+1 I'm completely with you guys Scola/Landry or the 2 headed monster Scolandry, the best AND the toughest PF combo in the league, PERIOD.
Great game! Loved seeing T-mac dominate. landry's also gotten better about fouling. That was very nice to see. Dude just ate Craig Smith for dinner. I hope the guys shower and dress fast because they got a game tomorrow at 7PM EST... they have to get out by 11 CST then fly 3 hours to orlando. By that time it'll be 3 AM eastern... Great freaking schedule NBA!
Battier did what he usually does, play stellar defense. Without him alternating between Davis and Gordon, who knows how they would have gone off on us.
Its impossible not to love this team. Tmac played great tonight, and looks like he could definitely mix in quite well. Landry continues to shine, particularly in the fourth. Even JT looked good and got some playing time tonight. Love it. Whats going on here is getting much bigger than any particular player. I'm just hoping it continues to grow. Chuck Battier Scola AB Ariza Landry Lowry TMac Andersen CBud JT Von
Taylor showed me enough where he should get some of Ariza's minutes. I was down on Ariza coming here and then I tried to look at the bright side of things but this guy turned out worse than I could have imagined. I watch a team full of guys playing balls-to-the-wall and having fun doing it but there is this one guy who seems to not be at the same energy level and his name is Trevor Ariza. I literally hold my breathe every time he touches the ball in anticipation of badly missed jumper or a turnover. Jermaine Taylor has joined the list of wing players on the team who are a better fit. At least Taylor plays honest to goodness defense and attacks the rim like he means it. Get Ariza out of town ASAP.
I don't get the hate. Didn't Ariza have a 30 point outing in the last game? Granted his percentages are low relative to the volume he is shooting, and perhaps some constructive criticism is in order for shot selection on occasion, but to say Ariza doesn't play defense is just plain wrong. Also, Ariza has been the one to shoot when the shot clock is running down, he is the one who has to create out of nothing. Myself, I still am an Ariza fan.
Dave, I gave you a compliment on another thread, but I would have to disagree with you on Trevor, mainly because he is playing out of position and out of character. Trevor will get better once we get a decent starting shooting guard and Trevor comes back to his true sf role.
There are not many players who could not have a 30 point game if they took as many shots as Ariza does. The reason he is shooting last second shots is because he has no awareness of the shot clock or the ability (or willingness?) to make the pass. Defensively, he is good at times, average at times and below average some times. I thought we were getting an elite defender? I never said Ariza doesn't play defense but I have not seen him put forth the intensity or concentration the Taylor put into his defense tonight. It was right in line with what Lowry, Hayes and Battier do. Ariza is, at best, the fourth best defender on the team and that's excluding Taylor since he rarely plays.
Adelman showing off his genius again when he put in JT. The Clippers run was halted, and we added to the lead again while he was in the game.
Is Battier going somewhere? I hope not. We don't win tonight's game without his defense. SG and SF is pretty much interchangeable. Trevor will be doing the same things at SF he does at SG. Same ball-handling and the same shots. Now I do agree that if we get a scoring-minded wing it might take a few shots away from Trevor. That would be a good thing. Hopefully, it would help him focus more energy on being the defender he is supposed to be as well. I just don't buy the "he's being forced to be something he is not" line of thinking. We are 1/3 through the season and if anything the guy is regressing on both sides of the court.
Taylor and McGrady made up for the absence of Budinger tonight. Combined, the rook and the vet played 16:20, shot 50% and recorded 12 points, 4 assists and 2 rebounds. McGrady looked great and Taylor looked pretty good too.
I say this team w/o Ariza wouldn't be as good. I like his defensive intensity. I think he moves the ball when it counts, and he hits some big shots. He also takes it to the hole to keep the other team honest. I may be wrong, but I think that Ariza attacks so much, even when he is off, it opens up things for others. Also his misses (not the one's at the FT line) but his misses have something to do with our high offensive rebound ranking, i.e. he shoots at good times when he draws defenders and its a good opportunity for our offensive rebounders to hit the glass (not always but more than you might think). And remember Ariza played 47 minutes last night compared to JT's 8 minute stretch which was his first that long of the season. (To take nothing away from JT's game tonight which was great).
Ah yes. That would be icining on this beautiful cake... Have him just for the playoffs... Wishful thinking though, but whatever.
