Quoth Clipper Steve: The demons of Sacramento have been exorcised.

The Clips put a capper on a 17 game losing streak at Arco Arena, which spanned over NINE years. Yes, you are reading that correctly. In fact, there was a shorter streak, but still ignominious, of overall losses to the Kings, that was broken at Staples in late December. Your fair host sir Alfred keith el otro was there for Mike Dunleavy’s first win ever over the Sacto Queens (to borrow Shaq’s fond appellation) Yup, in fact, that was my first pilgrimage to Staples to see our LA Bastard Stepchildren, and I loved every minute of it (even got VIP seats thanks to a buddy’s connect.) OK, yeah, I’d been one other time to the venue to see a lakers nets game a long ways back, and I’d got to see the clips at Golden State a couple years ago (to give you some perspective, the clippers won, but the player of the game was Rick Brunson, brrrr.)

Wow, how many years has Dunleavy been coach now? And we lost 4 out of 4 to these guys EVERY YEAR? Horrendous.

so at least that’s finally put to bed. Streaks are a funny thing, they have so much power alive, and then when they’re dead, it’s like poof, it nevah happen. Reminds me of cal’s million year losing streak to Washington in football. Now the golden bears stomp husky ass with regularity, but there was a day, the first day we finally beat em, that felt like a revelation of enormous magnitude to get Dr. Klaw all in a lather.

Anyway, the Clips are further north for a matchup with the Blazers at the Rose Garden tonight, and I for one will be watching, a la the KTLA telecast with Ralph and Mike, thanks be to Dish Network, which horribly deprived me of last night's historic state capital sheathing of historical horribility. The Clips are just a half game back of Denver for that 7 spot now, gratzi to their losing ways, and a win will thus tie them up with the idle nugs. Big game? Yawp. Enjoy, I know I will.

Sigh, the Clips blew a golden opportunity, ahem, to put some distance between them and their bay neighbors to the north, as well as close ranks on Denver, but Shane Battier, in a fit of pique for which the damn sumbitch has been known throughout his career, nailed a dagger three while Tim Thomas lollygagged ogling some courtside breastesses and, thus, despite a valiant effort, the same conclusion that was eventually foregone in Houston a couple weeks ago comes to fruition again at the Staples Center in downtown La-la land.

Despite the loss, luckily, we're still in the driver's seat. The Clips lounge firmly in the 8 spot, a game and a half ahead of Golden State and the same game & a half behind Denver, with the Warriors playing Phoenix tonight, so, the dubs’ penchant for knocking off the better teams in the league notwithstanding, smart money will have them dumping another one to the Suns on this fine Spring post equinox calendar notch, which should gave our favorite LA bastard stepchildren a bit more breathing room, but just a bit. There's way too much time left in this odd NBA season to do any laurel resting.

I know it’s been said over & over by myself as well as numerous and much more well qualified others, but what the hell is up with Chris Kaman? In last night's game, just off the top of my head, I count at least 2 simple uncontested layups that he just outright bricked, but I also count at least two virtual pirouette almost ballerina like moves that barishnokov would have been hard pressed to pull off, (aye aye, cap’n, exaggeration alert, starboard) in which the ball inevitably swished thru the hoop. A lot of people call Kaman a stiff and a bust (I won’t name names, HE NAMED NAMES), but I still maintain that once he gets his head ass removal surgery, he’ll be a dominant force in this league, with grain of salt alert vis a vis the fact I have maintained in the past and still subscribe to the theory that Def Leppard is pound for pound (even minus the one arm) possibly the greatest rock band in history, provided you accept that everything post pyromania except for half of hysteria was written and performed by evil clones.

Elton once again showed us why he’s the man. Now that’s something nice to see, EB in full formation as the superstar he is at this point of the year. (My Lord, how was that block on Yao in the 4th?) Even Sam Cassell flopping around on the baseline was somewhat prognostically to the good, but please don’t ask me why. Jason Hart had probably his best game as a clipper, and made a huge mid range jumper in clutch time, but all in all, it just wasn’t enough. Too much McGrady, too much Yao, too much (brrr) Chuck Hayes, and WAY too much Shane Batter, and his under the radar insidious wares and wiles. Tom Tolbert mentioned on the ESPN telecast, and I think he’s right, nobody wants to have to go up against Houston in the playoffs. This team can beat anybody, and their record would be much better if not for the injuries they had throughout the year. You have to tip your hat to Van Gundy, a guy who has perennially gotten more out of squads than what you would think they’re capable of (I mean, Jesus, look at that Knicks team that lost in the finals to San Antone in 99), primarily via the defensive end.

