Monthly Archives: January 2012

We’re about one-fourth of the way through the 2012 season, and we can safely say that the Clippers are who we thought they were: a good, but not great, team with a few glaring weaknesses.  Chief among those weaknesses is their anemic bench play.  Given that they traded away three rotation players to obtain Chris Paul, it’s not surprising that their bench is thin.  Far too often, we’ve seen the starters build up a lead in the first quarter, only to watch the second unit let the opponent climb back into the game.  Per 82games.com, each of the Clippers’ starters has a highly positive “Net48,” which is a measure of a player’s plus/minus per 48 minutes.  For example, Chauncey Billups leads the team in Net48 at 6.9; this means that the Clippers outscore their opponents by 6.9 points per 48 minutes when Chauncey is on the floor.  Once you get past the five starters, the Net48 figures get ugly: Mo Williams (-5.6), Randy Foye (-7.6), Reggie Evans (-9.0), and Ryan Gomes (-4.9) are squandering much of the cushion that the starters have built up.

The fundamental problem is that the second unit is completely incapable of generating easy baskets.  The Clippers’ bench (defined for the purposes of this post as Williams, Foye, Gomes, Evans, Solomon Jones, and Brian Cook) features just one player (Williams) with an above average usage rate.  The two big men in the bench rotation, Evans and Jones, have single-digit usage rates, which means they are almost non-existent on offense.  When the starters come out, the offense generally consists of Mo, Foye, and Gomes playing hot potato around the perimeter, with the possession ultimately coming down to a long jumper by Mo or Foye.  An astounding 64.7% of the shots attempted by the second unit have been from 16 feet or deeper.

Fortunately for the Clippers, Mo Williams has been on a rampage from outside, single-handedly keeping the Clippers competitive while the starters rest.  Mo is draining 45% of his threes and 52% of his shots overall.  His hot shooting has bailed the bench out of innumerable ghastly possessions.  One shudders at the thought of how atrocious the second unit will be when Mo inevitably regresses to his career shooting percentages of 39% from three and 44% overall.

So how can the Clippers fix their bench?  Well, the obvious answer is better players.  As I see it, the Clippers have just two legitimate NBA rotation-quality players on the bench, Mo and Reggie Evans.  Ryan Gomes, Brian Cook, and Solomon Jones have no business sniffing minutes outside of garbage time.  Randy Foye will, at times, fool you into thinking he’s a legitimate asset, but he has never posted a PER above 14.0 in his NBA career (he’s at 11.4 this year), nor a true shooting percentage anywhere close to the league average.  So that leaves the Clippers with a total of seven bona fide NBA players.  Come playoff time, that might be enough; rotations are usually truncated to 7-8 men in the postseason.  But if the likes of Gomes and Jones continue to suck away minutes from the starters, the Clips may not even reach the playoffs.  That is especially true in this compressed season in which legs are tired and injuries are frequent.

The Clippers desperately need two additional players: a fourth guard who can generate his own shot and a big man who can score off the bench.  It would also be nice if said big man had enough size to guard centers, as I never again want to see Reggie Evans trying to defend Pau Gasol.  Then again, any big man who can score and guard centers is probably a borderline all-star making $10 million a year.  Speaking of which, isn’t it ironic that Chris Kaman, whom New Orleans is actively shopping, would be the perfect tonic for the Clippers’ bench?  Playing with the second unit, Chris could shine against backup big men, and could be the offensive focal point he always thought he deserved to be.  Maybe the Hornets would be interested in some kind of Kaman+Gordon+Aminu for CP3 package.

Partial relief may be on the way as soon as tomorrow.  Eric Bledsoe is expected to make his return against the Nuggets on Sunday.  Per the Los Angeles Times, Bledsoe will compete with Foye for minutes.  It’s awfully generous to Randy Foye to use the verb “compete” in that context.  Bledsoe may or may not be the better overall player, but he will be a much better fit in the Clippers’ second unit.  In his rookie year, Bledsoe showed that he has one elite NBA skill: attacking the rim.  37% of Bledsoe’s field goal attempts last year were at the rim, according to hoopdata.com; Foye, on the other hand, shoots just 18% of his attempts from short range.  Considering the current second unit’s proclivity for hoisting jumpers, Bledsoe will add a welcome new dimension.  For what it’s worth, the proprietary SCHOENE analytics system developed by Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus predicts that Bledsoe will have a breakout season.  Even if he merely maintains last season’s level of play, he’ll inject some energy into the listless Clippers bench as the fourth guard behind Paul, Billups, and Williams.

