Official Game Thread: Hawks at Clippers

[lethalweapon3]

OK, Boomer.

 

Leave. Doc. Rivers. Alone!

Everything’s all lined up for the LA Clippers’ jack-in-the-box kazillionaire owner Steve Ballmer. The reigning Finals MVP and the biggest prize from the 2018 free agent class, Kawhi Leonard, now suits up for him. Third in last year’s MVP voting, Paul George engineered a move to come play with Kawhi, too.

PG’s shoulder is now healthy enough that he can play in his Staples Center premiere as a Clipper, tonight against the Atlanta Hawks (10:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, Fox Sports Prime Ticket).

Pat Beverley, with these two SoCal superstars, can form as sound a defensive trio as you’ll find anywhere in The Association. Throw in perennial Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams, six-foot-seven sugar cube Montrezl Harrell and a slew of contributors that know their roles well.

Ballmer has the Clip Joint poised in perfect position to face off with his cross-arena rivals, the Los Angeles LeBronkers, for supremacy in the Western Conference, if not the entire league, over the next two seasons. For Ballmer, the cash will be rolling in like never before.

I’m not all that sure, frankly, if Doc Rivers is gonna be able to see this thing through.

Sorry, but I just want longevity, fortune and happiness for all our ex-Hawk greats, particularly after the players “retire.” And I’ve never worried so much about poor Glenn running himself into the ground.

Now in his third decade of head-coaching in the NBA, Doc has over 1,500 games running the sidelines under his belt, not counting nearly 900 games he logged, spread out over 13 seasons, as a pro player. These days, he gets the pleasure of coaching his Clippers team against players like his son, Austin, and his new son-in-law, Seth Curry.

This man has survived getting traded by his Hawks to the LAughingstock Clippers way back in 1991, an appetizer for skeptical Hawks fans a few years before Nique was served up as the main course. He survived watching Charles Smith wall-ball away his last big shot at a title, as a starter, with the Knicks against the ’93 Bulls. Before hanging up his jersey at age 34, he survived Rainbow Brite Rodman on the Spurs.

As a first-year head coach, he survived a roster stacked with unknowns Ben Wallace, John Amaechi and Michael Doleac, earning Coach of the Year honors after breaking even with 41 wins in post-Shaq Orlando. He survived spurning would-be Magic star Tim Duncan’s request for family members to fly in the team’s plane, because Rules, and should-be star Grant Hill’s brittle body breaking down before his eyes.

He survived three declining years as a coach in Boston and was rewarded with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen along the way to 2008’s NBA title. He survived Allen seeking out greener pastures in Miami, and the perpetual strain of keeping Ref-Bumper Rondo in check. He survived Danny Ainge effectively shopping him to LA, a team that needed his coaching magic to rub off on Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.

He survived the Sterlings. The Sterlings!

He survived the added duty of being basketball-ops president for three seasons, chasing free agents in the summer, trying to keep the Clippers’ contention afloat. He survived DeAndre’ Jordan nearly bailing for Dallas in the middle of it all. He survived the side-eyes gained from signing and playing Austin for years. He survived Ballmer, through executive Lawrence Frank, blowing the whole thing up, beginning in the summer of 2017 with the CP3 trade.

He survived every NBA lockout period. Before all of this, heck, he survived growing up in Chicagoland.

Look at the man. Does that look like a guy that has yet to see age 60? Father Time is unkind to us all, but geez. Is that Doc, or Dikembe? Ignore the carefully scrawled “hair” line. I mean this out of pure, nostalgic Hawksfan love: Doc is looking rough, folks. That’s a walking antacids billboard, right there, no cap.

I’d rather Rivers be sitting outside, in his yard, yelling at a cloud, not inside, at Tony Brothers, a few dozen nights per year. I’d much prefer Doc giving his money away at the roulette tables, not doling it out by the tens of thousands to Kiki Vandeweghe nearly every time he’s asked for his opinion.

Coach Kenny knows what I’m talking about. “You want me to go Doc Rivers on ya?”, Atkinson quipped just this past weekend, the Nets coach pressed by media for his unmitigated “opinion,” about the new greenlight coaches’ challenge rule. “I don’t love it, because I don’t want to be focusing on the referees when I coach.” That, and Kenny’s securing his bag.

I mean, c’mon, that man has a family to feed! As does Rivers, as his kids marry Curries and add even more doe-eyed crumb-snatchers to Grampaw Doc’s stable. One minute, you’re smitten with love and unbridled passion. The next minute, you’ve got one kid throwing her arms around this whippersnapper who buries threes on your team’s heads, and another kid egging on the refs, and the crowd, to get you tossed from his arena. “You’re not the boss of us, Paw!”