You know what, though? I really feel that the Clips can make some noise, too. Especially if we can sneak into that 7 spot, which is a very real possibility. I’d love to see a rematch with Phoenix in the playoffs this year, and I wouldn’t go so far as to put money on the clippers’ chances in that series, but I’d give them a better shot in that one than against Dallas. The Clippers are peaking at just the right time of the year, the only problem being that we still haven’t ascertained the exact quality level of this particular peak, and whether this is a peak in the sense that there’s no more room to go up, or it’s just a peak in relation to what has come in the season before, and that their best basketball is ahead of them and in the playoffs. I like to think the latter, but, then again, Joe Elliot is dead to me, laying in a coffin right next door to Steamin’ Steve Clark, and thus still garnered across the globe, under & overground, with praise & thanksgiving.

UPDATE:

I can’t believe I forgot to mention the horse manure call to only give Cat two free throws after he got hacked on the 3 point attempt at the very end of the game. Maybe I kind of dismissed it because he missed the first from the line anyway, but Clipperblog makes a good point about that, as well as a plethora of others in ref that final minute in which clips went from 2 up to losing the game. Click the quote for the full wisdom, but here’s the pertinent bit on the Cat foul:

...Mobley earns three shots, but the officials give him only two. It’s really not even a close call. The Clippers get jobbed. Some will point out that Mobley misses the first of two, but I’m not someone who believes that counterfactuals like that work. If Cat has three to tie, it might be an entirely different mindset and conclusion. We’re not talking about something so arbitrary as a block-charge call. If you can use instant replay to check something as visually binary as the clock – did the shot beat 0:00 or not? – then you should be able to use it to get a foot-on-the-line call correct.

Seems logical, which might be why the officials threw it out the window with yesterday’s bathwater, logic being the, uh, enemy, you know. The only way I was able to explain it to myself before I passed out from sleep deprivation was that they called a non-shooting foul, thus negating the relevance of where Cat was on the floor, but even that argument would be dubious at best, because it definitely appeared Mobley was in the act of throwing it up.

Bill Simmons finally admits that he was wrong about saying the Pac-10 sucked, even going so far as to call the conference underrated, (and admitting his darling Big 12 may have been a bit OVERrated, although whining that Kansas had no business losing to UCLA with all that talent, on which point he’s probably right) in this ESPN radio spot. This just goes to show the east coast mentality in reference to basketball anywhere west of the Colorado river. There is this prevailing anti wisdom high brow elitist attitude of east coasters (and it’s even worse coming from Simmons, who as a transplant from Boston, likes to take advantage of the good weather and better living, but still carries with him that bullshit bourgeouise ballin prejudice) that west coast bball is rubbish, well it ain’t, so suck on it New York, Connecticut, wherever the eff you are. Slurp the throne of Xerxes, er, or something like that..

In the standings watch department, Golden State’s blowout loss to San Antonio last night put them an official 2 games back of the Clippers for that 8 spot, and Denver’s crazy overtime loss in Detroit put them within a game and half reach of the Clippers for the 7 spot. Lots of basketball still to play, paduans, keep those sabers up.

What a coinkidink, the one day I happen to utter the name Michael Olowakandi, the former LA anti-hero (Alan Moore's Comedian was unavailable, doing a gig in Tacoma, what kind of gig is still being ascertained) ends up getting shut down for the season, with yet another injury. Downright eerie and frightening, ouija board and tarot cards not included. Film at 11.

Loy’s place has the full scoops.

Catching up on some Clipper past ignominy, it’s good to know that former Clips #1 draft pick Michael Olowokandi is still all about the commitment to excellence. Excellence in pine-sitting and paycheck collecting, that is.

Yeah, big Mike ain't exactly having the career all us clipper loyalist had to have been hoping for when we heard that mysterious nom de plume uttered by the commish. ah well, selah & salud.