That leaves the Clippers with one final hole to fill.  They must find an offensively-inclined backup big man, so that they are not playing three-on-five whenever Blake takes a breather.  Any PF/C combination of Jones, Evans, and DeAndre Jordan allows the defense to cheat onto the perimeter and force contested jumpshots.  A big man who can keep the defense honest would help to space the floor and balance out the second team; and, in case you are wondering, Brian Cook is emphatically not that big man.

One intriguing possibility is Kenyon Martin.  Martin signed a one-year contract with the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers (almost certainly the name of my next rec league team), but will be eligible to return to the NBA as early as February 16.  According  to ESPN, the Clippers are one of five teams (NYK, SAS, MIA, ATL are the others) pursuing Martin.  Chauncey Billups, Martin’s former Nuggets teammate, has reportedly been recruiting him for some time.  The Clippers and the Knicks can offer Martin more money – the $2.5 million “mini-midlevel” exception – than any of his other suitors.  As the Knicks are miserable, the Clippers would seem to be in the pole position to land Martin; although I could certainly see him taking less money to play in Miami.

I fear you a lot, Kenyon.

So does the former #1 overall pick have anything left in the tank at age 34?  Perhaps the more appropriate question is, could he possibly be any worse than the dreaded Brian Cook/Solomon Jones tandem?  The numbers indicate that Martin still has plenty to offer.  Coming off of knee surgery, Martin played nearly 26 minutes per game for Denver last year.  While he’s no longer the offensive threat he was in his New Jersey heyday, he still posted a very respectable true shooting percentage of 52.6%.  With the exception of points, his per-minute stats were roughly in line with his career averages.  When you factor in his playoff experience and toughness, it looks like it would be a major coup to sign Martin for a pro-rated $2.5 million contract.

Martin and Bledsoe would elevate the Clippers’ second unit from putrid to, at the very least, solid.  If Bledsoe can cut down his turnovers (he was fourth in the NBA in turnover rate last year) and improve his outside shot, and Martin can sustain last year’s level of productivity, then the bench could potentially become a major advantage.  Williams, Bledsoe, Gomes, Evans, and Martin would form a nice blend of finesse and ruggedness, with both offensive firepower and defensive toughness.  If the Martin acquisition falls through, then there are myriad trade scenarios for the Clippers to explore.  Mo and Bledsoe are both attractive trade chips; one would think that either could fetch a solid backup center in return.  Even Randy Foye has some trade value thanks to his $4.25 million expiring contract.  But those are possibilities to explore in a later post, if and when Kenyon Martin signs elsewhere.

I went to the Clips-Grizz game tonight with great tickets from my soon-to-be firm.  It was kind of a low energy night.  It felt safe to chalk this one up as a win the moment Memphis decided to guard Blake with Rudy Gay.  The Clips flirted with disaster, but ultimately had enough firepower to stave off the Grizz.  It was good to get a win under our belt before a tough Denver-OKC back-to-back.  And also good to see Mo steal Chauncey’s minutes in the 4th quarter.

I want to apologize to my four loyal readers for the lack of content lately.  It’s been a pretty hectic last week or two at work, and sadly my blogging productivity has suffered.  I’ll try to post something substantial this weekend – maybe a “should the Clips trade Blake for Dwight?” debate.

Even though I haven’t been posting prolifically, I’ve been getting solid blog traffic due to “Chris Paul Fat” Google searches.  Every time the Clips play on national TV, I get a flurry of hits thanks to this post.  Chris Paul’s grandma arms – the gift that keeps on giving.

