Official Around the NBA - March Edition!

ESPN has been talking about us a lot today. Cause we clinched a playoff spot..but do they always do that every time someone clinches a playoff spot? I like it

 

Hoopshype's current headline is "Gay Out" but it's not half as interesting as it sounds.

 

Clips playing GSW tonight in LA in a TNT game starting at 7:30pm.

We have to take advantage of them on a back to back tomorrow at home. They just have one more win than us and the same amount of losses. A win tomorrow can go a long way in determining HCA if were to matchup vs them in the playoffs. We'd tie up the season series, and put them at least game below us in the loss column. Might be the biggest game of the year so far.

 

100% agree this game could change so many things. If there was ever a must win this is it. Time for Dame to shake off the CP3 rust and step up

 

Stotts needs to find a way to adjust to their trap off the pick n roll. Clippers have been one of the best teams on that trap. If Dame can figure out how to get past that, then he will dominate.

 

Haha. Players play to win. And in this case, they are playing for jobs. Tough luck, Flakers.

 

Go Warriors!

 

Its a little ironic and bittersweet that the Lakers are going to play a pretty big role in the seedings especially over the next week

 

It should be simple, screen quickly so Dame has space to run the offense.

 

That and run the pick at the top of the key while Dame doesn't dribble into the double. If he would sometimes go away from the pick, to keep the defense guessing, then he would have a jump on them. It really bothers me that Dame uses the pick all the time. He could use the pick as a decoy and dribble left, then really fuck them up!

 

I just hope the Clippers lose in triple overtime to the Warriors tonight. Let the competition beat itself up before the playoffs.

 

He did, in the 4th quarter and OT of the last game in LA when we totally took them by surprise and stole that game from them. Run the offense through Nic (and/or Blake when we go small) and have Lillard play off the ball. Worked like a charm last time. We don't have to do it the entire game. Keep mixing things up, but only have Dame initiate the offense about 50% of the time. Our best offensive line up late in games has always been when we go small with Aldridge down low surrounded by 4 shooters/ball handlers. And, the fact that we can hack-a-Jordan completely neutralizes any attempt by the Clippers to counter with a big line up when we go small.

BNM

 

It will be interesting to see. I went to that game and to be honest it looked like once the Clippers got up by about 8 or 10 Doc stopped trapping. Now part of that was due to fatigue. His players were getting tired. So the good news is there does seem to be a time limit on doing it. He seems to wait until the 4 th quarter to use it if they are behind. But I'm not sure if Terry's adjustments were the reason we came back. We will find out soon enough.

 

In addition to the hack-a-Jordan and running the offense though Batum the other 4th quarter adjustment Stotts made was putting Batum on CP3. I don't think that's something you can do for any entire game, especially if you want to run the offense through Batum on the other end, but at critical times when we needed to shut down their offense, it worked great. Batum's length definitely bothered CP3 and made it much harder for him to initiate their offense.

BNM

 

THIS!

Our "ace in the hole" is Nic Batum. His ability to shut down opposing PGs in crunch time is absolutely essential! The fact that Afflalo is strong enough to at least put a body on opposing team's SFs help greatly because most teams won't have that SF that can dominate the game "excluding SAS". So our 4 wing line-up will be really effective for most teams in the playoffs.

 

I REALLY wish we still had Wes, but by adding Afflalo, it's preserved our ability go small. Last year that meant Mo, Dame, Nic, Wes and LA. This year, it's Blake, Dame, Nic, AAA and LA. Blake gives us less scoring, but better ball movement (and better defense) than Mo.

Even after losing Wes nd moving Afflalo into the starting line up, our bench is better this year. Kaman is back to his early season role and form. He's been absolutely beasting lately - 9 ppg, 7 rpg in 16 MPG on .609 FG% in March. That's great production (19 PTS/36 and 15 REB/36) for a back up big. Joel is healthy, Blake is shooting well from deep and has a couple double digit scoring games lately. Wright has been playing well since Wes went down, and our young guys (C.J., Meyers and Crabbe) have all gotten enough PT that they are no longer shell shocked when thrown into a game.

BNM

 

You and me both

 

I don't cringe anymore when these guys come in the game. CJ has really come on lately, I'm definitely surprised.

 

Don't forget the alley oops. That play killed them as well.

The Clippers trap with a big up top. They had great success sending big baby in to wreak havoc for a 5 minute stretch. This game they will have Griffin back, but regardless when they trap with their bigs we have to attack the basket and make them pay.