“The refs screwed up,” Doc Don’t Lie told reporters after his Clippers succumbed to James Harden and company in Houston’s 102-93 win on Wednesday. Minutes before, late in the fourth quarter, he challenged an out-of-bounds call. You were right, the refs assured him, but you were a split-second too slow to hit the Greenlight thingamajig, so the errant call stands. However, Doc, good news! We saved money on our car insurance, and you get to keep the timeout you would have forfeited, had your challenge failed.

With two timeouts in his pocket and the game hanging in the balance, he calls for one with 90 seconds remaining, only to have Brothers advise him he’s now fresh out of them. “No,” Doc recalls Terrible Tony telling him, “when you called that timeout, you lost it.” No, Tony, Doc will now show you what “losing it” really looks like. What is this, The New Ref Math?

Rivers was left looking like the red homie on “Inside Out.” The Rockets’ Austin, probably last chastised by his pops for breaking some expensive vase after being warned not to play ball in the house, could not contain his glee as it was unfolding. You hate to love to see it. In the heat of the moment, I’m just happy Doc didn’t have a helmet to hurl at Tony B. and the Boyz.

Fined tens of thousands for ripping the refs… in 2009. In 2013. In 2014. In 2016. In 2018, as Doc’s googol-aire boss watches on in sympathetic solidarity. He’ll get fined, yet again, for his consistent statements on how awful Brothers and his notoriously ratchet brethren are at their jerbs, especially when their egos can’t allow them to own up to blatant mistakes.

Doc gets fined for the “inconsistent” statements, too, like earlier this month, about how the injury-managed Leonard (DNP’d on the back-to-back Thursday in New Orleans) is feeling nowadays. “Good morning, how are you today, Klaw?” “Oh, never been better! I’m literally feeling… fine!” Fifty thousand dollars fine, to be exact. “Tell me, Doc, you played against MJ in your day, how does free agent Kawhi compare to His Airness?” He doesn’t even get a penny for his thoughts, but Doc is always expected to give up a dollar when he shares them.

Now, what about Pop, you might ask? Gregg’s a different case. First, he’s made it all the way through his 60s, and the man’s got it made. After all, he’s got RINGZ. Plural. He’ll probably get a nice medal in Tokyo next year, too, just for occasionally glaring and pouting and pointing and smart-azz-ing sideline reporters while The Real Dream Team steamrolls Angola or somebody (sorry, Bruno).

You think failing to win another NBA title while putting LaMarcus Aldridge, DeMar DeRozan and Rudy Gay on Front Street is going to tarnish Pop’s legacy, or threaten his job-for-life-if-he-chooses status one iota? You think he stresses over that, either way? Nah, Coach Pop is more of a tenured dean, while Doc is merely an accomplished professor who catches flak from the regents for occasionally going nutty.

I think the coaches’ association and the AARP ought to swing a special deal for folks like Pop and Doc. If you’ve reached a certain age, maybe 55, and you can claim at least one NBA ring as a head coach, you get a 75% discount on all fines levied by the league for your ref-rants. Or, for just about anything about which you can’t hold your tongue. So long as you’re not, like, imperiling players and staff overseas with the threat of extrajudicial imprisonment or flogging or bonesaws by offering your views, have at it. Spo, Nurse, Steve, hang on for just a couple more years. Bud, you’ve still got work to do.

Rivers does have a near All-Star array of reliable assistant coaches at his side: former Hawks guards Armond Hill and Tyronn Lue, and Sam Cassell most notably. Already having contemplated retirement back in 2011 with Boston before deciding to stick around, I would prefer Doc nominate a successor for future seasons, after NBA win number 1,000 arrives, and get the baton-passing process underway, sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, having a healthy PG and Kawhi balling out for him, maybe even together at times, will help the Clippers’ anxiety-burdened coach get through the next 70-plus games a little better. George fell just short of the scoring marks held by Cassell (35), Phil Smith and (don’t remind us) Nique (34 each), by scoring 33 in his Clipper debut on Thursday, a 132-127 loss to the Pels that dropped LA to 7-5 on the season.

The argument I made about the Clips’ stout defensive potential is not so much “on paper” as it is on damp, no-frills bathroom tissue. LA has won just one contest in which they’ve allowed more than 102 points to the opposition, and that was to Golden State back on October 24. When Kawhi (26.8 PPG, 8.9 RPG, 2.1 SPG) plays, the Clipper D has tended to hold firm. In the three games he hasn’t, and Doc has to turn to Harrell or LouWill as a lead scorer, the results (0-3, 123.7 opp. PPG, 43.7 opp. 3FG%) haven’t been pretty.

