LVP Candidate Blake Griffin 1-11 since OP was made; I lost

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Doc Rivers lost that game by not recognizing early enough that Brewer and josh were a real threat...the Clips just laid off of them while they shot 3 after 3....

It’s funny how everybody was mad at Doc at the time but now it’s all cp3’s fault

It was Doc's, Blake's and CP3's fault. They all played their part in it. Except CP3 stans are always trying to excuse-shovel and revise his postseason woes like his shyt doesn't stink.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Before anyone else comes in here with their revisionist bullshyt of what happened in the 4th quarter, Game 6 of that Clippers/Rockets series-

Rockets had all the momentum going into the 4th quarter (down by 13), this was Paul's opportunity to take control of the offense, and swing the game back in the Clippers favor - but this was what ensued:

First possession – Clippers spread the floor below the four points of the arc (Crawford has possession), Paul stands in the corner, DeAndre comes for the high screen to help Crawford shake his man – the ball doesn’t move and Crawford misses a shot. Although Crawford was mostly to blame for this possession, nobody even attempted to move without the ball – Paul included. This is where Paul needed to stabilize the offense by running a proper set while nullifying the hold Houston had on the game to start off the quarter on a good note.

Houston end up earning a trip to the free throw line – Brewer makes 1 from 2. Lead down to 12.

Next possession – Paul runs a PNP with Davis, who’s stranded just below the arc and looks to hand the ball to Crawford – that option is shutdown and Davis gives the ball back to Paul who aimlessly dribbles on the top right-hand side in front of Terry, who blocks his 3-pt attempt with 10 seconds left on the shotclock. (Paul 0-1 FGM)

This creates a play in transition for the Rockets who draw a foul on the play. Brewer ends up getting a layup on this possession. Lead down to 10.

Next possession – Full court-press on Paul, he gives the ball up to Crawford, Crawford brings it into the halfcourt, passes out to Davis [acting as the go-between], who looks at giving the ball to Paul, but Paul’s not paying attention to the play and Davis is forced to give it right back to Crawford – these two run some weakside PNR action that results in a turnover.

That’s three empty consecutive trips down the floor where Paul’s error of judgment, lack of urgency/attention and passiveness have proved costly.

Lucky for Paul - who makes a half-hearted attempt at a steal while not running back on defense - the Rockets turn the ball right back over. He’s thrown an outlet pass (as he’s positioned already near the halfcourt), fakes on a 3-pt attempt, drives and gets a foul call on a shot in the paint. He makes both free throws. Lead back up to 12.

Again, Paul makes a defensive blunder by missing his rotation on Ariza who hits a 3-pointer. Lead down to nine.

The next possession Paul initiates the offense, and does a great job with using the double screen by dribbling out of trouble and setting up Griffin who misses a wide open 16-ft jumper.

Rockets miss a shot at the other end of the floor, Crawford grabs the defensive rebound and pushes the ball into the halfcourt – Paul looks disinterested and slowly folds out to the right side and just stands there with his hands on his knees – not demanding the ball and not moving without it. DeAndre comes to screen Ariza, allowing Crawford to get into the lane but misses a shot.

The Clippers offense has failed to make a field goal in the first three minutes of the quarter – they’ve gone completely cold, Paul has failed to take control of the offense and the momentum is still in Houston’s favor.

Doc takes Paul out of the game and replaces him with Reddikk.

The next immediate possession the Clippers make their first field goal of the quarter (Reddikk 3-pter), Houston responds (Brewer 3-pter), Clippers hit right back on the next possession (Rivers And-One layup), then the Rockets score again. Clippers score 6 points in less than a minute without Paul on the court – lead remains at nine.

Paul re-enters the game for Rivers.

Next possession Paul slowly brings the ball into the halfcourt, dribbles around waiting for a pick instead of attacking the defense, forces an errant pass to Griffin off a cross-screen, ball is deflected out of bounds and the Clippers only have 7 secs left on the shotclock. Barnes looks to inbound the ball to Paul, but he’s making no attempt to split away from Terry who’s riding his hip. Barnes is then forced to throw the ball over Paul’s head to Griffin – Smith makes the steal and hits 3-pt jumper at the other end. Lead down to six.

Again Paul’s lack of urgency in getting the offense started is playing right into Houston’s hands.

For the first time in the quarter Paul brings the ball up the court with pace, fakes out on the double screen; Howard and Smith fail to close the gap and Paul takes the ball straight to the rim for a layup. Quick and decisive from Paul - one can’t help but think why wasn’t Paul this aggressive during the first 5-6 minutes of the quarter? Why didn’t he take a more active role in the offense when Houston kept chipping away at the margin? Lead now at 8 (Paul 1-2 FGM)

Smith makes a three at the other end. Lead now down to 5.

Paul pushes the ball again into the halfcourt with pace, uses the top screen and get to the left-elbow (least preferred side) – but he does an unnecessary 360 spin while attempting a jumper before he can even regain his balance. He showed the right mentality on this possession but it was a poor option. (Paul 1-3 FGM)

Howard is fouled at the other end and misses both free throws.

On the next possession Paul gives the ball straight to Griffin in the lane, Griffin passes it to DeAndre who missed an easy dunk. Good play, just poorly executed. The Clippers get the ball back on an offensive rebound, running the same play – this time with the defense sunk right in the paint – Griffin kicks it out to Barnes who misses a three.

Despite a poorly-executed shot, over the last few minutes, Paul has actually been active in orchestrating the offense; putting the defense on the backfoot with probing the defense/making the right decision and dictating the pace to suit his team.

Smith makes a layup at the other end. Lead down to three.

