From the Red Rowdies:

For the first time in the Rockets’ three meetings with the Clippers this season, Elton Brand was featured more prominently in the Clips’ offense than Chris Kaman. Brand—averaging 14.8 field goal attempts per game, his lowest since 03-04 despite the fact that he’s shooting a career-high 53.1 percent—finished with 37 points, 10 rebounds and five assists while going 13-of-23 from the field and 11-of-12 from the free throw line. Still, it took Kaman’s 0-for-5 start to get Brand involved. Coach Mike Dunleavy’s really earning his five-year, $44 million contract extension.

Heh. If my 9 month old daughter hadn’t been sleeping in her swing a foot away from where I sat, the first five minutes would have featured my screaming bloody murder and possibly throwing a lamp at my television. Dunleavy INSISTED on pushing the ball into Kaman to open the game. It wasn’t working, we went down 10-0, called a timeout, and what is our first play? Pump it down into Kaman, whereby he either turned it over or threw up a brick, I don’t remember which. I just don’t get it, I mean, I know you want to try & get some fouls early on Yao, but when you’re down that deep in the opening, you just have to SCORE. Any bucket, any way, will do.

Also, be aware, Kaman, after settling down, actually had a pretty good game, he made some nice shots and pulled down a lot of good rebounds and grabbed some loose balls, although Chuck Hayes gave both the Clipper big men fits (they just continually lost sight of him, on both ends of the court, especially in the first half). Whatever happens the rest of this year, they better get Chris’s ass into a full offseason workout regiment, if we’re gonna keep paying him that 52 million, he’s gotta hang out year round and be in proper effin shape next year. I still think Chris can be a great player in this league, I really do, but he’s gotta be in shape, which this year he isn’t, I don’t know if you blame it on the flu bug he got, going fucking moose hunting in Sasketchewan for 2 months, whatever, put this guy on lockdown in the gym. In fact, they really need to get Chris out to Hawaii for Pete Newell’s big man camp this offseason. I smell an exclusive interview. Really doe, I think next year we’ll see a much more polished if not dominant Chris Kaman, as insanely optimistic as that may sound.

Rockets 109, Clippers 105

It's satisfying to play well, but we have to get victories," Brand said. "We had opportunities and we just didn't finish. We just wanted to win this game so badly and we let it slip away. It's a tough loss."

Elton had a season high 37 plus 10 boards. McGrady led the Rockets with 21.

Clips fell out of 8th playoff spot (by percentage points, they’re practically tied with Golden State)

Rafer Alston killed the clips, going 7-10, 4-5 from 3, for 20 points.

Chuck Hayes had career high 16 points and was all OVER the place. I really thought we had it when he fouled out. How often do you say you thought that Chuck Hayes fouling out was going to swing the game?

Ross, who prior to the trade deadline and the sudden arrival (seemingly) of one Mr. Corey Maggette back into Dunleavy’s good graces, played only 7 minutes. Maggette on the other hand played 36 minutes, 2nd only to Brand, and scored 13 points, shot 50% from the field, grabbed 7 boards, plus 4 assists and a steal, but he did turn the ball over 5 times (more than anyone else in the game, clipper or rocket). Corey had in my opinion the play of the game for LA, & it came at a crucial moment (really the most dramatic sequence in a steadily building Clipper run which got them right back in the game after being down by as much as 17, although Elton's thuderous dunk around Yao was pretty big, too) stealing the tip off a jump ball and driving in for an acrobatic falling down one handed flying scoop shot layup.



I thought Daniel Ewing actually played pretty well. Jason Hart? Eh. He really fooled me in that first quarter against San Antone. I'm not totally sold that he was much better of an option than Will Conroy, although he does seem a bit more polished, if not as handy of a distributor as Conroy was (which was what we really needed, still do).

Elton had his best game of the year, just dominated in the 2nd half, but the clippers faltered down the stretch. The whole game was marred by very poor Clipper passing and spacing, with moments of brilliance offset by true muck. Aside from Elton’s breakout, the team played a bit worse probably than they did in San Antonio the night before, yet were still in position to win it at the end.

