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Post by clippers1121 on Mar 22, 2019 13:42:39 GMT -8
Clippers - 6. And we have not played these guys yet this year. And it is March 22nd. Have them at Cleveland tonight and eight days from now in L.A. Our new best friends. We have this four game road trip and then only one more road game at Golden State. The first three ( Cavs, Knicks, and TWolves) should be easy games for us. Only at the Bucks should present a tough game. Figure we have to win eight including against the Jazz for us to finish in fifth place. So every one of these games is big for seeding purposes. Rockets, Jazz, Bucks, and Warriors are four tough teams on our schedule. So beating the Rockets and Jazz at home will be a good test to see if we can win any games once we get to the playoffs.
Kevin Love will play tonight. Keep him off the boards. Sexton is starting to take charge for them now. He and Shai should have a real battle in this game to see who is better. Clarkson vs. Shamet could be interesting too. I have not seen this Cavs team play this season so I will admit to knowing nothing about them since they lost most of their players from the EC champion they were last year. Rebuilding and bad is what I know. What I think is that any team could be dangerous when they have nothing to lose and they are NBA players who want to win. Let's hope we can bring some energy to this game in case we need it.
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Post by mistwell on Mar 22, 2019 15:21:55 GMT -8
Game Information:
Where: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
When: 4:30 p.m. PST
How to watch/listen: FOX Sports Prime Ticket, AM 570 Radio
Projected Starting Lineups:
LA Clippers: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Patrick Beverley, Landry Shamet, Danilo Gallinari, Ivica Zubac
Cleveland Cavaliers: Collin Sexton, Brandon Knight, Cedi Osman, Kevin Love, Ante Zizic
Injuries:
Clippers: Luc Mbah a Moute (his knee exploded) — OUT
Cavaliers: Matthew Dellavedova (concussion) — OUT
The Big Picture:
The Clippers have won eight of their last nine games and are somehow still in eighth place in the Western Conference because every team in front of them, except for the Oklahoma City Thunder, is also on a tear. LA has been playing good, but not great, according to Doc Rivers, and probably still has to level up a notch before the postseason. Luckily, the team is coming off a six-game homestand which included some quality time for the five new players to get acclimated to the Clippers’ offensive and defensive systems. At this point, only Landry Shamet really has plays run for him, but LA is working on getting its new veterans, like JaMychal Green and Wilson Chandler, more involved in the offense.
“We just gotta keep winning games, and we don’t even look at positioning. If you keep winning, positioning will happen,” Rivers said after the win over Indiana Tuesday. “The other thing is continuity. We gotta get the new guys integrated. We’re going to use small lineups with the second unit and big lineups, we don’t have that yet, so we have a lot of work to do.”
The Antagonist:
Cleveland is the last team this season that the Clippers will face for the first time, and it comes rather late in the season. The Cavaliers are one of the worst teams in the league and boast a historically awful defense. Collin Sexton is a rookie point guard who doesn’t know what he’s doing yet, Brandon Knight has lost much of his athleticism from injuries, and Cedi Osman has the worst defensive rating of anyone who has played half the season, which makes Kevin Love arguably the best defender in the starting lineup. It’s a bleak collection of players.
Nevertheless, since Love came back from injury, Cleveland has been run-of-the-mill bad instead of historically terrible. They’re coming off of two consecutive wins, though both against teams missing their best players, Detroit without Blake Griffin and Milwaukee without Giannis Antetokounmpo. Knock on wood that LA doesn’t have that issue.
What to watch for:
This is the first of two straight games against the dregs of the Eastern Conference, and it would behoove the Clippers to get this one over with quickly because they have a 9:00 a.m. Pacific start time Sunday versus the Knicks.
Jordan Clarkson has become surprisingly effective at leading the Cavaliers second unit, especially since Love’s return stabilized the rotation. Much of what he learned came from Lou Williams when the two were teammates on the Lakers, so it will be fun to watch Williams take his young fella to school.
Sexton has been surging after being snubbed for the Rising Stars Challenge at All-Star Weekend. He just set a Cleveland rookie record with six consecutive 20-point games, breaking the mark held by LeBron James, and has been shooting the ball quite well. There was lively pre-draft discussion over who was the better point guard between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Sexton, and this is the first time they’ll face each other as pros.
