OFFICIAL LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS 2023-2024 SEASON THREAD

[Nipsey3000]

our win over dallas may be one of the most important wins in the final games of this regular season. why? because dallas is currently the 7th seed and with utah winning in denver, utah is a game behind dallas for the 7th seed. if utah can pass dallas for the 7th seed. gsw would have to play dallas in the first round. dallas can potentially give gsw a good series as they have given them fits at times this year.

 

[a-friend]

our win over dallas may be one of the most important wins in the final games of this regular season. why? because dallas is currently the 7th seed and with utah winning in denver, utah is a game behind dallas for the 7th seed. if utah can pass dallas for the 7th seed. gsw would have to play dallas in the first round. dallas can potentially give gsw a good series as they have given them fits at times this year.

Utah won't pass them and they play Dallas tomorrow, Utah loses with Favors banged up.
Dallas will Beat Utah then Spurs and end in 6th, Memphis has LAC/GSW, that will be 2 losses, and Utah will have LAL to finish though for one more win.

If anything Is certain, it's UTAH at 8

 

[Nipsey3000]

Utah won't pass them and they play Dallas tomorrow, Utah loses with Favors banged up.
Dallas will Beat Utah then Spurs and end in 6th, Memphis has LAC/GSW, that will be 2 losses, and Utah will have LAL to finish though for one more win.

If anything Is certain, it's UTAH at 8

utah has dallas at home. without favors its still a win-able game, then they finish up with LAL which they have owned this year along with everyone else.

dallas, as stated before has at utan and then a game vs. the spurs, which even though the spurs may rest half the team is still not a gimmie.

so, its hard for me to see how you are certain that utah is a lock at 8. it may very well happen...but the point of my original comment was that utah's win vs. den and LAC beating dal, has given legs to my theory. if den beats utah and LAC loses to the mavs...we wouldnt be having the discussion.

 

[shoeking2102]

Utah will give GSW a good series. At least everything suggest that. Played them very well this season.

 

[shoeking2102]

Bros the Clips haven't lost since Blake's been back, have won 9 of 10, and have had the best defense in the entire NBA over that span, and have the 6th best defense in the league overall.

I like it, I like it a lot.

 

[lawdog1]

Bros the Clips haven't lost since Blake's been back, have won 9 of 10, and have had the best defense in the entire NBA over that span, and have the 6th best defense in the league overall.

I like it, I like it a lot.

Trying to temper my expectations and not read too much into these recent games since this is such a weird time of the season. But it is not lost on me that we pulled out wins against teams that still have something on the line like Utah and Dallas.

And going back to a point you made in an earlier post about us always going to 7 games in the playoffs since CP3's been here, if ever there was a team that should have learned a lesson about not taking games for granted, its us. Really felt like we mailed it in during game 5 of the Rockets series last year because we figured we could just wrap things up at home. Better not make that kind of mistake this season.

 

[shoeking2102]

Trying to temper my expectations and not read too much into these recent games since this is such a weird time of the season. But it is not lost on me that we pulled out wins against teams that still have something on the line like Utah and Dallas.

And going back to a point you made in an earlier post about us always going to 7 games in the playoffs since CP3's been here, if ever there was a team that should have learned a lesson about not taking games for granted, its us. Really felt like we mailed it in during game 5 of the Rockets series last year because we figured we could just wrap things up at home. Better not make that kind of mistake this season.

Bingo. So true. And yeah I'm definitely tempering my expectations, still think we lose in 5 to gsw but this to me is the best team in the CP era by far. Elite on both sides of the ball and on pace to win 54 games w/Blake missing 45 of those. That's great stuff right there. Shame we have to play the greatest basketball team of all time in the 2nd round lol

 

[HIM]

Was in NCY this past week andwasn't able to catch any Clippers games. Blakems 17-11-7 looked good in the box scoredoe. How did he look?

 

[a-friend]

 

Utah won't pass them and they play Dallas tomorrow, Utah loses with Favors banged up.
Dallas will Beat Utah then Spurs and end in 6th, Memphis has LAC/GSW, that will be 2 losses, and Utah will have LAL to finish though for one more win.

If anything Is certain, it's UTAH at 8

utah has dallas at home. without favors its still a win-able game, then they finish up with LAL which they have owned this year along with everyone else.

dallas, as stated before has at utan and then a game vs. the spurs, which even though the spurs may rest half the team is still not a gimmie.

so, its hard for me to see how you are certain that utah is a lock at 8. it may very well happen...but the point of my original comment was that utah's win vs. den and LAC beating dal, has given legs to my theory. if den beats utah and LAC loses to the mavs...we wouldnt be having the discussion.

All this speculation on both our parts and......Utah won't even make the playoffs.

That 8 seed belongs to Houston

 

[shoeking2102]

Was in NCY this past week andwasn't able to catch any Clippers games. Blakems 17-11-7 looked good in the box scoredoe. How did he look?

Awful first half. Couldn't hit a jumper, even airballed one badly. Had a solid 2nd half attacking the rim and making plays.

The playmaking and boarding is there, the touch w/his shot and finishing isn't there totally. But all in all, he's been okay.

 

[Nipsey3000]

OKC season over w/ a loss in ot to SAS tonight. can we catch them if we win out? how important is it? we are 2 games back w/ 2 to go

seeing the spurs in round 2 as opposed to gsw.

i just dont want to see another post season where gsw has the luxury to avoid us and/or the spurs

 

[Nipsey3000]

All this speculation on both our parts and......Utah won't even make the playoffs.
That 8 seed belongs to Houston

i think you are right OG

 

[lawdog1]

We definitely looking solid bros. Excited the playoffs are starting.