There would be multiple broken objects in my home if the Clippers had lost today. In fact, I would have been gravely concerned if it had been remotely close. Luckily, it wasn’t. Note to readers who had better things to do than watch a Clippers-Raptors game at 12:30 on a Sunday afternoon (congrats on having a substantially better life than me): the final score is misleading, as the Clips held a comfortable 15-20 point lead for most of the second half. Even without Chris Paul, the talent disparity between these two team is vast. Toronto’s starting lineup today consisted of…avert your eyes you are squeamish…Jose Calderon, DeMar DeRozan, Amir Johnson, Ed Davis, and James Johnson. Cue the “Could Duke beat the Raptors?” jokes. The biggest scoring threat in that starting lineup is Compton’s own DeMar DeRozan (A.K.A. “DeDe”), who is averaging 14.8 points per game with a Billupsian field goal percentage of 39.5%. To be fair to the Raptors, their best offensive player, Andrea Bargnani, sat out his sixth consecutive game with a calf injury.

True to form, the Raptors starters combined for 33 points on 9-40 shooting. DeDe lead the charge, scoring 15 points on 4-19 shooting. Did the Clippers play great defense? I don’t know. Honestly, I was flipping back and forth between the Clips game and the Pats-Ravens game, with a heavy bias toward the latter during the second half. So don’t expect any earth-shattering insights from me in this recap (I know – a drastic deviation from the norm).

It is games like this one that highlight the evolving culture and expectations surrounding the Clippers. In the past few years, I would never have taken a game for granted. Even a home game against an ailing Raptors squad was not a sure thing. ‘Sure, if we play well, we’ll win,’ was my mindset. But there was always the chance that we would come out flat and play down to the level of the competition. With this team, we don’t have to worry about that (at least not at home). First of all, we’re just too talented to lose games against the Torontoes (Torontos?) of the league. Second, and more importantly, the Clippers will be held accountable this year. In years past, a loss in a game like this would have drawn boos from the 8,000 fans in attendance and perhaps a “Clips Let One Slip Away Against Raptors” headline from Lisa Dillman in the back pages of the LA Times sports section. Now? Something along the lines of “Reeling Clips Blow Another” would have graced ESPN’s NBA front page.

Another factor working to the Clippers’ advantage in games like this is their team chemistry. They seem to genuinely like and enjoy playing with each other. Whereas previous Clippers teams might have sleepwalked through this game, this team was engaged and energetic. Blake and DeAndre were trying to outdo one another in a dunkfest (DJ won handily). When Mo Williams caught fire in the 4th quarter, the bench guys were freaking out like it was the last minute of a playoff game. Reggie Evans was so hyped up that he damn near broke Mo’s hand in a late-game high-five.

Speaking of Reggie, he has already become a fan favorite, as I predicted on the day they signed him.  I also correctly predicted that “Reg-gie!” chants would regularly ring out at Staples.  I’m not sure the chant was warranted today (1 point, 3 rebounds, 4 fouls in 14 minutes), but I’m not going to object.

The big story today, other than the Raptors being terrible, was DeAndre Jordan.  He put up 16 points and 16 rebounds.  His reverse alley-oop in the third quarter was one of the best dunks I’ve seen all year (skip to 0:35 mark: http://youtu.be/3CLGP-Wvd1E); if Blake had done it, it would already be in a Kia commercial.  DJ has now posted big scoring numbers in two out of the last three games (19 points against Dallas).  Is this something we should get accustomed to?  No.  Chalk this one up to the matchup.  The Raptors’ tallest starter is Ed Davis, generously listed at 6’10″.  Matched up against the likes of Davis, Amir Johnson, Aaron Gray (vertical leap: approximately 0.4 cm), and Jamaal Magloire (age: approximately 47), DJ was simply able to take the elevator up to an extra floor tonight.  It didn’t hurt that the Raptors’ guards couldn’t contain Billups and Mo to save their lives, forcing the bigs to rotate off of DJ.

Mo continued his torrid shooting tonight, posting 26 points on just 15 field goal attempts.  Since returning from his foot injury, he has scored 25+ points in three consecutive games.  He is simply in the zone right now.  Even his misses today went deep in the well before bouncing out.  Much was made of his excellent conditioning heading into the season, as he spent the offseason gearing up to be the starter on what he guaranteed was a playoff team.  Of course, the Paul and Billups acquisitions relegated Mo to the bench, and he was averaging just north of 20 minutes per game until CP3 got hurt.  It will be interesting to see how Vinny manages Mo’s minutes when Paul returns.  He’s playing on an entirely different level than Chauncey Billups, and if that trend continues, Vinny may have to consider making Mo our crunch-time shooting guard. 