http://clipperblog.com/?gcid=C12289x022>kw=L.A.+Clippers: ClipperBlog The league is changing and the seismic shift can be felt most conspicuously in the front-court. Some teams are getting stretchier at both the power forward and center, while others are employing smaller, more agile bigs who can beat you from any spot on the floor. The Clippers, as currently constituted, have real vulnerabilities defending this new breed of big men. They field two traditional 7-footers whose primary strengths are shot blocking, weak side help and basket protection, but who struggle with quick, versatile athletes like Carl Landry who have a range of offensive weaponry that can combat length. Landry unleashes that arsenal tonight against the Clippers’ big men. Landry embodies all the strengths of Rick Adelman’s read-and-react offense. We see this on his first score at (1st, 8:21) when Kaman leaves him at the weak elbow to cut off a potential baseline drive by Luis Scola. Landry immediately dives to the hoop behind Kaman where he receives the feed from Scola. He’s fouled on the play, and sinks his first two of what will be 13 free throws on the night. When Brian Skinner checks in for the Clippers in the second period, Landry faces up and uses that big drop step to create room to burst past his slower defender to the rack for another trip to the stripe. Landry is particularly useful in transition because he can beat just about every big down the floor and set up position just a few feet away from the hoop, which is how he gets his first bucket from the field (2nd, 10:37). Chris Kaman applies his size and footwork to establish his dominance down low, while Landry uses his agility, strength and capacity to manufacture shots from anywhere. Since the Rockets’ halfcourt program is all about creating pockets of space on the floor that players can fill for clean looks, Landry’s ability to hurt you underneath, off the dribble, and as a face-up jump shooter makes him invaluable in that system. The Clippers have scrapped their way into the top half of the league defensively, but they simply don’t have the personnel to match up against a big — and I use the term loosely — like Landry who moves his defenders around the floor. Blake Griffin is slated to be that defender, but until he takes the floor, the Clippers will have to hope that when Kaman and Camby get drawn outside, or beaten off the dribble, there’s someone on the wing who can prevent the Carl Landrys from slipping to the basket. And when faced-up one-on-one, the Clippers’ big men are going to need help dealing with that mobility. Tonight, the Clips do no such thing and, despite their length, get absolutely shredded inside by Landry’s athleticism. It’s not all Landry. Throughout the game, the Rockets run interference at Marcus Camby, whose primary assignment is Luis Scola. Sometimes it’s Landry rolling off a high screen that diverts Camby. Other times, it’s penetration by Lowry that demands Camby’s attention. But whenever Camby steps in to help, Scola flashes to the high post or floats out to the baseline between 15 and 18 feet, or merely finds the open side of the glass and awaits a pass for a close-range shot. How do the Rockets get such easy shots? They move the ball from side to side to scramble the defense. We see it on their first score of the night. Aaron Brooks and Chuck Hayes run a little pick-and-roll on the right side. After Camby gets lured to the action to cut off potential penetration by Aaron Brooks, the Rockets swing it around to Scola, who has floated out to that spot along the baseline. The Clippers, whose entire defense has tilted to the ball side, can’t close quickly enough, and Scola hits the 17-footer. Figure that the Clippers’ first two defensive priorities of the evening were to (1) transition defense and (2) chase the Rockets’ shooters off the line. Mission accomplished on both fronts. The Clippers win the fast break battle 21-6, while they hold the Rockets to 5-18 from beyond the arc. Apart from Kyle Lowry and Tracy McGrady’s brief cameo, the Rockets’ perimeter players have forgettable evenings. Instead, the Rockets adjust by drawing contact inside (the aforementioned Landry), and using their big men in step-out situations once Camby and Kaman commit themselves to help. Why? Because that’s what the defense is giving them — which is the governing principle of their offense this season. All five guys in the Rockets’ unit are forever surveying the floor to see where the defense is overcommitting. When they identify that spot, they move to it. And the man with the ball is attuned to that dynamic. Next time you catch the Rockets on TV or in person, watch how each guy is scanning the floor. They’re acutely aware that shot creation won’t (can’t) come from any individual talent — though both Landry and Ariza have their opportunities against certain matchups — it’ll come from the acquisition of open space. And that open space develops because the defense gets drawn to the ball. Fill that space, reverse the ball, convert the open look. That’s what Houston does tonight, and it succeeds against a Clippers team that has a reasonably efficient offensive night of their own: 99 points on 94 possessions. The Clippers derive their offense by exploiting their two best mismatches on the floor — Baron Davis (vs. Aaron Brooks) and Chris Kaman (vs. Houston’s committee). They work themselve a bevy of good shots, but they’re still too impatient. For every nice kickout to Eric Gordon for an open 3PA, there’s a silly jumper off the dribble early in the shot clock by the usual guilty parties. Or missed opportunities in the half-court because the man with the ball has blinders on. It’s smart to be on the attack, but it’s better to recognize that sometimes the attack — especially when the defense collapses — is a means not an end. The best shot on the floor is often in your peripheral vision. Baron deserves a lot of praise. He assists the four other starters at least once, and establishes the offensive flow from the beginning of the game. He even works Marcus into the offense to start the fourth quarter on a couple of pretty feeds close to the basket. The majority of Baron’s shots were inside of 10 feet, and that doesn’t include the drives to the hoop that result in four trips to the line. But more important, he’s guiding his teammates to the places on the floor where they can do the most good. Kaman exploits single coverage for the second consecutive night, and controls the right side of the floor with a series of hooks, baseline drives and jumpers off screens. With a few exceptions, the quality of his non-jumpers correspond with the compactness of his dribble moves. He’s introducing a touch pass to Camby on the weak side, and is anticipating double-teams more alertly. He’s often passing the ball out just before he’s blitzed or, even better, he’s spinning away from the help to create a shot for himself. Tonight’s six turnovers were less about defensive pressure and more a symptom of carelessness.
Check out the post-game recap on Yahoo. T-Mac shows some dissatisfaction with the 8 minutes he's getting each night. “I felt good each game, building a little more confidence and a little bit better rhythm and shape,” McGrady said. “It’s a process. There’s really not much you can do in eight minutes but I was just trying to go out there gradually and play off of instinct and hopefully I’ll start to come around.”
On a side note, I was constantly distracted by Morey's behavior in the stands tonight. I was sitting on the floor under our basket and I kept seeing him to my left about 10 rows up. He looked agitated all night. Then he checks his Blackberry, turns really red, throws it into his pocket and pushes his hair back. Then he gets it back out, hammers out a text message and literally throws it inside his jacket again. I was joking with my friend that his straight up D-Wade for T-Mac deal must have not gone through. He seemed completely out of the game, then next thing I know he is grabbing his kid's neck and the kid is crying. His wife actually switched seats with his son. Later he was celebrating or booing really obscure basketball moments (ie not baskets and obvious defense like most normal fans react to). He ended the night giving dap to some little kids sitting in front of them. Long story short: major emotional swings. I guess the mad scientist is coming out. Who would have thought that getting paid millions of dollars for running stats and watching a great team play would be so stressful.