The Clippers have today off and are at Charlotte tomorrow, a game they just have to win, aside from Milwaukee the most winnable game on the 6 game trip, to which they have now stumbled to an 0-2 start.

Ralph Lawler & Mike Smith interviewed the Clippers team doctor, Tony something or other, and it sounds like the “dream team” of doctors had a successful venture with Shaun Livingston’s knee the day before. Apparently one of the ligaments, the PCL, wasn’t as destroyed as they thought, & they were able to repair it, rather than replace it, as it sounds like they did with the other two (with cadaver ligaments). According to the doc, Shaun had good range of motion post surgery and they sewed it up real tight, so now just time and massive amounts of hard work will tell. Shaun’s got two weeks of initial rehab in Alabama, and then he’ll be heading back to LA to continue the long road hopefully, eventually, back into playing shape.

After watching last night’s game, in which the Clippers actually played pretty well, tip your hat blah effin blah, the biggest most obvious thing that I couldn’t stop thinking is that the ghost of Rick Brunson is haunting the building. And when I say building I don’t mean the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, I mean the metaphorical building that is the Clipper organization. Not that I’m saying the former Clipper point guard is dead or anything, or that he didn’t put in good honest work for the Clippers at a time when they were heartily grateful for his services, but lower echelon mediocrity at the point guard position was something I really thought we wouldn’t have to deal with in Clipperdom for a long time, what with Sam Cassell arriving on his white horse and Shaun Livingston (the future) appearing to shake off that first year injury bug & flourishing (if not at the pace that some would have liked). We were doubled up with a quality vet and a ceilingless prospect at the point. That sad Brunson reality is somehow settled upon us again, though, at least until we get a hale and hearty Sam Cassell back in the lineup (which is looking dicier & dicier, although hopefully all the rest will leave him fresh for the playoffs, assuming we get in?).

Don’t get me wrong, Jason Hart seems very serviceable. Even Daniel Ewing is a nice player, although he’s at best a journeyman 2 guard. I think Hart made some great plays, especially in the first quarter, but he ran out of gas (he was getting no minutes in Sacto), and then idiot Dunleavy let him cool off a bit too much before inserting him back into the lineup deep into the 2nd quarter. But that’s neither here nor there, Ewing played OK, and Hart, after his outburst to start the contest, tapered off, so who knows.

As for Elton, he looked a bit rusty at the start, but settled in nicely in the 2nd half. Kaman looked a complete mess early, and I don’t know if you’d call it settling down, but he turned it over less and made some nice (if not nice looking) shots down the stretch. Maggette had a nice hot streak going for a while, Cat made some nice plays. Really over all, not a gigantic amount to complain about.

The Spurs were just too good. Especially Tony Parker, and especially down the stretch. The fastest guy in the league not named TJ Ford, Parker just blew by LA consistently and whenever he felt like it during the last 8 minutes of the ball game, staging his own private layup drill. Yeah, there were a few other nifty plays, Manu hit a killer three, Duncan made a bucket or two, but it was really the Tony Parker show, which made me opine even more for a real point guard. Parker may not be the prototypical play maker creator point guard, although he’s not bad (actually pretty good) at those things, but his speed and his knack for getting to the basket, along with how everyone on that goddamm team seems to be in the right place at the right time (something the Clippers were actually doing pretty well last night too, oddly) makes him the perfect one guard for this squad, and made me recant, at least to myself, my ire that he was voted onto the all star team a month back. The guy deserves it.

