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Cutheon
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Joined: 10 Jul 2009
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Location: Bay Area
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 Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:09 am Post subject: Zach Lowe: Clippers Preview |
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Link
Before I get skewered for posting a Clippers Preview, I thought I'd bring this gem to everyone's attention
| Quote: | Players admitted they were tired after racing through 14 fast-paced games against the Spurs and Rockets with a bench that featured two viable NBA players — one of whom was Austin Rivers. After falling on his face in his first year as GM, Doc Rivers overhauled that bench by signing Paul Pierce, Josh Smith, Wesley Johnson, Pablo Prigioni, and Cole Aldrich on the cheap, and flipping Spencer Hawes for Lance Stephenson in a trade of outcasts — a brilliant gamble for a team with no other realistic means to acquire young talent. Fatigue shouldn’t be an issue this time around.
Rivers says he won’t accept exhaustion as an excuse for the Houston debacle, even as he brings up the epic exertion required to outlast San Antonio. “Me and Pop [Gregg Popovich] were joking afterward,” Rivers recalls, “about how the winner of that series might have really lost. It took its toll.”
Rivers says his team didn’t take Houston seriously. He had to repeat himself in film sessions and walk-throughs. “San Antonio got our full attention,” Rivers says. “The Rockets, for whatever reason, didn’t.” Rivers praises Houston for rallying, but he remembers every Clippers mistake and every perceived injustice from the officials in alarming detail. There was a Corey Brewer and-1 early in the fourth quarter of Game 6 to cut L.A.’s lead to nine that should have been a charge, Rivers says, and Dwight Howard picking up a flagrant foul and a technical foul in separate incidents. “Dwight was doing everything he could to get thrown out,” Rivers recalls. “He had one flagrant, and he probably should have had another. But credit those guys. They fought.”
Some players, damningly, agree with Rivers’s claim that they didn’t grant Houston enough respect. “We never thought we could lose three in a row to them,” says one. The Clippers relaxed when things were easy and froze up when the Rockets made them difficult. That sounds like a team that should be asking whether it lacks some indefinable championship quality, but the Clippers aren’t going there — yet.
“I know we have that mettle,” Crawford says, citing road wins in San Antonio to even last year’s series at 2-2 and 3-3. “I know we have a special group.” |
Just (bleep) lol. Stupid Clippers. Doc Rivers always, always, ready with excuses
Last edited by Cutheon on Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:19 am; edited 1 time in total |
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fiendishoc
Star Player
Joined: 23 Jun 2005
Posts: 8488
Location: The (real) short corner
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| Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:19 am Post subject: |
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On Wes Johnson:
| Quote: | | And in Stephenson, they finally have the long, burly wing capable of at least hanging with Durant, LeBron, Kawhi Leonard, and other studs. (For what it’s worth, Rivers thinks Johnson has a shot against them, too, even though he brings a track record of shaky defense. “We watched him in the gym the other day and just said, ‘(bleep), you can defend!’” Rivers says, laughing. “‘Where the (bleep) has that been?’”) |
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Cutheon
Franchise Player
Joined: 10 Jul 2009
Posts: 12161
Location: Bay Area
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| Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:23 am Post subject: |
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| ^ A lot like that through the article. Snippets that show the delusion of grandeur the Clippers have. It's pretty great. |
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ocho
Retired Number
Joined: 24 May 2005
Posts: 53788
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| Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:51 am Post subject: |
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| Cutheon wrote: | | ^ A lot like that through the article. Snippets that show the delusion of grandeur the Clippers have. It's pretty great. |
Pretty healthy sense of entitlement with that group. |
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Wilkes52
Star Player
Joined: 02 Jun 2009
Posts: 2415
Location: Far from home
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| Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:52 am Post subject: |
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| fiendishoc wrote: | On Wes Johnson:
| Quote: | | And in Stephenson, they finally have the long, burly wing capable of at least hanging with Durant, LeBron, Kawhi Leonard, and other studs. (For what it’s worth, Rivers thinks Johnson has a shot against them, too, even though he brings a track record of shaky defense. “We watched him in the gym the other day and just said, ‘(bleep), you can defend!’” Rivers says, laughing. “‘Where the (bleep) has that been?’”) |
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Yeah, wha ?
Long, burly wing ? He's barely a big guard and no match for the named company. It's the sound of whistling in the dark when one ignores the chasm which separates the levels of play between Lance and all of those studs: Durant, LeBron, Kawhi, (and others.) Sports-writing is nothing if not good comedy at its best.
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Telleris
Star Player
Joined: 28 May 2013
Posts: 2371
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| Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:49 pm Post subject: Re: Zach Lowe: Clippers Preview |
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| Cutheon wrote: | Link
Before I get skewered for posting a Clippers Preview, I thought I'd bring this gem to everyone's attention
| Quote: | Players admitted they were tired after racing through 14 fast-paced games against the Spurs and Rockets with a bench that featured two viable NBA players — one of whom was Austin Rivers. After falling on his face in his first year as GM, Doc Rivers overhauled that bench by signing Paul Pierce, Josh Smith, Wesley Johnson, Pablo Prigioni, and Cole Aldrich on the cheap, and flipping Spencer Hawes for Lance Stephenson in a trade of outcasts — a brilliant gamble for a team with no other realistic means to acquire young talent. Fatigue shouldn’t be an issue this time around.
