From Tim Kawakami’s blog today (note: everything below in italics is Kawakami, everything not is my ingenious, er, un-genius, response and witty repartee thereby).

In reference to the Warriors’ chances in the race for the final Western conference playoff spots (which for weeks, he’s been describing as zero).

I’ve taken a look at the schedules for the other five “contenders,” and I can’t believe I’m typing this, but 39-43 might get a tie for the eighth spot. Heck, 39-43 might earn the spot outright.

Sadly, he’s right.

On the clippers:

The Clippers have the toughest remaining schedule–13 road games plus a road record almost as bad as the Warriors.

Even more sadly, and again, correct.

On tonite’s Warriors Clippers matchup:

Friday’s home game against the Clippers is “a double game,” according to (Warriors Coach, Don) Nelson or maybe even more. A victory would tie the season series and bring the Warriors within 1.5 games of last spot.

A loss would push the Warriors three games behind the Clippers with 18 to go, knock them five games down in the loss column, give the Clips the tie-breaker and burn up a valuable remaining Warrior home game.

Said Coach Nelson (also from Kawakami’s post):

“It’s like the plague–the eighth spot,” Don Nelson said after Wednesday’s victory. “Everybody’s avoiding it. Well, we’d like it.”

Hey, so would we, Nellie, so would we.

Big ass, Frankenstein sized game tonight. Why you think I've been yapping about it all week? A win tonite in Oaktown gives the clips a little breathing room, a loss straps on those chest clamps to the point of asphyxiation. What Clipper team will show up? Your guess is as good as mine. I'm thinking Elton, who's been struggling, really needs to step up, and they have got to keep a man on Al Harrington, a big who loves shooting from the outside. Not sure what Sam's status is for tonight. Would love to see Corey step up big, which he's actually been doing. It's hard to imagine Kaman playing any worse than he did against the Spurs earlier this week, so there's only room to get better (he said frantically searching for wood to knock on). We'll see. We shall definitely see.

Uh, well I won't, the game doesn't make it through the evil empire filters on the Honolulu Compound Satellite feed, but the Cal Oregon conference tourney game does, so I'll be staring at that. That won't stop me from reading up on the outcome for our fair clippers in the bay tonite, though, and yapping about it ad nauseum, or ad minimus, one of those, or in between, maybe. OK, aloha.

oh, and why Chris Mullin & Manute Bol in front of the Eiffel Tower? You may as well ask me why Ken Kniff is from Connecticut. Some things just are. Obviously, there's the warrior connection, but aside from that, Jesus, why not? Its entertainment value, in my mind, needs no explanation. In fact, I'm offending myself by even elaborating. Also, I like to think it serves as some kind of curse against the Warriors for tonite. Thank me later.

Shaun Livingston’s reconstructive knee surgery is scheduled for next Tuesday in Birmingham, Alabama. There, that was your depression laced Livie injury update. Guess I should be happy, the fact that they are doing the surgery this soon would seem to mean to this not even playing one on TV armchair doctor that the swelling must be staying down, which I would take as some semblance of positivity. Hopefully the surgery will be a huge success and we’ll see Shaun back in a Clipper uniform in the semi near future. Crazier things have happened, said the maniacal lunatic in the corner beating his head against the wall to the brink of incoherence.

Switching to more happy news, but continuing a loose theme (stay with me) of incoherence, Cal beat UCLA today in the Pac10 tourney, keeping their flickering NCAA hopes alive, & causing riotous celebrations in Kailua and later in Honolulu. When asked for further comment, a drunken golden bear exclaimed something to the effect of, hmmm, we can’t print this. Not fit for family consumption. You know, the hearth & all that. Shortly after said offensive outburst he passed out in a self-described (the one clear thought the young man was able to elucidate) fit of pique.

Tomorrow the Bears take on the Oregon Ducks on the seemingly blessed Staples Center floor (home of the clips, natch, see I bring it back around), fits of pique be damned. Stay tuned, same bat time, yadda yadda yadda.