Anyway, tough to see rose coloring after a loss, but I think if the Clips play as well tonight as they did in San Antone last night, they’ve got a real good shot in Houston, against a team with a whole other set of nightmares to contend against, most notably Tracy McGrady & Yao Ming. Not exactly a night off, but they’re not the caliber of the Spurs. I have to say, for the first time in weeks, I looked at the Clippers and thought, “ok, self, maybe the Clippers can actually win a game or two in the playoffs this year.” They were moving the ball really well, guys were hitting shots, they looked like they gave three quarters of a shit. I mean, if we can get Sam back healthy and get Hart coming off the bunch, and everything else clicking at at least a medium pace? Plus the playoffs version of Tim Thomas finishing waking up from his grave (he’s already started shaking some of the coffin splinters off his suit lapel), I dunno, call me an ignorant optimist, but crazier things have happened. La vida loca, sing to me, tell me sweet tales of which you know aren’t true. Gracias.

Obviously, the biggest story in the NBA this morning, and the biggest thing on any standings watching Clipper fan's mind (aside from tonite's game in Texas), has to be the thorough trouncing the Golden State Warriors handed to the Dallas Mavericks in Oakland last night. The Dubs are only a game back of our Los Angeles heroes now, and with tonight’s contest in San Antonio looming like a wide empty inviting grave filled with inchworms and dung beetles, the numbers don’t look like they’ll get shinier anytime soon. The last thing I’ll say is this, and it echoes some of what Tim Kamakawi opined on his blog today, the Dallas Mavericks have GOT to be worried about a possible 1-8 opening round matchup with the Warriors, who have OWNED them to the tune of 4 games to none this season. Definitely warrants mentioning, and HAS to be on the minds of Dirk, Cuban, Avery, et al, notwithstanding their otherwise stellar year, especially in light of last season’s breakdown against Miami in the finals. Avery Johnson, from what I can tell, has an amazing capacity for attention to detail and for seeing all the angles, and you know it must just be driving him utterly batshit the way the Warriors seem to have his team’s number, and the potential looming 7 game battle that very well could be in his lap come playoff time.

Ah, but that is a matter for another day, because I refuse to renege on the possibility that the Clippers, not Golden State, will be occupying that final 8 spot, if for no other reason than my uncanny ability to reject reality and subscribe to tall tales such as the story that goes “The Clippers could shock the world and pull one out of their ass in San Antone tonite,” a grand story of epic proportions told by a degenerate old man half asleep in a dingy, dimly lit den, dangerous liquor induced visions blurring his otherwise sound logic, the only respite from the voices coming in the form of leaping and bounding athletes zipping across the screen of his television, instilling clarity and hope in an otherwise blurry and bleak existence.

I have seen this man, he is my neighbor, your mailman, your wife’s manicurist, your son’s Chemistry teacher, your dog’s groomer. You may call him hopeless, a misguided pariah, skirting the edge of common sense and society’s standardized limits of haphazard theoretical thought. I, though, call him a prophet, a man with the sight to reject what is right in front of him and look beyond, to a land where the Los Angeles Clippers, the mangy mutt of the Southern California sports landscape, can rise against their limitations, both self imposed and herd mentality regimented. Go Clippers.

I’ve got spurs on the brain, with the Clippers doomed trip into San Antonio for tomorrow’s game in near proximity to the Ozzy urinated Alamo, and I got to thinking, who is the most recognizable Spur in the annals of Spurdom prior to the David Robinson era, and my answer to myself, which was nice to get, cuz normally I’m self-ignored, was George “Ice Man” Gervin. So I did some digging, and found out something interesting which I hadn’t known. It was a somewhat thorny court ordered way in which Gervin even became a Spur and was thereby dragged from what he considered a good situation with the Virginia Squires (he was teammates with Dr. Julius Erving), also of the ABA, in 1974. Details on how it went down, as well as some nice pictures, stats, and other fun stuff, here. Obviously, the landscape of the NBA would be vastly differnet if Gervin had stayed in Virginia. Iceman was a venerable venerated veteran of vanguarded voluminity in San Antone, and still is to this day, so prolly Riverwalk would have flooded and the pterodactyls would have likely invaded from the desert. Possibly many cows would have died in the massacre. Here’s Gervin’s wikipedia entry, for those who just have to know everything. I’m looking at you, Mr. Fuchsia.