(for a little now vs. then, note Tim Thomas in a Bucks uniform chasing down fair Sir Michael in that pic! Gratzi, tom.com, and no, I don’t know, so don’t ask, in ref what they're doing at that likely fine web site, do tell, but I know it's stacked with pics, good, evil, and everywhere in between, you're welcome)

To give the guy a little break, (Kandi-Man) he has been banged up, tearing an abdominal muscle going up for a rebound earlier this year. Also, it's hard to lay too much blame on the door of a guy who's big qualifications for being drafted #1 was that he was 7 feet tall. Talk about a random entry into the world of big time basketball. The empty the bench post linked above refers to a nice Worcestor Telgram & Gazette (I never miss an issue, natch) article, vital for any and all Olowakandi enthusiasts, which I respectfully quote pieces of herein:

...he was 7 feet tall so the Clippers took him with the No. 1 pick ahead of such future NBA stars as Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Dirk Nowitzki and Paul Pierce...

...Olowokandi… grew up in England and never played basketball until he was 20 years old. On his 20th birthday, while attending his second year of college in England, he picked up a library book on American colleges and University of the Pacific in California was listed on the first page he turned to. So he called Pacific’s administrative offices to see if he could transfer and join the track team as a long jumper and triple jumper. When the school learned he was 7 feet tall, his call was switched to the basketball office.

“I hadn’t played a game of basketball, ever,” Olowokandi said. “I got lucky.”

Can't fault a guy for being in the right place at the right time and making the most of it, and then dropping off the map into mediocrity and obscurity, at the expense of ever increasing chunks of a fan base's rotted and formerly thought completely carved out soul. OK, maybe a little fault. Eh, Mike gave us his all, I GUESS, just too bad his all came out to about a medium sized strawberry shake from McDonalds.

Veering a casual eye askance to where we’re at in the standings after the clips winning 5 out of their last 6 (and the Warriors dumping one to the suddenly en fuego Kobe driven Lakers), Clipper Steve sums it up quite nicely:

A four game winning streak that started at the end of their road trip has the Clippers within 2 games of .500 and a full game ahead of the Warriors for the final playoff spot. Three consecutive wins over clubs well over .500 also makes the remaining schedule seem even softer by comparison - of 12 remaining games, 6 are against teams under .500, 3 against the Lakers and Denver, and only 3 against the top teams, starting with a re-match with the Rockets Wednesday that the Clippers have got to be looking forward to.

Meanwhile the Nuggets, now only 1.5 games ahead of the Clippers and coming to Staples in April, have 10 of their final 15 on the road, including games at Cleveland, at Detroit and at Phoenix before the end of March. It is not inconceivable that the Clippers could catch them within the week. And I think we can safely say that the Clippers would rather see the Suns than the Mavs in the first round.

But they have to get there first. This is the team we remember. Did they show up in time?

I like to think so. Remembering that I'm a Clipper fan, my original pre 2006 attitude is actually to be thankful that they showed up at all. Hosannah in the highest.

After reading over my last post, I realized I didn’t really say anything about the Wizards after the tight loss they experienced against LA’s bastard stepchildren on Saturday. Well, I’m here to rectify that.

I know that with Caron Butler out, one cannot see yesterday’s game as indicative of the team as a whole this year, but there are some things that one can ascertain. First off, DeShawn Stevenson has not, to my eye, figured out how to get his shots in the flow of the offense. He was forcing up way too much ugly stuff. So was Arenas. With Gilbert, though, as a coach you know Eddie Jordan has to put up with that to a certain degree, because so much of what makes Gilbert Gilbert is that he doesn’t play like an ordinary guy. He puts up crazy shots, and on the nights that he’s hitting them, he’s unstoppable. Well, he wasn’t hitting them at Staples yeterday. A big part of that was the Clippers’ once again nice looking defense, but Arenas also just had a somewhat off day at the office.

Also, if yeterday’s matchup is indicative, I can’t see how there’s any discussion in the Brendan Haywood versus Etan Thomas debate. Thomas was all over the place, especially on the offensive glass, and if the Wiz had somehow pulled that game out, you would have been hard pressed not to give him the game ball. Well, him or Antawn Jamison, who had a very nice game, especially offensively.