The Lakers lost to the Bucks last night (Kobe serving a one game suspension for the elbow to Marko Jaric's face) in a battle royale with “all the intensity of a lunch-time pickup contest at the YMCA”, and the Nuggets lost to Golden State (Melo out for the birth of his first kid) and suddenly the Clips, though still in that 8 spot, are only 3 games back of the flailing lakers for the 6 spot, and only half a game back of Denver for that 7 spot. All this of course makes every game huge, especially with 4 teams (including the Warriors, tomorrow’s medusa, sans snake hair, to the Clips' Perseus, sans Pegasus) within just 2.5 games behind the Clippers, clawing for those last playoff spots. This final push is gonna be a good show. I do believe I'm being legitimately entertained, and not just telling myself that. If a green monkey wandered into my bedroom in the middle of the night and told me the NBA ain’t shit, that I am seriously fooling myself, I’d tell him to go to hell. And not cuz I think the NBA needs to have further representation or advertising of the free variety from the likes of me. I’d love it if it were called the Crap Salad Escobar (CSE, yo), just as long as the comp was legit, and that the wire stretching was comfortable yet painfully elongated. I do think the reffing could be better, and if they botch it nearly as bad this postseason as they did the last (the most obvious & egregious example being the Wade turnstile for a foul layup line, not that he didn’t earn many of those free throws, but more than a couple were David Stern gifts to the apparent 2nd coming.) Overall, despite a few mild fears and needs for reassurement, I feel like there are gentle fingers pushing the happy buttons throughout my brain as the pleasure centers get warmed up & humming. Please, be not afraid, nothing associated with the sex, veritably just the thrill of watching heated competition, of envisioning with both my inner & outer eye the best of the relatively mediocre (and compared to the general population unbelievable good, obviously) hash it out for who gets a chance at the potential champs, thereby becoming potential champs, at least in theory. And sometimes theories are all we have. Those and hypotheses. And, uh, greek salads, you know, with the feta cheese and the cucumbers. and that lamp.

The Clips have today and tomorrow off before heading to Oracle Arena to take on the Warriors, but Oaktown’s finest host Denver tonight. Hopefully AI, Camby, & company will run them ragged as Elton Brand and Chris Kaman relax 350 miles south and sip Martinis with green olives shipped in from Barbados, getting backrubs at the club and mentally preparing for the grueling half hour flight north that awaits them.

As for tonite’s game, I guess I’m rooting for the Warriors, what with Denver a game up on the Clippers, but Golden State is only 3 games back of LA, so, uh, I’m confused. Someone hold me. Metaphorically, of course. It probably doesn’t really matter in the grand cosmic scheme of things (unlike clipper games, for which sacred scrolls are bartered on the open black market of humanity’s souls, depending on the outcome and what layer of hell Donald Sterling has at that moment descended into for the evening’s demonic torture sessions). Both Denver and Golden State are riding massive one game winning streaks, the Warriors a pretty impressive road victory in Detroit. The warriors are healthy again, and their backs are against the wall, so watch for foaming mouths and sharp rabies infested fangs.

As for Denver, much is being made of the lack of bang they’re getting for the Allen Iverson meets Carmelo Anthony buck. Slam Online has an interesting read on what the hell is wrong with Denver, and the bulk of it seems to point to Carmelo and his lack of enthusiasm on the defensive end. Seems like his effort picked up a bit agains New Orleans in the last game; amazing what can happen when you think the fourth estate doesn’t like you.

As for tonite against the dubs, no Melo, he’ll be staying in Colorado with LaLa for the birth of their first child. And sorry, apparently no live telecast from the TRL studio; sadly it was booked for a special live airing of the last vestige of self respect being ripped from the bowels of pop culture’s emasculated heart. Film at 11.