Speaking of Mr. Every Big Shot, I declared after Friday’s game that he ”is strictly a shooting guard at this point.”  In light of tonight’s game, that comment might have been premature.  Shooting guards, after all, tend to be able to shoot.  Chauncey was 1-9 from the field, dropping his FG% to 34.4%.  To his credit, his true shooting percentage is a very respectable 55.2% because of his high 3P% and FT%.  But more interestingly, Chauncey dished out a whopping 14 assists today.  That’s his highest assist total since December 2, 2008 (coincidentally, also a 14-assist game against Toronto).  It’s nice to see that Chauncey is still capable of passing once in a while.

Next up is the Lakers on Wednesday, in what promises to be a hotly contested battle.

I just got back from the game.  The whole night was pretty much a disaster.  It’s hard to get too upset about the loss, considering we were without three (CP3, Caron, Mo) of our five best offensive weapons in crunch time.  I will try to write a full recap tomorrow when I’ve had some time to digest everything.  For now, here are my quick takes:

-I know the T-Wolves are 7-8 and have some quality wins, but I was unimpressed.  They basically consist of Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio, and spare parts.  There’s nobody on that team who can create a good shot for himself.  Kevin Love is a nice little spot up shooter, and he gets lots of putback buckets, but they just don’t have the scorers to win close games (yes, I realize how stupid that sounds after they just beat the Clippers on a buzzer-beater).  I predict a final W-L record of something like 24-42.

-Chauncey Billups had one assist and four turnovers.  He is strictly a shooting guard at this point.  He’s incapable of turning the corner off the pick and roll, and I don’t think he could beat Zydrunas Ilgauskas off the dribble.  I was hoping he might be able to take advantage of the diminutive Luke Ridnour in the post tonight, but instead he was content to hoist up long jumpers.  He made 6 of13 from the field tonight, which is nothing to complain about, but he did not generate any offense for the rest of the team.  He also opened the door for the Wolves to steal the game by not only missing a potential game-winner, but leaving too much time on the clock.  You HAVE to end up with the last shot when you have the ball with 20 seconds left in a tie game.

-I don’t even want to talk about Darko Milicic scoring 22 points.  Or Ricky Rubio’s annoying cult of followers, who go freaking apeshit every time he makes an unnecessary behind-the-back pass.

-33 made field goals; 12 assists; 18 turnovers.  Chris Paul, we need you.  I promise I’ll stop making fat jokes if you come back soon.  PS – nice crib.

-The turning point in my opinion was the second technical foul on Mo Williams.  At the 6:20 mark, the refs mistakenly called a personal foul on Mo after Ricky Rubio slipped and fell.  I didn’t even see Mo’s reaction, so I’m not sure if he deserved to get Tee’d up, but I started to feel the game slip away at that moment.  Up until then, the Clippers simply had more firepower than the Wolves.  I wasn’t worried at all, because it felt like we could just step on the gas and pull away whenever we needed to.  Mo in particular was lighting it up, with 25 points on 10-15 shooting.  Sans Mo, however, the Clippers were forced to resort to a predictable two-man game with Chauncey and Blake.  Suddenly every possession was a desperate, grind-it-out affair, usually resulting in a contested jumpshot.

-I may or may not have seen a dead guy on the sidewalk at 8th & Hope after the game.  At first I thought it was your everyday sleeping homeless guy and I walked on by.  After a double-take, I realized he was a relatively well-dressed young guy.  He was breathing, but was completely unresponsive to our questions and pokes.  A security guard from the office building across the street called 911, and Marie and I left just as the ambulances were pulling up.  I hope he was just a passed out drunk kid.  The experience helped shake me out of my post-game funk; I guess it hammered home that there are worse things in life than losing on a buzzer-beater.

“Just when I thought you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this…and totally redeem yourself!”  -Harry Dunne, Dumb and Dumber.

I was cursing Chauncey Billups for (almost) the entire fourth quarter tonight.  He checked in for Randy Foye at the 8:56 mark, and proceeded to clank a long jumper eight seconds later.  About a minute after that, Billups hit a three-pointer to give the Clippers a three point lead.  Uh oh, I thought.  I’ve noticed that whenever Chauncey (or, as my friend Jon calls him, “Mr. Every Shot”) makes a three, he feels entitled to jack up a terrible shot on the ensuing possession.  True to form, he chucked up failed three-pointers on two out of the Clippers’ next three possessions.  He launched both of these wild shots with more than ten seconds remaining on the shot clock and nobody in offensive rebounding position.  So much for the veteran savvy for which Billups is consistently praised.

