This five for LAC: Ibaka, Kennard, Beverly, Green, and Kawhi vs AD/Lebron/Schroeder/KCP and whoever will be an interesting one. Vogel has been experimenting with some funky lineups: I wonder if he'd pull an AD/Lebron/Kuzma/Matthews/Morris lineup in there just so that the Lakers could literally switch everything.
much like last year, it will take us longer to get it together, but i like our chances if everyone's healthy, despite the clearly-very-damning opening night loss. we played some very different rotations in the playoffs, series by series, and we can do that with our personnel. no centers, no real pgs, etc. that's what having swiss army knives like AD and lebron as your stars can do. clips can't do this.
We must admit, Ibaka is a big pick up for them. Brings bigs out, and we have only one real rim protector anyway (AD). Allows Kawhi, Luke and Lou to drive and get bunnies or a lot of 5-10 footers. Had we landed Ibaka and not Harrell... I also like Batum for them. Not asked to do much. And Ty is a much better coach for this group than Doc, because they are mental midgets in certain respects. The embarrassment of the loss to Denver, then the Lakers winning, then the Lakers getting Trez... They are motivated, re-tooled, and a huge huge threat to us. A guy like Ariza would help a bit - esp on PG. Glad he went off like that. Lots of things for Frank to figure out - Kuz, Wes, KCP, Alex, THT... lots of guys to throw at him while Bron and AD focus on Kawhi, but also guys who can’t really stop him. I would like to see Paula switched into tons of pick and rolls to have to bang with AD and Trez. That would take a lot out of him, esp over a series. Dame ran him ragged. And Grant and Murray made him and Lou defend and run a ton. Seems to be his obvious kryptonite (not that PG is a superhero, but he can drop 40 and 50 point games). Make him defend for long stretches with a high-motion offense (Dallas, Spurs, Warriors, Blazers, Nugs). Our Bron and Ad iso’s and penetrate-kick sets are too easy for Kawhi and PG to defend. Like Houston always did to Steph, to slow him down and get higher percentage shots - PG should be targeted by Bron, Ad, Trez, and even Dennis. I really think he is mentally weak and if the D keys are on him, as opposed to Kawhi, teams will see more disappearing acts than 40 point games from him.
yeah, although i wouldn't expect him to produce two games like he did the other night in a seven game series. that game was a rarity for him, against anyone. i'd like to have gotten ibaka, but we had to pull the trigger on harrell when he became available to us, imo, and the clips were in position to have both of them on their roster with us having neither. getting harrell from them was actually pretty huge in terms of disrupting their team-building. they just saw an asset vanish. now, we didn't really acquire it, as he'll probably sign elsewhere next year, but they lost him for nothing. i think batum won't finish the season.
Damn, they scored too much... good thing the record for the lowest scoring half is theirs anyways LOL (they scored 19 against us in 99). Powerhouse
Biggest half-time deficit in the shot-clock era. No excuse for that, even if your best player is resting up in San Diego.
Currently 108-61. It’s one game, but it’s certainly symbolic of the loser mentality of that franchise and what a straight up loser Paul George is, as Kawhi didn’t play this game.
Poor Lee Jenkins probably is still trying to figure out some catchy new marketing slogan and campaign after last playoffs’ disaster and then they do THIS to him.
It's ok though, we manhandled the Mav's and today's total disintegration of the Clips was the most embarrassing loss in memory. This will stick with them and hopefully stir up some of that wonderful locker room chemistry Kawhi and Pauline are noted for. No leader = no quick recovery from losses like this. These things add up.