Rivers says he won’t accept exhaustion as an excuse for the Houston debacle, even as he brings up the epic exertion required to outlast San Antonio. “Me and Pop [Gregg Popovich] were joking afterward,” Rivers recalls, “about how the winner of that series might have really lost. It took its toll.”
Rivers says his team didn’t take Houston seriously. He had to repeat himself in film sessions and walk-throughs. “San Antonio got our full attention,” Rivers says. “The Rockets, for whatever reason, didn’t.” Rivers praises Houston for rallying, but he remembers every Clippers mistake and every perceived injustice from the officials in alarming detail. There was a Corey Brewer and-1 early in the fourth quarter of Game 6 to cut L.A.’s lead to nine that should have been a charge, Rivers says, and Dwight Howard picking up a flagrant foul and a technical foul in separate incidents. “Dwight was doing everything he could to get thrown out,” Rivers recalls. “He had one flagrant, and he probably should have had another. But credit those guys. They fought.”
Some players, damningly, agree with Rivers’s claim that they didn’t grant Houston enough respect. “We never thought we could lose three in a row to them,” says one. The Clippers relaxed when things were easy and froze up when the Rockets made them difficult. That sounds like a team that should be asking whether it lacks some indefinable championship quality, but the Clippers aren’t going there — yet.
“I know we have that mettle,” Crawford says, citing road wins in San Antonio to even last year’s series at 2-2 and 3-3. “I know we have a special group.” |
Just (bleep) lol. Stupid Clippers. Doc Rivers always, always, ready with excuses |
Don't forget that he'll say he's not giving excuses beforehand.
Another thing though, they're a franchise that has never made it out of the 2nd round with a lead player whose famous for the same fate and they didn't take the closeout games of the 2nd round seriously?
How freaking bad can your coach actually be to allow that?!?!?
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I believe everything the media tells me except for anything for which I have direct personal knowledge, which they always get wrong |
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Telleris
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| Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 5:12 am Post subject: Re: Zach Lowe: Clippers Preview |
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I'm probably the only person here who has watched the clippers preseason so far (although tbh i've been watching replays to skip most of the stuff), and man their bench, it hurts my eyes, the iso hero hall of chuck going on, Stephenson, Smith, Crawford and Austin. You'd feel cheated to be outplayed by their bench because it means the chuck is having its (very very very) rare good day.
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I believe everything the media tells me except for anything for which I have direct personal knowledge, which they always get wrong |
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fiendishoc
Star Player
Joined: 23 Jun 2005
Posts: 8488
Location: The (real) short corner
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| Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 6:07 am Post subject: Re: Zach Lowe: Clippers Preview |
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| Telleris wrote: | | I'm probably the only person here who has watched the clippers preseason so far (although tbh i've been watching replays to skip most of the stuff), and man their bench, it hurts my eyes, the iso hero hall of chuck going on, Stephenson, Smith, Crawford and Austin. You'd feel cheated to be outplayed by their bench because it means the chuck is having its (very very very) rare good day. |
Watching Stephenson play is especially painful. |
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KeepItRealOrElse
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Joined: 11 Oct 2012
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| Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 6:42 am Post subject: |
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I watched their first preseason game and it was like all the wild dogs w rabies got let off their leash. Smith and Stevenson were playing at their full capacity of horrible/reckless. I can see Doc having made an agreement with them like "oh yea, since you guys are so talented and we're bringing you off the bench - you guys can just wild out, be 2nd unit superstars unhinged , you guys deserve the ultimate green light " . And it was about as bad as I've seen Smith and Lance play.
Lance is a bad half-season away from everybody realizing he belongs on a streetball court and not the NBA. I think he's going to be horrible for them |
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Telleris
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Joined: 28 May 2013
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| Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 4:07 pm Post subject: |
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| KeepItRealOrElse wrote: | I watched their first preseason game and it was like all the wild dogs w rabies got let off their leash. Smith and Stevenson were playing at their full capacity of horrible/reckless. I can see Doc having made an agreement with them like "oh yea, since you guys are so talented and we're bringing you off the bench - you guys can just wild out, be 2nd unit superstars unhinged , you guys deserve the ultimate green light " . And it was about as bad as I've seen Smith and Lance play.
Lance is a bad half-season away from everybody realizing he belongs on a streetball court and not the NBA. I think he's going to be horrible for them |
somehow they're getting worse, i'm not sure how but their last game was the worst of them. I'd say they couldn't get any worse, but i'm not sure i should put a limit on it....
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KeepItRealOrElse
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Joined: 11 Oct 2012
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2015 5:03 am Post subject: |
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| Telleris wrote: | | KeepItRealOrElse wrote: | I watched their first preseason game and it was like all the wild dogs w rabies got let off their leash. Smith and Stevenson were playing at their full capacity of horrible/reckless. I can see Doc having made an agreement with them like "oh yea, since you guys are so talented and we're bringing you off the bench - you guys can just wild out, be 2nd unit superstars unhinged , you guys deserve the ultimate green light " . And it was about as bad as I've seen Smith and Lance play.
Lance is a bad half-season away from everybody realizing he belongs on a streetball court and not the NBA. I think he's going to be horrible for them |
somehow they're getting worse, i'm not sure how but their last game was the worst of them. I'd say they couldn't get any worse, but i'm not sure i should put a limit on it.... |
that's gunna be oh so fun to watch. |
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