Just heard Fitz say in the pregame that this 4-game winning streak is our longest in 3 years. Depressing. This is our third game against the Clips in 13 days. We have won 7 of 8 at home. Monta is starting, despite the late injury last night. No Acie Law tonight. Let's go!
Just an awful end to the opening quarter...11-0 run for LA. I don't know if it's because of my biased opinion, but I feel like we are our own worst enemy almost every time we end up on the wrong side of a run like that. It's not often that I say, we are playing ok but the other team is just outplaying us. It's usually due to pretty obvious carelessness and poor shot selection.
The Warriors need to keep the ball in Curry and David Lee's hands. Monta isn't blowing by people tonight. Clips Jordan and Griffin are too much.
Warriors cut it to four for the final run. Curry is on FI-YAH!!! David Lee's rushing his outlet passes a bit. Monta with a big shot. Go Warriors!
If Griffin doesn't hit that 3 pointer, it's a completely different ballgame. Griffin also blindly knocked the ball out of D-Wright's hands on the Foye missed free throw at the end there. Two plays that really shaped the result of this game. Bottom line, it came down to defense and, more specifically, rebounding. There were Clippers missed shots where we didn't even have a player leave his feet to try to secure a board...that's inexcusable. Monta obviously wasn't at 100%. Anyway, on the bright side, this was another game where we erased a late deficit of significant proportions, which is encouraging. It's a tough game, on the tail end of a back-to-back on the road...and the Clippers are playing well lately. It just woulda been nice to steal this one since we have two very tough games coming up.
Blake Griffin is a Cheetah mixed with a Rhinoceros mixed with a Gazelle mixed with a Gorilla and it's not fair.
Griffin was way out there, so I didn't think he would shoot that 3-ball. That was an amazing shot under pressure. But Vlad or Lee was no where to be found. Clips go up by three. Next, the Clips blew it by fouling the Warriors and they cut it to one. Then the Warriors fouled Foye early and could have gone two-for-one afterward even if Foye made both free throws because they had about 24 seconds left and 3 timeouts. They would have had the ball and could have extended the game with smart fouls and using their timeouts. Clippers had no timeouts left. But Dorell Wright getting the ball knocked out of his hands was killer. It was a freaky play. I didn't like the way Biedrins was blocking Griffin out by facing him and not concentrating on the ball, but maybe the play was designed that way as Wright came around to get the rebound. It didn't help because Griffin somehow got a hand on the ball and knocked it away.
He's a young Karl Malone Crossed with A young Shawn Kemp. If he can develop the best of both players, he can be one of the all time greats. I'd love to see it happen, because it's not too often you can see a guy that big get off the floor that quickly.
Maybe I'm drinking too much haterade but I don't think he'll be a guy you can build a team around and win a championship. Perhaps in that regard he is like Malone/Kemp. Great player, maybe the best to play the game at their position, but would you take either of them over a Duncan or KG? Hes a phenomenal player already but I don't know if he has the intangibles that guys like that have namely having a HUGE impact on defense. Being go-to scorers but moving the ball well and making teammates better. Some other question marks I have with him are that of his health and his attitude. Starting off with his health, the guy is a truly amazing athlete but its hard not to see him sustaining his fair share of injuries, perhaps major ones, if he keeps up the high wire act. He seems to have recovered from his last one just fine but they'll wear on him over time if they continue to happen. And once they do happen and he loses a few steps then what is left over? Does he have the skill to make an impact? Now for his attitude, I never hear anyone bring it up but the guy acts like a cocky prick a lot of the time. I see him getting into it with a lot of guys on opposing teams and I don't think its by coincidence or only because hes got a target as the big rookie phenom right now. It worked for KG but KG's assholiness also went unnoticed in Minny. I think at some point the majority of NBA fans will see this and the perception of this guy could change. Again, Malone could be an asshole too, MJ as well, Kobe is an asshole, KG is, lots of guys are. So maybe it has no effect at all but its something about him that gets overlooked right now because everyone is so enamored with him but I think over the years people will grow to dislike him for it. Hes amazing though.
I don't think his attitude is really a problem. I like a player having some attitude that coincides with his game. As for his health breaking down, I think it can be an issue, but I've seen some nice footwork from him that should carry him a long time in the league. But, he can't play defense as far as I'm concerned and that's one thing to look out for as his career progresses.
Blake Griffin is amazing and great for the NBA as a whole. Attitude? He's got a great attitude. He plays hard all the time and enjoys the game. He's the exact opposite of the Allan Iverson ("Practice? We're talking about practice.") version of player. The guy who thinks that scoring 30 pts is everything. You never see Griffin dogging it or doing the "Look at me" expressions. The biggest criticism this year was that incident with Lamar Odom, well what was it for? Because they said he was "playing too hard" at the end of the game that was already put away. I loved that. You don't want to play hard? Get your sorry a** off the court. Watch the video, you tell me if he's even scared for a second about Lamar Kardashian. It was like my little 9 year old punching me. Hilarious. Oh yeah, and he's the guy who has come back from after sitting out a year.