The Clippers don’t play until Friday, at which date the momentous occasion will be a road battle versus the Warriors in Oakland. Maybe it’s because I lived in Berkeley for almost 5 years and in many ways that’s where I really became a sports fan (for whatever reason it never interested me much before I went to college. Having Russell White as my school’s star running back and Jason Kidd as the star point guard might have had something to do with that), but aside from the Laker tilts, which for an LA native clipper fan are obviously fascinating, my favorite running rivalry for the Clips has to be against the Warriors. It’s never been something that grabs a lot of headlines, because they’ve both been decrepit for so many years, and have never, at least in the last 15 years, been really good at the same time, but playing the same team 4 times a year, and the proximity between the bay and LA, and, aside from Hawaii for the last 10 years, those being the two places I’ve lived in this swing of life so far, for me, nuff said, it’s something to look forward to and savor. This made it even more bittersweet that Shaun Livingston’s last full game (and maybe the best of his young career) was against Golden State. Well, Friday is their first matchup since that breakout, and it’s actually pretty big. The Clippers are holding on to the 8 spot right this second, but the laundry list of teams digging right at their heels is longer than what is common this time of year. Who says March is all about the NCAA (even though, OK, that’s where most eyes will be). There’s plenty of building drama in the pros for a fanatical follower of Donald Sterling’s not so wayward crew to keep this fella interested, nay, borderline obsessed. Ok, that’s a little too strong. More later. Maybe I’ll do some digging on classic Clipper Warrior matchups throughout the years. Or, better odds, maybe I’ll finish watching the Tenacious D movie and get some effin work done, I mean, write the final crucial paragraph of the next great American novel, entitled Ode on a North Dakotan Turnstile. Look for it.

well, it’s 4:30 PM here in Kailua, which means I’ll be hitting the trail to the palouse very soon. Best be getting to making some kind of order out of all these random notes I’ve been typing throughout the day as I read various tidibits of bball wisdom on the good ol innernet. If this isn’t wrapped up in a pretty enough bow for your visual pleasure or organized in such a fashion as to make your cognization the optimal that it could possibly earth shatteringly be, well, then, the river is right over there, please commence to cry all over it. Er, you know, to make it a more powerful river, thereby someday it reaching the ocean. If it doesn’t already. Gratzi.

incredibly good response to David Aldridge’s article on the NBA All-Star game (in ref. the outrage over the violence, the idea that it’s a racial thing, and a lot of cogent analysis of the Jason Whitlock and Scoop Jackson NBA All-Star pieces, as well). Hat tip to true hoop. I'd also recommend reading the Whitlock, Simmons, and Scoop Jackson's all-star scribbles, and then Simmons response to Jackson, yadda yadda yadda, they're there, within easy reach, trust me. I am sadly to lazy to find them for you at this moment. (The Tenacious D movie is cued up on media player and calling, calling...) Also want to add that I think Slam Online's all-star coverage was great too. also, alpo is the evil empire (joking.)

Here's a fantastic writeup on the current state of the clipper season by clippersteve of clipsnation. Echo'd some of the things I said in the post immediately below this one about how the team seems to be galvanizing after the Shaun Livingston injury, which is not necessarily a new idea, it's being bandied about quite a bit, but love the way the clipsnation frames it and iterates it in a fashion which leaves it bouncing around your skull for later soaking. In a good way. Also, I was unaware of the presence of “my big fat greek center.” Shame on me.

Speaking of the Clippers (and who isn't? he said as the slap jettisoned toward his face) I heartily enjoyed (I'm out of overly done adjectives, shall I call it stupendous?) this post in which we get to see the experience of attending last night's clipper game through the eyes of a laker fan. Hat tip to Todd in Clipperblog’s comments (who is apparently part of 120proofball, as well, but rarely posts anything, leaving the laker lunatic to run the asylum, thereby making small bunnies cry, at least metaphorically).

As for said game, well, Clips got spanked by the Spurs last night, which just isn't much of a surprise. I think there have been hookers less owned by topnotch pimps then what is evident in the clipper spur relationship over the past few years. I didn’t watch it, but from what I’ve read, the defense was pretty good again, just mega problems on offense, which tends to happen when you have no point guards, and the one you did have (will conroy) you decided to jettison so you can continue to carry zebraca and korolev on your bench, which aside from being excellent paper weights, really aren’t doing jack shit right now. The spurs just keep grinding out wins, so you can't fault them; I mean, their two starting point guards were Jacque Vaughn and Beno Udrih, so the prettiness was not manifest. They do, however, have Tim Duncan.




