 points, 4 of them off of dunks (Kelly Olynyk?!  Dunking!?) in the last 1:42 of the 3rd.  Even Phil Pressey came in for 13 good minutes and produced 4 assists.  He had 2 TOs but only 1 of them was a headshaker.

3.  Mighty Mouse had 19 points in 26 minutes.  He was a disturbing 4-12 from the floor but was 9-10 from the line, showing his aggressive ways are back.  He also had 7 assists, zero TOs and 2 steals.  He is shooting a horrible 41.7% from the floor this season, but without him, man, I don't know where we'd be.  Actually, I do know, and it ain't pretty.

4.  They had 40ftas.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that DeAndre Jordan took 15 of them.  Is he the worst free throw shooter in the history of basketball?  Seriously, I'm curious.  He was 3-15 last night.  In the 4th quarter of close games the Clippers might as well not play offense at all since Jordan's going to the line with almost no time off the clock and no chance to run an offensive set anyway.  It's not even 4-on-5, it doesn't get to that point.  The Clip announcers were complaining about how boring that made the game and how the league should change the rule so play can be more entertaining.  Here's an idea:  maybe you should realize that blocking shots, rebounding and dunking aren't the only things your center has to be good at.  Offensively, he can't do anything besides dunk.  He is shooting 38.7% from the line this year.  Career, he's 41.6%.  That's why I'm asking about what the record is.  Chamberlain was a 51.1% career free thrower.  Shaq was 52.7%.  Ben Wallace, another notorious brick-layer, 41.4%, so he's just slightly worse than Jordan but Jordan still has time to catch him.  Wow.  The funny thing is, when I went out to basketball-reference.com to look these stats up, Ben Wallace's picture is of him at the free throw line.  

5.  Matt Barnes pretty much saved this game from being a potential embarrassment for the Clips with a couple of big plays at the end of the 3rd and the 4th.  He scored the last 5 points of the 3rd quarter for the Clips, while Kelly was making some noise.  If he misses those shots it's a 21 point game after 3, not 26.  With 4 minutes left and the one-time Clipper 35 point lead down to just 11, Barnes grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed Jordan free throw and laid it in.  I wish I knew whose job it was to keep him off the boards, but I'm sure Brad knows.  Then with 2:53 left and athe lead 14 points Barnes got another offensive rebound off of, what else?, a Jordan missed free throw.  Jordan's free throws were coming off the backboard and rim in every which direction but still, there's no excuse for not putting a body on Barnes.

6.  And with the 58th pick of the 2009 NBA draft the Boston Celtics select...Lester Hudson, of the University of Tennessee-Martin.  30 years old now and Doc is giving him a second chance.  Nice to see.

7.  Bass had 13 point and only 1 rebound in a very un-Bass like night.

8.  Zeller had a nice little night.  He ran the floor well several times, did his little left-handed flip shot.  Fortunately for him DeAndre Jordan didn't make him work hard on defense.  Chris Paul made him work hard on defense because Chris Paul was creating opportunities for himelf and Zeller came over to help and that got Jordan free for a monster dunk, but Jordan didn't make Zeller work hard on defense.

9.  Marcus Smart had another really, really bad night.  A complete zero on offense and he had trouble with every member of the Clippers' back court on defense.  Redick ran him into a pic by Jordan, giving him a shoulder just to make sure the introduction was formal, and Jordan popped him so hard Smart's feet came right out from underneath him.  Later, there was another hard foul on Smart.  And there was Doc complaining about how Smart was being too physical with Redick.  Sending a message, Doc?  Nevertheless, Marcus Smart has got to work on his scoring this off season.  Not 3pt shooting, scoring because, right now, he's a zero.

10.  Turner with 9 points and 10 assists.  Only 3 Evan Turnovers.  Not a bad night, although he was tortured on defense by Barnes.

11.  Two small happy notes to this game is that we outscored them on fast breaks 24-9.  Kelly and Zeller ran well.  We also matched them on points in the paint at 42, despite our front court being so maligned.  Where they killed us was from 3.  They got 15 more points from 3ptrs than we did because they hit theirs at 41%.  I think we all know what Brad and his coaching staff will be telling the players they need to work on in the off-season.  Not crazy about it, but if we're going to take 3s (and that's the way the league is going, more 3s) then we have to hit them consistently.

Not one of our better games, overall, except for the 4th quarter and that was because DeAndre Jordan can't shoot the ball from further away than 3'.  As I said on top, I'm not sure anybody could have beaten them last night, they were hitting everything.

We're back in 9th place again.  Tonight we're at Charlotte.  Indiana is at Brooklyn tomorrow and San Antonio is at Miami.  A lot of key head-to-head matchups will produce a lot of playoff seeding drama the rest of the games to go.  Let's hope they'll be fun.



bob



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[dboss]

I watched most of the first half and then switched to the NCAA game that was on.

I taped the game and will watch it one day during the summer when I need a good laugh.

dboss

[kdp59]

we haven't been playing well the past week or so. Not sure why that is, except maybe our talent level is just showing now.

[dboss]

kdp59

Yep there has been some slippage and there are two reason for that. We are not playing as well and other teams are playing better. The talent gap is there particularly in the middle against big physical teams like the Clippers.

And as we know this is a game about making buckets. When the Celtics shoot well some of the other deficiencies are masked.

dboss

[Sam]

I believe there's a more important reason.  Discontinuity.  Isaiah Thomas's presence occupied a very important place in the Celtics system that was fashioned on the run.  There are two forms of discontinuity: (1) when a player departs and (2) when he returns.  I believe it was easier for the remaining Celtics players to step up when Isaiah got hurt than it was for them to reconfigure the system since he returned.  In each of the three games since his return, he has displayed varying levels of dependability; so trying to settle into complementary roles has represented sort of a moving target for his teammates.

No, Isaiah certainly isn't anywhere near 100% responsible for the recent letdown, and he could have been the greatest player ever last night (hey let's start another thread on the greatest player ever) and it wouldn't have mattered against the Clippers.  But, as I've said any number of times, the Celtics have, for a couple of months, been overachieving to such an extent—barely pulling out games—that even the slightest element out of whack could drop them over a precipice.  Isaiah represents a pretty big element for this team.

Fortunately, I believe he has gained ground in each game since his return.  And maybe a combination of his continued improvement and a somewhat easier opponent tonight can help the team to get back in synch.

Sam

[cowens/oldschool]

Last nights team would have lost to Kentucky.

[bobheckler]

Last nights team would have lost to Kentucky.

You're assuming the Clippers wouldn't have thrashed Kentucky even worse.


bob



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