Even when Kawhi has contributed, if the Clippers get sloppy defending perimeter shooters as they did in October 26’s 130-122 loss at Phoenix (17-for-43 on 3FGs), they can get burned. George was on hand as they gave up a season-worst 52.9 3FG% on 34 Pelican shots. Surely, with PG and Kawhi (3^rd and 4^th among active NBA players for SPG) as an on-floor duo, the Clips (98.7 D-Rating in wins, 114.4 in losses) will get better at defensive consistency. We just have yet to see it unfold.

Lloyd Pierce knows all about the Suns’ newfound mastery of the long ball. He also knows when his team is getting screwjobbed, one whistle at a time. “10 of the same offensive fouls,” Pierce noted after Atlanta (4-7) was left to sulk through the end of their 128-112 loss in Phoenix on Thursday night. “When our bigs are rolling, and you (random Suns cactus) step underneath our bigs, it’s tough.” Still pretty new to the game as a head coach, Pierce is trying to tip-toe through the media minefield to avoid fine-leveling criticism, much like his bigs and rookies look on their graceless drives into the paint.

Cam Reddish may look like Gene Kelly without an umbrella on his forays to the basket, but maybe he’s onto something. He drew two flagrant rookie-call fouls while Bowling for Big Men, and he got to join DeAndre’ Bembry in hitting the showers early. The already short-handed Hawks were about done at that juncture.

“Not a fun game,” said LP to postgame reporters, “That’s all I got.” Smart man, Lloyd. Secure the bag. Pierce, like Rivers, is not going to skirt around his team’s on-court failings (13 missed at-rim 2FGs after the 1^st quarter; letting folks like Oubre, Saric and Kaminsky go awf) just to center blame on the greyshirts for losses.

Against the Clipshow, with two stars likely on the floor together for the first time, Pierce is going to need his longest-tenured Hawk, Bembry, on his best behavior. Assertive, but not prone to wasting his aggressions out on the Ricky Rubios and Pat Beverleys of the world. Bembry ought to leave it to Trae Young to get under these vets’ skin, or through their legs, as the case may be.

One of the early signs we had that Trae was starting to grab a toehold on the league came at an exasperated Beverley’s expense, here at Staples, back in January. On the way to a 123-118 victory, Young treated us with a fine offensive performance (26 points, 8-for-11 2FGs, 8 assists, 1 TO), the rookie leaving Bev and just about anyone assigned to him befuddled.

Even Alex Len got in on the act, outperforming 6MOY candidate Harrell off the bench with 19 points, 9 boards and a trio of assists in just under 21 minutes. Len’s recent play in his return to a bench role, at Denver and Phoenix, offers tantalizing hope for the Hawks’ future rotations, once starters John Collins and Kevin Huerter and some vet reserves get back up to speed.

The Hawks (29.5 O-Reb%, 3^rd in NBA) are one of the few teams currently out-doing the Clippers (29.4 O-Reb%, 3^rd in NBA) on the offensive glass. Beverley will need help from George and Leonard to force turnovers, keeping Young from getting shots off and cleanly passing to open teammates. But the pressure will be on Ivica Zubac, Harrell and the Clipper bigs to box out and terminate Atlanta possessions with sound rebounds and outlets.

Drawing fouls (24.9 personals/game) more than any team other than the Suns (26.0) this season, the Clippers have been treated to more free throw tries than any team without a Giannis or a Harden on the roster, and they just got George (5^th in league for FTAs last season) back in the fray. If they can slow the game down and wear down the Hawks early with whistles to open up a sizable lead, Atlanta will be tempted to save its energies for tomorrow in this same venue, when (maybe) LeBron and (maybe) Anthony Davis will be waiting.

Doc Rivers’ stellar NBA playing career, including an All-Star appearance in 1988 as a Hawk (we saving his number’s retirement ceremony for Alex Len, or…?), doesn’t pass muster for a spot in Springfield. But his coaching career does pass the smell test. I ask, do you want Austin mumbling through a posthumous induction speech on his dad’s behalf?

Of course not. You’ll want to enjoy unvarnished, fine-me-later-if-you-still-can tales and commentary, straight from Doc’s mouth. That’s why, as appreciative Hawks fans, we need to keep Doc’s wellness and his wallet, as he sails the next two championship campaigns amid the rough, unforgiving seas of LA and the national media, in our thoughts and prayers.