Finally, I know it's SO passe to call out Bill Simmons on bullshit, the whole bottom of the barrel trying to bring down the top of the heap, but it's not like that, really. I'm actually a huge Simmons fan, and have been enjoying his foray into College Basketball this season (something he's paying attention to because of the incredible draft class coming up and the pile of stinking fetid excrement his Boston Celtics are this year.) But I was taken aback when I read this: (from his Friday, 3/2 post) (aside: this is actually the same entry where he responds to Scoop Jackson's all-star article response to his all star article, yadda yadda, mentioned above.)

Anyway, I called an audible and TiVo'ed the UCLA game Thursday night. The reason I haven't been monitoring them is simple: the Pac-10 sucks. Don't let anyone tell you differently. For instance, Washington State's team looked like an intramural team of stoners who would give themselves a name like "The 420 All-Stars" -- they even had one starting forward with a scraggly beard who looked like he should have been hanging out on a street corner trying to sign people up for Greenpeace. UCLA is considerably better than anyone else in that conference. Which isn't really that interesting in the big scheme of things. That's why I didn't write about them yet.

Ummm, OK. I won't go into, at least in detail, why it shouldn't make a difference that a guy has a scraggly beard vis a vis his basketball ability, I think he was just trying to make a joke, but Washington State has been a revelation this year, compared to years of futility. It's not just about WSU, though. What about this article from the Associated press? Allow me some scattered quotes:

Lute Olson, completing his 24th year at Arizona, called the Pac-10 the toughest its ever been during a conference call Tuesday.

Ernie Kent, finishing his 10th season at Oregon, added: "I think it's the No. 1 conference in the country. If it's not No. 1, it's No. 2."

OK, granted, they're biased, they're pac10 coaches. But this isn't biased: (from the same article)

Seven of the league's 10 teams have at least 18 wins, and those seven went a combined 71-12 against non-conference opponents.

71-12!! And they weren’t all against garbage. To wit, JUST against teams that are currently in top 25, and these were just after a quick search through the schedules:

Arizona beat #5 Memphis, who is 27-3 and perfect in conference USA. They also beat #12 Louisville and #25 UNLV.

UCLA beat #7 Texas A&M, a team that is 13-3 in the big12 (who simmons seems to love)

Oregon beat #9 Georgetown IN Washington DC

Washington State, who Simmons derides as looking like a bunch of hippies, beat Gonzaga (currently unranked, but first in the big west)

To say that the Pac10 "sucks" is just not true. It's widely regarded as one of the best 2, if not the best, conference in the country right now, by the AP, by Sports Illustrated, etc. Not to say these authorities are always right, but c'mon. SUCK is a strong word.

full disclusure, I'm an alma mater of UC Berkeley and a huge Cal Bear fan, so I'm a mite defensive about the quote unquote league of champions. Cal Basketball this year? ok, there's something that sucks. That, though, is a story for another day. (btw if you're into Pac10 bball or football and Cal in particular PLEASE check out Tightwad Hill. Excellent.) that is true. (Cal sucking) But the PAC10? no. no. they do not suck. Maybe a LITTLE overrated at the moment, but SUCK? nein.

ok I'm done. Sue me. for, uh, malpractice with verbal lack of dexterity, or misuse of an inalienable object. Mahalo.

some random this n that thoughts on a Monday morning in Kailua:

Corey Maggette had 20 points (5 for 6 from the field, 10 for 10 from the line), 4 assists & 3 steals in only 22 minutes against Indiana on Saturday. Now that is an incredibly efficient line, reminiscent of some of the fine work Maggs did for the clips in the playoffs last year. He’s averaging 19.2 in 6 games since the all-star break. Corey’s chip seems to be conspicuously absent from his shoulder since being put in the starting rotation.



I have to think that both Corey and Coach Dunleavy have to be a bit relieved that the whole back & forth pull between them, if it ever really existed, can be shelved for at least the rest of the year. Once the trade deadline came & went, no matter how much Coach had wanted to deal Maggs, he had to live with the fact that this is the squad he's got, and he then at least had the gumption to swallow his pride & give Corey both the starting gig & the minutes. Although injuries is a factor, Quinton Ross is still healthy, and the former starter is getting substantially less time on the floor. Dunleavy has to realize that with Sam out he's gotta make up that scoring somewhere.