The Wiz are a good team, but still such an enigma to me. I don’t know how disciplined a team they are, or how intelligent they are (one segment at the end of a quarter in which a very early shot was taken comes to mind), but there’s plenty of talent, and once Butler’s back, they’ll definitely make some noise in the wide open eastern conference playoffs.

Thoughts during half-time (we’re talking tivo-time here, gang, to grab a Ralph Lawler appellation, the game could actually be over as I type this) of the Clipper Wizard matchup at Staples Center, downtown LA, on Saturday, March 24, in the year of our lord two thousand and seven. End scene. Er, rather, start scene. Well, my daughter (10 months almost already, WOW, don’t let people tell you time doesn’t fly) is busy wacking the 2nd half (post burp break) of a 6 ounce bottle of formula (after an apparently delectable dinner of chicken noodle surprise, from our friendly sponsors at Gerber, filling up your baby with quality ingredients since your gradnmama’s granmama was wearing diapers and smacking pans on the kitchen floor) and I’m busy opining on these thoughts that so far haven’t apprised a lick of anything resemble basketball talk, except for the aforementioned acknowledgment that I’m watching a game featuring the almighty clippers against the villains from Washington DC. No, not George Bush & Dick Cheney. Shazam.

So, here I am, watched the 2nd half. Clips win. All hail the Chief. Not Robert Parish NOR our prez in arms, but, um, you know, that guy. Wow, 4 in a row, after the BLOWOUT of Utah the day before. Is there something wrong with me that I get a little EXTRA enjoyment watching Tim Thomas’ 3 balls go down? Don’t get me wrong, I loves me a Cat Mobley trey too, or even a Maggs long ball, rare as they are, but when TT drops one, and then does that G-unit ghost mask move or whatever the hell that is, I just think “yeah.” Maybe it’s because of the off season pickup, something about proving to myself that Elgin does kind of know what he’s doing, even though he put the whole team together (with, obviously, gigantic assistance from Dunleavy), but it was looking like a dumb move earlier in the year, but Tim is turning it on, just like you hoped he would, just at the right time. Maybe it’s because, in a small way, Tim Thomas represents the slacker, the underachiever, in all of us, and not in a bad way. He’s the guy who means well, who gives you his best at that moment, with apologies that maybe he didn’t prepare the way he should have, but when the shit comes down, he’s right there next to you, batteries full, not having blown his load on the preliminary rounds of competition. Ok I’m reading too much into it, maybe, but I’m liking the guy more & more as the year rounds out, and I was skeptical about giving up Vladdie, but you didn’t see Tim go break his leg snowboarding, and I think he’s a lot more athletic and gives you more in the passing game and a la rebounding, (though Vladdie was not bad in those areas either), but the biggest thing is his shot is coming around in a big way. Both him & Cat right now, if they catch it in rhythm and the defenders a little bit late, you can almost BANK it.

I think the biggest thing in the turnaround of the season, which started on the last road trip, right at that San Antonio game, in which we lost, but we played well (yes, we, metaphorically, shit – someone wrote a really nice post on why we can all feel comfortable saying “we” for our team, and one of those days I’ll dig it up & serve it up fresh herein), better than we had in months, and it carried over the whole trip, aside from screwups here & there, mostly turnovers and unforced errors, but you could see it rounding out, but back to what I was saying, the biggest part, the biggest part of the turnaround is the comfort zone our two young point guards have fallen into. Jason Hart & Daniel Ewing were undeniably the weakest link(s) of the team, the point guard position was a complete mess, some idiots were even bringing up comparisons with Rick Brunson, but then, magically, our two lowest totem pole cast members each hit the game winning shot in back to back games. Voila, instant confidence, both in themselves, and from the rest of the team. This didn’t of course, actually, just magically happen, it was the result of a period of a few weeks of gelling, in which the Clips realized that Sam WASN’T coming back, at least not in anything beyond very limited duty, and they’ll be happy to have him for series here & there, but we gotta run with the horses we got, & Ewing and Hart are doing not too shabby a job right now. Our bigs keep up the good play, Corey keeps playing the best ball of his career, and Cat and Tim keep nailing their outside shots and doing all those other famous little things, including the suddenly ferocious defense that we used to know and love out of these clippers, we could have something scary in a big red bag waiting for Dallas or Phoenix, mark this idiot’s words.