Yikes, that’s not a good look, Glenn. Is there a small-d doc in the house?

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[Thomas]

4 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

Serious Stream of Consciousness stuff there guy. Amazing.

[Spud2nique]

Nice early game thread lw3! Man, is it just me or have you been covering some awesome folks lately... Sap, Baze, Monty (1-2 in those games) and now Doc.

Say what you want about Doc’s numbers as a Hawk, but to have Alex Len as you mentioned running around wearing #25 makes me feel... not great inside. Again, he wasn’t the best point guard of the 80’s but he was our guy, Nique’s co pilot if you will.

It’ll be a tough game in Clipper lan today but I think we can possibly catch them off guard having just gotten their 2 superstars in for the first game tonight. 
 

Bev is a pest. Trae needs to play a bit cautiously. Look I love Bev’s hustle but I feel nervous with his style of play around Trae. If you can’t make a play, don’t press, not tonight.

 

Go Hawks!!!! 

[Thomas]

19 hours ago, Spud2nique said:

Say what you want about Doc’s numbers as a Hawk, but to have Alex Len as you mentioned running around wearing #25 makes me feel... not great inside. Again, he wasn’t the best point guard of the 80’s but he was our guy, Nique’s co pilot if you will.

Once Doc got thru that playoff series against the Pistons he went straight to work on the foul line and it became a good part of his game as opposed to being the" hack him" in the last minutes of the game guy. Good defender and was humble as well when with us so a very likable cat. 

[Spud2nique]

Kawhi vs Kawhi take 1...

 

[capstone21]

1 hour ago, Spud2nique said:

Nice early game thread lw3! Man, is it just me or have you been covering some awesome folks lately... Sap, Baze, Monty (1-2 in those games) and now Doc.

Say what you want about Doc’s numbers as a Hawk, but to have Alex Len as you mentioned running around wearing #25 makes me feel... not great inside. Again, he wasn’t the best point guard of the 80’s but he was our guy, Nique’s co pilot if you will.

It’ll be a tough game in Clipper lan today but I think we can possibly catch them off guard having just gotten their 2 superstars in for the first game tonight. 
 

Bev is a pest. Trae needs to play a bit cautiously. Look I love Bev’s hustle but I feel nervous with his style of play around Trae. If you can’t make a play, don’t press, not tonight.

 

Go Hawks!!!! 

I agree with you ... I would have loved to have seen Doc get his number retired ... you score 10 points in a game and the Celtics retire a jersey 

[NBASupes]

Interesting game.

[NBASupes]

Lil' Baby Paul George v. PG13

Lil' Baby Klaw v. Kawhi 

Harrell v. Parker

Len v. Zubac

 

Of all of the team, we are most like the Clippers. We are just young and they are vets. 

Edited November 16, 2019 by NBASupes

[lethalweapon3]

No change yet to the Load, I mean, Injury Management status for Kawhi, from last night.

Filling in at guard with Kawhi and Landry Shamet (out, ankle sprain, no timetable) against New Orleans was Terance Mann, the rookie out of Florida State.

Pat Bev (calf) also remains questionable, as LouWill filled in with a start against the Pelicans.

 

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Pat Bev (calf) also remains questionable, as LouWill filled in with a start against the Pelicans.

If Lou Will draw Trae on D tonight Trae is breaking Nique’s career best 57 tonight. I’m just gonna say that right now.  

I don’t think Lou can guard a chair. Again pretty cool dude though and the new age Vinny the Micowave. Don’t let this guy light up otherwise a possible 57 the other way. 
 

I feel like a circus number coming up from somebody in one of these games.

The record I’d want Trae to break is single season assist record held by Stockton 14.54 in the 89-90 season. 
 

The other one is the Skiles 30 dimes in a game in 1990 as well. This one I think Trae has a decent shot at in the next few seasons, the Stockton one seems much harder obviously.

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

Never thought it would happen!

[Dnice]

Me either 

[Thomas]

1 hour ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

Never thought it would happen!

Going with the "Believe it when I see it mantra."

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

Doc with the jokes!

 

 

[JTB]

Shout to Stan Van Gundy! He’s the first national media person I heard give us our props defensively (But even better he did it on national tv)... and even went down the defensive team rankings in specific categories.

 

i hope we can pull off a win tonight.

[Dnice]

Crabbe in, Parsons available now Turner?

Just what the heck is going on?

[bleachkit]

Kawhi and Bev out. Let's get this one!

[JayBirdHawk]

I'm already sleepy and the game hasn't started.

Hate these very late games!