With the Clips putting forth such a forceful beatdown on the Indiana Pacers on Saturday, my mind got to wandering on an Indiana tangent, specifically the rumors of a Reggie Miller comeback, which reminds me of the slightly more substantive rumors of a Scottie Pippen comeback. What are these men’s reasons for even contemplating something like that at this stage in their lives? From what I hear, part of Scottie’s motivation is money, as apparently he’s made some bad business deals along the way. But what about Reggie? Well, with Reggie, it seems that the rumors were nothing more than that, apparently started by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, then later dispelled by club basketball prez Don Nelson Jr.

As for Pippen, the kettle would seem to be percolating even more in that direction in lakerland, as it looks like Lamar Odom will likely be out for the season. HUGE loss for the Lakers. Pippen played a very similar role for the Bulls back in the day, and in the triangle, that Odom does (or did) now. But does Pip still have the legs & the motor?

From the OC Register:

The loss of Odom could mean a more accelerated pursuit of Scottie Pippen, 41, who is preparing to come out of retirement and has drawn Jackson's interest. Odom's all-around role is one Pippen already played for Jackson in Chicago. But Pippen's planned return was to help lift a team to an NBA championship in limited minutes, and if Odom can't return, the Lakers hardly fit that description. Also, the Lakers are uncertain about Pippen's physical condition.

And what does this mean for the Clips? Eh, hmm,not much on first glance, except a better shot at maybe catching their Staples Center cotenants in the standings. They’re in the 7 spot now, but the upcoming schedule is pretty rough, the only home games in the next couple weeks vs. san antonio (tonite) & Detroit, and then the road, where the clips have suffered verily.

As mentioned, the Clippers stomped Indie, 87-64, on Saturday, the best defensive outing in team history (based on how many points the opponent scores). Clipperblog has (as usual) a great writeup on the game, and presents the question on whether Daniel Ewing playing 31 minutes made a positive defensive difference towards this historical night? Some interesting back & forth in the comments over there, where I also found reference to an eye-opening quote from Clippers owner Donald Sterling from the OC register (I found the article; here it is) wherein the Clips head honcho calls bullshit on the press after the ongoing Maggette trade rumors:

"Are you finished writing about Maggette? Because I was never going to trade him," Sterling said. "That was a waste of print. I'm going to re-sign him when his contract is up."

Well, seeing is believing, but Maggette IS playing great right now, really looks committed, doing what he does best, getting to the line again & again, but not (at least to my eyes) just playing for stats, which he might have been doing the last couple months coming off the bench, when he was angling for a trade. Also, are refs gunning for him? Against Indie, I noticed he got MORE bullshit calls, just like in the seattle game. Weird, and something to watch for.

Doug Collins mentioned it on the TNT broadcast last week, and it may have a bit of credence, you have to wonder if the injuries, especially the devastating Shaun Livingston knee debacle, hasn't brought the team together emotionally. Prior to that awful moment, they seemed pretty effin lackidaisical, not necessarily each player, but as a whole, they seemed a bit lost. Now? Even with guys missing, they're playing together, they're playing with intensity. Daniel Ewing looked pretty good on Saturday, and I kinda hope they keep this Conroy kid around, he's got a lot of fire, really gets into it and seems to see the floor pretty well, but I don't think it'll happen, especially with it looking like the Clips will sign this Jason Hart guy from Sacramento, who I don't think I've ever seen play. Not sure how much room will be left on the roster if that happens, but the team being the injury ward that it is right now, I guess "we'll see" is a good position to take, so pencil me in for that.

As for the home game against the Spurs tonight? Well, I wish I could be more optimistic, but San Antone has won 11 of the last 12 games against the Clippers, and are currently on a season high 8 game winning streak, so, um, you want fries with that? Anything can happen, but don't go mortgaging the house or anything on EB and the crew, unless you've got, like 8 houses, and in that case, give it to me instead. Thanks in advance. Go Clips.