Thanks to a combination of stifling Clipper defense, some lucky Dirk misses, and two bailout shots by Mo Williams, the Clippers held a five-point lead with 0:41 left.  Despite Mo Williams’s hot hand, Chauncey took it upon himself to ice the game.  He drove into traffic and attempted a no-look shovel pass to DeAndre (I think) across the key.  The errant pass went directly into the quick hands of Shawn Marion, and who ignited a Dallas fast break that resulted in a Jason Terry three-pointer.  Just like that, it was 88-86 with 0:36 left.  You’ll never guess who attempted to come to the rescue on the next Clippers possession.  It was Mr. Every Shot, with an awkward twelve footer from the right baseline that barely grazed iron.  Dirk Nowitzki got his hands on the rebound, but lazily left the ball exposed, allowing DeAndre to swoop in and tie him up for a jump ball with 0:20 left.  DeAndre outjumped Dirk and knocked the ball in Chauncey’s direction.  There was a bit of a scuffle for the ball, but Chauncey ended up with it in his hands.  He caught it in an awkward spot, trapped near the sideline by Jason Kidd and Ian Mahinmi, with Mo Williams sprawled out on the floor beneath him.  Instead of calling for a timeout, Chauncey tried to muscle through the trap, and ended up dropping the ball out of bounds (in Chauncey’s defense, Kidd clearly fouled him).  And just like that, thanks to an appalling series of Billups miscues, the Mavs had a chance to tie or take the lead with 0:14 remaining.

As you know by now, DeAndre Jordan played comically poor pick and roll defense and Jason Terry knocked down another three to put the Mavs up by a point with five seconds to go. For all the steps forward DeAndre has taken this year, he took about one hundred steps back with his boneheaded failure to switch onto Terry on that pick-and-roll.  Any time you have a chance to leave one of the best clutch shooters of our generation wide open for a game-winning three, you have to jump on it.  Anyway, Terry knocked down the three, made a complex series of gang signs, and strutted back to the Mavs bench with a victory seemingly in hand.

Enter Mr. Big Shot.  With 4.2 seconds left and the Clips inbounding from the right baseline corner, the beleaguered Vinny Del Negro…wait for it…actually drew up a good play!  Granted, he has called this play numerous times before; it seems to be the only play in his end-of-game arsenal.  And I’m pretty sure the only reason he knows the play is that the Hawks beat the Clips with the very same play last season.  Regardless, I’ll give Vinny credit where credit is due.  Chauncey inbounded the ball to Blake at the elbow extended and ran a tight curl around Blake.  From there, it was Blake’s read: if the defense overplayed Chauncey, Blake would drive to the bucket and attempt to score it himself.  If the defense sagged off Chauncey (as Jason Kidd did), then Blake would kick it out for the three.  Blake made the right read, and Chauncey totally redeemed himself after an otherwise horrendous fourth quarter.

I still can’t believe the Clippers pulled this one out.  On the third game of a B2B2B, playing against a motivated Mavs team that had just lost a heartbreaker to the Lakers on national TV, I thought we would have to play a nearly perfect game to pull out a victory.  Yet somehow the Clippers cobbled together a win in spite of their terrible offensive performance.  It wasn’t pretty, but of course I will take it.  I just hope Chris Paul gets healthy soon so I never again have to watch Chauncey direct the late-game offense.

Let’s face it: any real Clippers fan knew that we didn’t stand a chance last night.  The odds were stacked heavily against the Clippers.  First off, heading into the game, the Clippers were an astounding 1-41 in their last 42 games at Utah.  The combination of the altitude and the rabid LDS fans seems to create an insurmountable hump for the Clips.  Second, this was the second game of a back-to-back-to-back (B2B2B), and a road game at that – 700 miles from home.  If the Clippers were conserving energy for their home battle with Dallas tonight, I can’t entirely blame them.  Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they were once again without Chris Paul and Mo Williams.  That means that Trey Thompkins and Lil Wayne Courtney Fortson saw significant playing time, even before the score got lopsided.  Yikes.

