OFFICIAL LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS 2023-2024 SEASON THREAD

[lawdog1]

Don't let th truth get in the way of a good story...

At the risk of sounding like an old dude (which I am), That's basically the motto of contemporary "journalism".

 

[shoeking2102]

Some notes going into tonight's game against Milwaukee

-51% of Wes Johnson's 3's have been from the corners. He's converted over 59% of them.

- Chris Paul's shooting just 48% on 2-point shots from 10+ feet with a defender 4+ feet away this year. It was 56% last year. Take it a step further, Chris Paul is shooting 46% on uncontested shots this season and just 32.6% on uncontested threes. He shot 52.1% and 41.2% on them last year.

- Austin Rivers has taken more shots inside 8 feet than Paul and Redick have combined. He's 2 for his last 25 on 3's, but is still getting to the rim more than any other LAC guard and is converting when he gets there. He's shooting 61.8% inside 8 feet.

 

[lawdog1]

Yeah shoeking2102 - bad things happen when PP is on the court.

 

[lawdog1]

Jonathan aka Wilson Reddick was doing the damn thing in that quarter.

 

[lawdog1]

Solid W. Would have been nice if the bench gave us a little more, but at least we got contributions from Wes, Josh and Jamal. JJ was great. Kind of where we're at with Blake that he had 21, 14 and 4 and felt like he didn't have a great game. Very nice night for CP as well.

On to Chi-town.

 

[shoeking2102]

Yae Yae Redick is probably the most important player on this team. We're the best offense in the NBA with Wilson, but w/o him our offensive dynamic looks completely different, and average. Even when he doesn't score, his movement and gravity means everything to us. Really hope he stays healthy from this point out.

Josh Smith has been a revelation defensively. Wes Johnson didn't hit any 3's tonight but to show his value, he with the core 4 was a +59 tonight. 

CP had some really good drives to the hoop. Nice to see that out of him. Playmaking was there.

6 out of 7. 3 in a Row. I think we're 3rd in the west right now. Things are getting better. 

Let's get greedy and get one in Chicago tomorrow night. 

 

[HIM]

No soubt in my mind we would have beat Indy if we had CP3 and JJ.

Slowly but surely...gotta keep it going.

 

[wavycrocket]

Blake looks like he's making a concentrated effort to rebound again....especially after him having 0 boards thru 4 qtrs against Indiana the other night, eventually finishing up with 4.

Would love to see more games like this from Cp3. Feel like he's working his way back. Once doc inserts Wes into the lineup full time, and the bench settles in...the team can be scary.

Paul Pierce is absolutely unplayable. Good God.

 

[shoeking2102]

Blake looks like he's making a concentrated effort to rebound again....especially after him having 0 boards thru 4 qtrs against Indiana the other night, eventually finishing up with 4.

Would love to see more games like this from Cp3. Feel like he's working his way back. Once doc inserts Wes into the lineup full time, and the bench settles in...the team can be scary.

Paul Pierce is absolutely unplayable. Good God.

Last couple of games PP has played like 5, 6 minutes and still manages to be unplayable 

 Playing him at the four has been an epic fail. Can't rebound. Can't defend. He can't hit shots right now either so it's like...how can he play? Where?

More so than the wins and losses though right now, (even though we've won 6 out of 7) we're starting to look like the team that we thought we would look like coming into the season. I like the trajectory of this team.

And over the past 5 games or so, Deandre's force and motor is back to looking like DJ of the past two years. Hopefully that can keep going as well. 

 

[HIM]

Yea, DJ looks like he might have purchased a bicycle recently.

Was anybody else terrified when Doc and Josh Smith got into it in th first quarter? I thought FOR SURE Doc was gonna sit him out the rest of the game and DNP him the next 50 games to teach him a lesson.


I gotta hand it to Soc last night. Not only did he bring CP3 and JJ back a little earlier than usual in the 4th, he also played Blake damn near the entire second half. Think he came out for like 1 minute at the end of the 3rd

Also, if I remember correctly he brought DJ right back in to start the 2nd wuarter when MCW was getting easy buckets at the rim. I'll give him a B grade last night.

 

[shoeking2102]

I'm telling y'all man PP should NEVER play.

 

[HIM]

Luc is so ******* trash man. Do we eve have any metrics to support the idea that he's a good defender? Dude can't shoot, drive, and I saw his man get open so many times.


Doc bringing him in for "defense" which leads ro him being on the floor for 2 minures in the 4th and turning the ball over.


Ugly, ugly, game. Think CP3 outsmarted himself again thinking they were gonna foul. Should have let JJ or Wes get a look.

 

[lawdog1]

Luc is so ******* trash man. Do we eve have any metrics to support the idea that he's a good defender? Dude can't shoot, drive, and I saw his man get open so many times.


Doc bringing him in for "defense" which leads ro him being on the floor for 2 minures in the 4th and turning the ball over.


Ugly, ugly, game. Think CP3 outsmarted himself again thinking they were gonna foul. Should have let JJ or Wes get a look.