Yeah, I don't see it with his attitude. He seems pretty confident for a rookie, but remember this is year 2, and he's sat the bench for a year in LA watching a horrible team struggle. Now he's playing and their on the rise. He's also confident because he's good. And intimidating. Not with his attitude, but with his play. Veteran players, I'm sure, don't like the feeling of being intimidated by a rookie. But you know they are. I also think he has the target on his back, for sure. After the Clips / LA game, where Odom/Artest tried to instigate with him, Blake was totally calm about it. Afterward, he was very well spoken about it. Also, that night, Baron was saying to the media how everyone is out to get Blake right now... I do see the cockiness, for sure. His smiles, smirks, and actually, if you haven't noticed -- the way he plays with his mouthpiece -- are a bit self-conscious, and cocky. But he has every right to be, and I don't see any showmanship, disrespect or poor sportsmanship. It's the exact opposite of DeMarcus Cousins, who not many people care about, and yet he's TRYING to get attention by being a total ass. All eyes are on Blake right now, and IMO he's handling it very well. As far as the athleticism going if he gets injured... well you can say that about the majority of the players in the league right now. But as far as bball IQ, IMO he has much as any other young player at that position right now. As far as qualified Forwards, Blake is 4th in the league in assists at 3.5, behind only Lebron, Boris Diaw, and Turkoglu (David Lee is 3.6 but he doesn't qualify). He fouls a lot and has a lot of turnovers, but he's also still getting the rookie treatment from officials, IMO. His passing is fantastic, though. In fact, his dribbling is pretty darn good too. Did you see the way he went coast-to-coast on the Warriors, basically dribbling between three guys? He looked like LeBron, no sh!t... Now, I'm not trying to create a Griffin bandwagon. They're the Clips and they're my GS arch-enemies. I don't want him to be good, dammit. But that guy is in the same class as LeBron was his rookie year. Basically, a man-child comic book character doing things in a PF body that just shouldn't be humanly possible. He's like Sabretooth from from the X-Men, mixed with Balrog from Street Fighter 2, mixed with Koko-B-Ware from WWF, mixed with George-the-Animal-Steele from WWF, mixed with The Greatest American Hero from the TV show of the same name, mixed with Iron Man, mixed with Jon Jones from the UFC, mixed with Kratos from God of War, mixed with Darryl Dawkins.
That is far from the only run in hes had this season, he and Carl Landry got into it during a random Clips-Kings game I watched, he and Andre Miller had some type of issue that caused Miller to level him, etc.). Here's an article saying how he "gets in the opposition's head" and cites yet another incident with Posey: http://content.usatoday.com/communi...e-griffin-47-points-james-posey-lamar-odom-/1 Again though, when a young exciting player shows things like this they get spun into good things because people are so excited. IMO over time people grow tired of it and certain incidents are bound to reflect poorly and make people look back and re-consider what it was they saw before, like with KG once he went to the Celts and just looked like a bully or Kobe after his image went down the tank. I'm just saying where there's smoke there's fire and I'm seeing a hell of a lot of small incidents surrounding Blake in a very short amount of time. Reminds me of AR showing up Yao, Motumbo, KG, etc. all in his rookie year (not saying AR is anywhere near Griffin's level lol). And I don't deny that hes a great player and will be an amazing player for his career. Like a Malone/Kemp, maybe like a Barkley. But how many rings did those guys win? I know the guy has some skill, I've seen the good handle, and I know he can pass. Just don't think hes got the defensive impact of a Duncan or KG or modern day Dwight. Hes still a rookie but hasn't shown much shot altering ability for all that athleticism and his 6'10 listed height is probably generous. Hes not shutting down the paint, eating up space, and deterring ball handlers, at least not yet.
I agree with AO's Malone/Kemp hybrid and others about Griffin's attitude. Would like to have some of that attitude in Biedrins. As for athleticism over b-ball skills, Griffin has been working on those. Just think how awesome he will be when he relies more on his b-ball skills and then breaks out the athleticism. He took the ball coast-to-coast and scored as well as shot that 3-ball from way out. I would have to admit that Duncan and Garnett are better defensive players right now. If Griffin can develop those skills, then he will be at their level imho. With Baron handling the ball, he can be scary good.
Blake Griffin is like a Monstar from Space Jam. Really scary stuff. Only MJ can stop him, haha. He's scary though.
4 is our longest winning streak? That's depressing and funny at the same time. Dude, we need another bay area franchise, because I will fairweather the fock out of this sad organization and root for the other guy. Oakland just does not have winning franchises anymore.