It would be an utter waste of time to recap this game.  The Clippers were tired and sluggish.  They trailed 11-2 five minutes into the game, confirming all of my suspicions that it would be a laugher.  Let’s just hope the energy level is better against Dallas tonight.  And Chris Paul, please get well soon.

I had to work today, so I couldn’t make it to the Clippers game.  I gave my tickets to my friend Steven, on the condition that he write a recap for me.  Without further ado, here is his recap:

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The Clippers beat an elite team for the second time in as many games.  Unlike their victory over the Heat on Wednesday, this win was not tainted by the opponent’s gaffes.  This one felt different.  This time the Clippers won convincingly, seizing control early and never relinquishing it.  They were the better team.  And, in what ultimately came down to a battle of superstars, they had the best player on the court.

The scowl.

Kobe Bryant had a spectacular game, extending his 40+ point game streak with 42 points on 14-28 shooting.  He also shattered the NBA record for “jutting jaw, gritted teeth” sneers by a player on a losing team.  After scoring just 11 points (on 3-12 shooting) in the first half, Kobe’s streak appeared to be in jeopardy.  But the Black Mamba came out with guns blazing in the third quarter, scoring 21 points in the period on a variety of jaw-dropping fadeaways and pull-ups.  Caron Butler, Randy Foye, and Ryan Gomes did an admirable job of defending Bryant – he simply made literally unstoppable shots.  How do you defend a fadeaway, twisting, falling out of bounds three-pointer from three feet behind the arc?  You wouldn’t even think to defend that shot, because no player in his right mind would attempt it.

Kobe’s shot selection was like nothing I’ve ever witnessed.  His ballhoggery reached comical proportions.  We’ve all had that experience of playing pickup basketball with that guy who literally does not pass.  When that guy is on your team, even if he’s hitting his shots, it’s easy to lose interest in the game; your defensive intensity wanes a bit, and off-the-ball movement seems like a waste of energy.  Kobe was that guy tonight.  His usage rate was an astronomical 44.2%.  That means Kobe ended 44.2% of his team’s possessions while he was on the court.  I am tempted to re-watch the game and count the number of times Kobe passed the ball in the fourth quarter.  I remember him hitting Artest for a bucket early in the quarter.  I also recall a hilarious possession in which he went up for a jumper, realized it was about to get blocked, and then, as a last resort, threw a half-pass/half-shot to Pau Gasol, who was so surprised by Kobe’s selflessness that he fumbled the pass out of bounds.

If you’re a Laker fan, it’s hard to complain as long as he continues hitting a high percentage of his shots.  The Lakers are 3-1 during Kobe’s streak, and he’s shooting about 50%.  But we are one 10-for-32 Kobe performance away from a Bynum and Gasol mutiny.  As Ralph Lawler and Mike Smith repeatedly noted, Gasol and Bynum were completely neutered by Bryant’s selfishness.  Smith cracked, “The Lakers say they don’t want to trade Gasol and Bynum for Howard – but why not?  They don’t use ‘em anyway!”  Coming into this game, my biggest fear was that Bynum and Gasol would dominate the Clippers’ relatively undersized frontcourt.  I feared that DeAndre would get into foul trouble and we’d be left with two 6’9” guys (Blake and Reggie) guarding the Lakers’ two seven-footers.  Bynum did take advantage of his size when given the opportunity; he shot 5-6 at the rim according to hoopdata.com.  But Bynum ultimately attempted just thirteen shots, and only four of those attempts came after halftime.  I saw Bynum laughing on the bench at the end of the game; he did not look like a guy who was particularly invested in his team’s performance.  That’s what happens when a superstar goes into hero mode and neglects his supporting cast.

The contrast between Kobe and Chris Paul could not have been more stark.  Paul scored an efficient 33 points on just 22 field goal attempts.  Most of his attempts were jumpshots (16 attempts from beyond 10 feet, according to Hoopdata), taken reluctantly, for lack of a better option.  Unlike Bryant, Paul’s first preference has always been to find his open teammates.  He shoots only when the defense forces him to.  Last night, he bailed the Clippers out with several late-in-the-shot-clock jumpers; he shot because he had to, not because he wanted to.  Paul continues to rise to the occasion, stepping up his shooting when necessary, and deferring to others when appropriate.