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Post by dyce on Mar 22, 2019 17:19:24 GMT -8
Up 92-83 going into the 4th.
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Post by mistwell on Mar 22, 2019 17:51:19 GMT -8
Not a good game
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Post by mistwell on Mar 22, 2019 17:55:11 GMT -8
Whew. I'll take it, but not a good win. Way too close. Off the rim shot could have sunk us in the last second.
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Post by clipps on Mar 22, 2019 18:06:48 GMT -8
Ugly win. We didn’t deserve it but we got it. We’re not getting any help though from the Raptors and currently the Rockets.
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Post by gilp5 on Mar 22, 2019 18:16:34 GMT -8
That was an ugly game. Hopefully they'll be up for the super early game on Sunday.
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Post by dyce on Mar 22, 2019 18:21:17 GMT -8
Temple and Chandler have been awful.
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Post by mistwell on Mar 22, 2019 18:28:01 GMT -8
At least Spurs lost. To a conference team, so it was like a loss and a half.
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Post by madflabby on Mar 22, 2019 20:39:33 GMT -8
I wont give it back! Clippers!!!
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Post by clippers1121 on Mar 23, 2019 8:39:46 GMT -8
Nance Jr. did what Evans did for the Pacers. Got to the rim in the last two minutes and made huge baskets for them. And this time Zubac was in there for rim protection. We need to stop the easy buckets other teams have been getting against us in the last two minutes. I mean make them at least shoot it from distance to score points. When Harrell and Lou are not lighting it up we are in big trouble. Shai, Gallo, Shamet all had reasonably good games and we still almost lost. And agree that Chandler and Temple both need to be a lot better. I don't know that Zubac is any better on defense than Gortat was. Still a mystery why we would release Gortat and sign guards for 10 day contracts and keep them in the G-league. Or why we did not just release Chandler and keep Gortat. I think the only reason was to force Doc to play Zubac. Fine but now that we are a playoff team it would be better to have veteran bigs who can help us win playoff games.
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Post by windsoruk on Mar 23, 2019 10:55:49 GMT -8
Nance Jr. did what Evans did for the Pacers. Got to the rim in the last two minutes and made huge baskets for them. And this time Zubac was in there for rim protection. We need to stop the easy buckets other teams have been getting against us in the last two minutes. I mean make them at least shoot it from distance to score points. When Harrell and Lou are not lighting it up we are in big trouble. Shai, Gallo, Shamet all had reasonably good games and we still almost lost. And agree that Chandler and Temple both need to be a lot better. I don't know that Zubac is any better on defense than Gortat was. Still a mystery why we would release Gortat and sign guards for 10 day contracts and keep them in the G-league. Or why we did not just release Chandler and keep Gortat. I think the only reason was to force Doc to play Zubac. Fine but now that we are a playoff team it would be better to have veteran bigs who can help us win playoff games. That said, who do we go after next year that can share time with Zubac? Valucianos?(sp?) Lopez? Kanter? Or do we bring DJ back to finish his career here? |
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Post by gilp5 on Mar 23, 2019 10:57:45 GMT -8
Nance Jr. did what Evans did for the Pacers. Got to the rim in the last two minutes and made huge baskets for them. And this time Zubac was in there for rim protection. We need to stop the easy buckets other teams have been getting against us in the last two minutes. I mean make them at least shoot it from distance to score points. When Harrell and Lou are not lighting it up we are in big trouble. Shai, Gallo, Shamet all had reasonably good games and we still almost lost. And agree that Chandler and Temple both need to be a lot better. I don't know that Zubac is any better on defense than Gortat was. Still a mystery why we would release Gortat and sign guards for 10 day contracts and keep them in the G-league. Or why we did not just release Chandler and keep Gortat. I think the only reason was to force Doc to play Zubac. Fine but now that we are a playoff team it would be better to have veteran bigs who can help us win playoff games. I don't know about the "force Doc to play Zubac" theory. I'm guessing Doc had some input into who they would cut. |
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Post by nuraman00 on Mar 25, 2019 14:50:55 GMT -8
Clippers - 6. And we have not played these guys yet this year. And it is March 22nd. Have them at Cleveland tonight and eight days from now in L.A. Our new best friends. That is a funny scheduling quirk. I'm wondering if a 4 game series has ever been done by the middle of December. Or if a 4 game series has ever been delayed until the 2nd week of March, before. |
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