From clipperblog’s post on the home blowout loss to Detroit yesterday:

All season, we’ve been trying to figure out precisely what is responsible for the Clippers’ demise. Watching Detroit run its offense on Sunday crystallized it for me: The Clippers have nobody on the floor who can pass the ball... The Clippers? With the exception of Livingston, there isn’t an average passer on the roster...Thomas is probably the most adequate passer on the roster. Think about that reality for a second: Tim Thomas is the best passer on the Clippers’ active roster.

Wow. (cries). Hold me.

Also, I just noticed that for whatever reason, the Clippers don’t have to visit Dallas when they go through Texas on the coming trip, so it’s not the Texas triangle, more like the Texas, uh, line. In any event, the next 6 games are on the road, and it goes San Antonio (almost certain loss), Houston (probably a loss, but better chance than against the Spurs, although with McGrady & Yao both healthy right now, no one relishes a trip to the Toyota Center), Charlotte (hopefully a win), New Jersey (decent shot at a win), Chicago (the Clips beat them in LA last month, but in Chi-town’s another story, obviously), and Milwaukee (the clips should definitley win there.) so looking at it, I think the Clips can go 3-3 on the trip, with wins at Charlotte, New Jersey, and Milwaukee. MAYBE 4-2 if they can squeak one out in Chicago. And Maybe 2-4, if they pull an oops I crapped my pants in New Jersey, their east coast foil. Or maybe they just smoke the most gigantic spliff ever the whole trip and go 0-6.

Puff the magic dragon may be prominently involved; keep an eye out for little Jackie Paper on the alley oop.

Howdy. Well, the clippers lost in Oakland on Friday, in the much hyped & ballyhooed (by others too, not just me) intra cali matchup, brimming with huge ramifications in the swill infested middle of the barrel western conference race for the 8 spot and the opportunity for quick infamy via decimation (division into 10 even pieces of squalouros dilapidation) by Dallas in the first round.

From what I’ve read, the Warriors look pretty good right now, they got all their pieces back, Baron Davis healthy, Jason Richardson healthy, Andris Biedrens and Montay Ellis used to playing heavy minutes all year and contributing, the new additions of Al Harrington and Stephen “strip club shooter” Jackson gelling like Magellan. Shit, I’d trade squads with the dubs in a heartbeat. Well, nah, cancel that. Let’s run with these clippers. I’ve got too much emotional attachment to Elton, and hey, even Corey, at this point. Plus Sam I am and Shaun in the injury ward, oh yeah, his surgery’s today. Yup. These are my clippers. My little keg-clippers.

That’s a reference to that HORRIBLE Heineken Keg Can commercial that never ceases playing on ESPN radio. Has anyone out there besides me heard it and wanted to pull over next to the nearest bridge & jump off? I’ll leave it at that. And no I wouldn’t just drive my car off the bridge, cuz then what would my wife drive? See, how selfless I am.

So yeah, the clippers, after losing not so valiantly in oaktown, went back home and continued the lack of valor against Detroit at Staples center. And now they get to go on the road for the Texas swing! Great. Great sandwich. That’s such a great sandwich that Eddie Van Halen would probably drink it down after showing up drunk on David Lee Roth’s doorstep crying for forgiveness for stealing his hairpiece that night in Ruston Louisiana. Hey, if you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you.

The funny (hilarious) thing is that the clippers are STILL holding on to that 8 spot. Effin thing is like a hot potato, but these LA boys don’t know how to play. Or maybe they do. They just hold on to it in sufferance. Suffrage? Anyway. The losing continues unabated, and their they sit, because the losing continues unabated all over these realms, when your competition is Sacramento (actually playing better, gaining), Golden State (looking scary, but still not quite ready for primetime), NOOCH (just an enigma, can’t figure them out) and Minnie (a complete mess), plus denver, home of the odd couple minus the happy funtime spaghetti hijinx. Let me know if I’m missing any pertinent information, if you exist. Gratzi. And uh, go clips, lets lose less than the other excrement piles. Now that’s a mantra, or not.