It was also interesting to observe Paul’s reactions after his big baskets.  Whereas Kobe sneers and thumps his chest in an exaggerated impression of Michael Jordan, Paul doesn’t celebrate; you’re more likely to see him scream at DeAndre Jordan to hustle back on defense.  After his ridiculous bail-out three pointer from about 35-feet, Paul rolled his eyes, smiled, and – if my lip-reading is accurate – said “Woo-ey!”  If Kobe had hit a shot like that, there’s a good chance he would have pulled down his shorts and exposed his genitals to the crowd.

The NBA is a superstar’s game.  You need to have at least one to be successful.  Last night’s game demonstrated why I would take our pudgy little floor general over the Black Mamba every day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

Quickly, some other storylines from the game:

-Reggie Evans is a hero.  Reggie snared six offensive rebounds over Pau and Bynum, despite his 3-4” height disadvantage.  He works harder on the glass than any player I’ve ever seen.  Kobe threw his big men under the bus after the game, repeatedly pointing to the Clippers’ 17 offensive rebounds as the reason for the loss.  I cannot wait until this Lakers season spectacularly implodes, and I’m glad that Reggie played a small part in the collapse.

-It is such a luxury to have Chauncey Billups.  He had a quiet 19 points tonight.  His shot selection continues to be highly questionable, but that has always been his style.  With Chauncey, you take the bitter (quick threes with nobody in rebounding position) with the sweet (4-6 from deep).  When Chris Paul had to leave at the 4-minute mark because of his hamstring, I had no doubt that Chauncey would keep the game under control and pull out the win.  If CP3 has to miss a few games because of his injury, we are in good shape with Billups at the helm.

-Blake played aggressive offense, attacking Gasol and Bynum despite their length.  It wasn’t pretty, but through a combination of running half-hooks and spin moves, Blake shot 7-12 from inside 10-feet.  He also pulled down 14 rebounds, many of which were well above the rim.

-Caron Butler appears to be an adequate wing defender.  After holding LeBron to 23 points on 7-19 shooting on Wednesday, Butler forced Kobe to take incredibly difficult shots.  Almost every time Kobe released an attempt, I found myself yelling “Great defense!”  That those ridiculous shots ended up dropping cannot be blamed on Caron.

-One other great piece of news for Clippers fans: a post-game X-ray revealed bone spurs in Brian Cook’s ankle and he may miss some time.  Hallelujah!

-CP3 left the game early with an apparent hamstring injury.  The Clippers are calling it a strained hamstring.  I haven’t heard any reports about the severity of the injury.  After the game, Paul said that he wanted to check back in, but trainer Jasen Powell instructed him to sit out.  Paul said that he would have “tussled” with Powell if the game had been closer.  Hopefully this is just a “day-to-day” type injury.

-Lakers fans will of course dismiss this game as meaningless because the Lakers were in the second night of a back-to-back.  In fact, Silver Screen and Roll, the primary Lakers blog, entitled its game recap “Chris Paul, Rested Clippers Too Much for Lakers.”  The not-too-subtle implication is that the Lakers only lost because they were tired.  Another featured post-game article on that blog is called “Schedule Losses.”    Listen, I went to the Cavs-Lakers game on Friday (I documented my nightmarish experience here).  The Lakers played about as hard against the Cavs as I do when I go one-on-one against my five year-old nephew.  They toyed with the Cavs all night.  If the Lakers were truly tired after that game, then they had better be prepared for a rough season.

-In terms of opponent quality, the Clippers have concluded the hard part of their early schedule.  In my recap of the Spurs game a few weeks ago, I commented that a 3-6 start was within the realm of possibility.  The Clips have certainly gelled more rapidly than I expected.  Their three losses have come against the Spurs, Bulls, and Blazers – nothing to be ashamed of, especially considering how recently our roster was assembled.  We’ve proven that we can beat elite teams on our own home court (Blazers, Heat, Lakers).  The next step is to show that we can win on the road against quality opponents.  We now pay the price for our restful first few weeks (just nine games in 21 days), with nine games in the next two weeks, including the dreaded back-to-back-to-back stretch beginning tomorrow.

Clippers fans: it is a new era.  Last night, we were better than the Lakers.  Barring injury, there’s no reason to think that won’t hold true for the next several years.