Agree with all of this. Sometimes, I really wondering if me and Doc are seeing the same games. Like his whole thing with going offense defense with Luc and Wes. I really don't know what Wes did to give Doc the idea he can't defend. He's really solid.

I mean, I want to be mad we lost because we blew a lot of opportunities in the 4th. But honestly, we really had no business being that close with Blake ejected. We were luck Josh went Game 6 from 3 in the second half.

 

[shoeking2102]

Luc is so ******* trash man. Do we eve have any metrics to support the idea that he's a good defender? Dude can't shoot, drive, and I saw his man get open so many times.


Doc bringing him in for "defense" which leads ro him being on the floor for 2 minures in the 4th and turning the ball over.


Ugly, ugly, game. Think CP3 outsmarted himself again thinking they were gonna foul. Should have let JJ or Wes get a look.

Literally every metric says Wes and Lance are better with the core 4 than Luc. He does nothing well. Before this game I was talking with a buddy of mine, saying that basically Luc being in the starting lineup and us picking it up were not connected and I was afraid that Doc would connect the two. It's really a headscratcher to watch him out with the starters while Lance can't even get off the bench for the entire first half 

By the way Doc did play lance at the four a bit in the second half. Awkward, but it worked for a bit. However, he also brought in Luc late for JJ Redick which was ridiculous. 

-While Luc playing with the starters and us winning is purely a coincidence, what isn't a coincidence is how the 2nd unit looks completely awful with PP in there. 2nd Unit looked much better on defense when it was lance in there with the 2nd unit instead of PP. We literally give up so much and gain NOTHING with him on the floor. He's so bad man.

- Wes Johnson again proved his worth. He played 15 Minutes tonight. That is entirely too low. Meanwhile Luc played 21. THIS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM. Luc's defense isn't even better than Wes's so there's no justification behind this. Simply minblowing.

- Jamal Crawford's defense down the stretch hurt us so bad. They were picking on him. He shouldn't have been in there. A lineup of CP / JJ / Wes / Josh / DJ would have sufficed for me. 

The Luc experiment has to stop. It isn't going to work. He isn't good at anything. The starting 3 should be wes with Lance playing behind him,

 

[wavycrocket]

These games lost in the early days are the difference between a 2 & 3 seed.

Clips need to secure HC advantage...

 

[stork]

I'm telling y'all man PP should NEVER play.

 

[lawdog1]

I'm telling y'all man PP should NEVER play.

Like I said last night in the NBA thread, its an instant minimum 6-0 run for the other team as soon as sets foot on the floor. That's when the game got away from the Clips last night. Went from up (or down) 1 to down 11 in like 3 minutes in the second quarter, all while Pierce was out there. Dude just kills us. Kills us.

The small-ball second unit clearly is not working. So, Doc either needs to keep a starter in at all times or change what the second unit looks like. Maybe give Aldrich a shot. Him at C, Josh at PF with Lance, Jamal and Austin on the perimeter. I'd have Lance be the primary ball handler and let Josh work a lot in the high post area. That line up, IMO, would be much better defensively and rebounding than the current second unit. The offense would probably still be hit and miss, but at least we wouldn't be getting dominated on both ends.

 

[shoeking2102]

I agree with giving Cole a shot for sure. Can't hurt. Although the small ball Second unit for us last night did pretty well in the second half when it was lance instead if pp. Even got some good minutes with lance playing the four.

 

[lawdog1]

I agree with giving Cole a shot for sure. Can't hurt. Although the small ball Second unit for us last night did pretty well in the second half when it was lance instead if pp. Even got some good minutes with lance playing the four.

True. I guess I'd be ok with Doc experimenting with any second unit line up that doesn't involve PP.

 

[HIM]

Doc still sees 2008 Paul Pierce when he looks at #34. That man aint wheel-charing through that door.

 

[lawdog1]

Early 2:00 pm start time for the game today, in case you didn't know.

This not one to overlook even though the Nets are garbage. In the Blake era the Nets are just one of those teams that has given us problems, regardless of who is playing for them. I think they may have swept us the year they had the worst record in the NBA. So, we'll see.

 

[shoeking2102]

The nets will always have a special place in my heart for coming back from 10 down im a minute last year, and essentially taking our home court advantage for the 2nd round. **** them

 

[HIM]

The nets will always have a special place in my heart for coming back from 10 down im a minute last year, and essentially taking our home court advantage for the 2nd round. **** them

Not only that. Farmar's weak *** hit a game winner against us while he was with them. Think we were up 2 and that dude hit a 3 -_-



WHY IS LUC ON THE COURT????

 

[lawdog1]

Not only that. Farmar's weak *** hit a game winner against us while he was with them. Think we were up 2 and that dude hit a 3 -_-

Yeah, that was probably the worst of our multiple bad losses against the Nets. Definitely wanted to punch a hole in a wall after that one.

But let's focus on the positive - our bench has actually increased our lead today - twice And Paul Pierce is not playing like a corpse.

 

[HIM]

I was damn near positive we were gonna lose this once the Nets started hitting threes now let's just hope none kf our players get a staph infection in that filthy *** state.


West > East for the Ny lurkers in here