 

[shoeking2102]

We definitely looking solid bros. Excited the playoffs are starting.

Really hard to not get optimistic about this group man

After tonight, LAC has the 4th best defense in the league with a top5 offense with key bench guys like jeff jamal austin and wes johnson coming alive at the perfect time

This is far and away the best clipper team in the CP era.

 

[shoeking2102]

Gonna keep harping on this.

Austin Rivers is a swing player for us. More aptly, he's THE swing player for us. He's scoring over 10 a game and hitting 44% of his 3's since the AS break, and on high volume. That's a 20 game sample size in which he's shooting an elite percentage on solid volume. What's more, he's shooting over 46% from 3 on the road since AS break. (Beyond the first rd we don't have HC, so take it for what it's worth)

Expoliating that further, Austin is shooting 41% from 3 since Christmas on over 3 attempts per game. 

Then you factor in he's a talented defender, and can play downhill. He's not perfect, but if he carries this into the playoffs providing this kind of production off the bench, it completely changes our dynamic. He's a huge reason why the bench actually looks competent come playoff time. He won us a few games last postseason, and I could see him being an even bigger piece for us this postseason.

It's fun to joke about the coaches son, but it's probably been Doc's best move since becoming a GM. 

 

[lawdog1]

^^^ Yeah, if we're going to have a chance to get by GSW (and beat Portland fairly easily), we're going to need Austin to continue what he's been doing. Jamal too.

Given how well the bench has been playing generally, I kind of agree with something Mike Smith said yesterday during the game. Doc should not immediately go to the conventional playoff strategy of shortening the rotation. Keep playing the way we have been and see how it goes. The fresher that CP, Blake and DJ can be for round 2, the more it works in our favor.

 

[HIM]

Was Doc GM when we got JJ? If so, that's the best move he's made.

We're gonna sweep GSW.

 

[shoeking2102]

So we officially got portland.

CP3 has averaged 24 and 11 over the past two seasons against Portland. 

Clips have taken 3 of 4 against them this season and had similar success against them last season.

Dame and CJ of course can get scary.

 

[shoeking2102]

The media bias against LAC in full effect.

So many people are saying Portland could make things interesting, this could be the upset of the first round, etc. etc. Dame this, CJ that, etc.

Which very well could happen. Believe me, with this team and the playoffs, things can and have happened before.

But when evaluating this series from an unbiased perspective, everything suggest that this is going to be a hard fought sweep or 5 game series in favor of the Clippers. The Clippers are top 5 in offense and defense, have the best quartet in the league, career years from CP and JJ, 

Meanwhile Portland is one of the worst defenses in the league, have beaten LAC once or twice or something like that in the past 12 tries, Dame is awful against LAC I mean...what am I missing here? Someone convince me why I should think this series goes longer than 5.

 

[lawdog1]

The media bias against LAC in full effect.

So many people are saying Portland could make things interesting, this could be the upset of the first round, etc. etc. Dame this, CJ that, etc.

Which very well could happen. Believe me, with this team and the playoffs, things can and have happened before.

But when evaluating this series from an unbiased perspective, everything suggest that this is going to be a hard fought sweep or 5 game series in favor of the Clippers. The Clippers are top 5 in offense and defense, have the best quartet in the league, career years from CP and JJ, 

Meanwhile Portland is one of the worst defenses in the league, have beaten LAC once or twice or something like that in the past 12 tries, Dame is awful against LAC I mean...what am I missing here? Someone convince me why I should think this series goes longer than 5.

You're not missing anything. It is the Clippers bias, along with the continuing impact of how we choked last year. You take that, along with the fact that the other 1st round series' in the West look like complete mismatches, the media is going to pick us as the one West team that maybe could get upset. But when anyone looks it objectively, considering all the stats, etc., really should be a short series in our favor.

They even talked about it on the ESPN broadcast of the Warriors game last night. JVG was saying how all the 1st round series in the West are likely to be very short. There was a pause, then Mike Breen said, "what about Clippers-Blazers? There might be a chance for an upset there." Then JVG said, "No. Not really. That might be the closest series, but I still think the Clippers probably will win in 5 games."

 

[HIM]

To be fair, if we're gonna even suggest that we have a shot at beating GSW, then we should let people pick Portland over us

I think we will beat Portland in 5/6 but I've been on this planet too long to be surprised if we lose.


But I think if you had to choose one upset (which the media does every year) you can't argue that this is the most likely one. GSW, OKC, SAS have 0 shot of losing in the first.

 

[Nipsey3000]

it'll be interesting to see who checks CJ. especially if he's rolling. but we should be too much for POR

 

[HIM]

On another note, we just moved up 22 picks in the draft. By finishing with the 6th best record we can now swap 2nd rd picks with Brooklyn. Went from 55th to 33rd. DJ was the 35th pick for comparison. Let's hope we have another great pick

 

[shoeking2102]

Top 5 best games in CP's career happneed against Portland just last season. Sunday.

 

[wavycrocket]

Would like this series to be quick and surgical. 5 games at the most. Give Blake and CP more time to rest.

I'm REALLY interested in Doc's rotations and this whole PP/Luc thing. Jeff Green has been playing well lately.