Clippers make the mistake of running the same action (for the fourth consecutive time) – the Rockets are now aware to this (even if they are a smart dumb eam), so Howard hedges just enough to get Paul to force the ball to Griffin on the inside, Brewer sinks in the paint just enough to cover DeAndre, Howard then shuffles over and once Griffin gets over Smith – Howard swats his drop shot.

Poor execution all around; Paul shouldn’t have ran the same foundation play and Griffin should’ve been more aware as to where Howard was. Paul hasn’t even tried to give Reddikk the ball since they’ve both been on the court together, and it’s showing as the Rockets perimeter defenders have been cheating off their matchups – which is allowing Howard to roam and shutdown the paint.

On the other end Houston have a bunch of offense rebounds which leads to Howard hitting 1 out of 2 free throws. Lead down to two.

Clippers make the same mistake again, by running a similar set with the same look – ball straight down to Griffin, DeAndre’s man comes over to help and the Rockets defense just swarms on Griffin – forcing him to put up an off-balance shot which leads to a dunk in transition. Score even.

Even for a smart dumb team like Houston, this shyt is child’s play – the Clippers offense is just playing right into their hands – running the same shyt and getting the same results.

The next possession – yup you guessed it – they do the same shyt with a slightly different look that leads to Griffin missing a contested layup. He should have completed this play, but at this point every single other Clippers player has been phased out of the offense. The ball isn’t moving and they keep using the same actions to initiate the offense with the same run-ins.

Doc or Paul should’ve called a timeout long before they even arrived to this point. Ironically enough the Rockets call the first timeout – they run a makeshift horns set with high action, Howard comes over to show-screen for Terry and folds back into the paint – Terry passes straight to the corner and Brewer has just enough time to get off a three and hits it. Rockets up by 3.

After this point the Clippers just implode:

Paul ends up missing the rest of his shots when the game’s in reach
They start moving the ball too late and Crawford and Reddikk have gone cold after failing to touch the ball for five minutes and miss makeable shots
Griffin and Paul play hot potato with the ball, making unnecessary passes instead of just trying to score
Paul wasted opportunities by not probing the defense and getting extra defensive attention to open up his wings.

The long and short of it is this - Paul was coasting during the start of the 4th quarter, knowing full well what was at stake - his lack of urgency/passiveness and error of judgement cost them early in 4th quarter (three straight possessions he fukked up), allowing the Rockets to keep gaining confidence along with all the momentum. Paul didn't get the offense stabilized early - he wasn't running anything at all. He and Doc failed to switch up shyt, the Clips went over the same plays and looks which led to the Rockets defense just swallowing up their predictable offense. Griffin went 0-5 with the game in reach, Paul went 1-5 with the game in reach. Griffin missed two easy shots. They both failed to be aggressive when their team needed them to be. If Paul wasn't fading in and out of the 4th quarter, he wasn't moving the ball and failed to get the rest of the team more involved. Doc failed to call timeouts, he failed to call proper sets, and there was a communication breakdown between him and Paul.

Paul ends up missing the rest of his shots when the game’s in reach
They start moving the ball too late and Crawford and Reddikk have gone cold after failing to touch the ball for five minutes and miss makeable shots
Griffin and Paul play hot potato with the ball, making unnecessary passes instead of just trying to score
Paul wasted opportunities by not probing the defense and getting extra defensive attention to open up his wings

By the time they realized the Rockets had taken the lead and extended it, it was too late.

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

That was a dope shot, but did CP3 really lose? Is this Clippers team REALLY a contender? Can Blake Griffin actually stay HEALTHY and keep up this level of play?

Kudos to Blake. This is NOT HIS MO. I'm more accustomed to him dribbling the ball off his foot during crunch time or standing in the corner. I've been super critical of him in the past for not showing the capabilities of The Guy

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

Before anyone else comes in here with their revisionist bullshyt of what happened in the 4th quarter, Game 6 of that Clippers/Rockets series-

One of the sorriest debacles ever in The NBA. They all looked tentative & shook like dice that night. Josh, Corey & Co. looked like the 87 East Squad

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

That was the game CP3 was supposed to deliver for us if he's truly a top tier super star PG. He had the biggest 'deer in the headlights' look out of everybody on the team in that game 6. Like most of the shyt I blame Doc and the owner Steve Ballmer for not having real GM in place and not developing players and making decent trades... But that OKC choke the year before and that Game 6 up by 19 in the 4th was CP3's moment to carry us home.. especially that game 6 against Houston

Do you give Chris the same amount of credit for hitting the biggest shot in Clipper history?

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

Every since CP bounced Blake been lookin like a new player out there

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

Griffin was always their star player, to be honest.

If this was the case he would have gotten touches in crunch time instead of watching ISO. 2 Coaches, Front Office & Analysts thought better than to give him the ball when it was winning time. Blake has had literally no pressure to perform whatsoever. The narrative remained can CP3 & The Clippers finally make it out of the second round. If Blake was really their best player he would have revealed himself when it counted and the mandate would have came down for Chris to back off

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

If this was the case he would have gotten touches in crunch time instead of watching ISO. 2 Coaches, Front Office & Analysts thought better than to give him the ball when it was winning time. Blake has had literally no pressure to perform whatsoever. The narrative remained can CP3 & The Clippers finally make it out of the second round. If Blake was really their best player he would have revealed himself when it counted and the mandate would have came down for Chris to back off

You're joking, right?

CP3 is one of the most controlling players in the league. Blake was never going to 'reveal himself' while Paul was on the team. It's usually the case with ball-dominant players.

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

I'm straight heated with these claims about the Houston collapse right now.

CP3 scored 12 out of 15 Clippers points during a run where they stretched the lead to 19 in the 3rd quarter. Then Doc took him out of the game.

The next 5 Clippers possessions:

Blake turnover
Blake turnover
Rivers missed layup
Rivers missed three
Reddikk missed three

Doc realizes the rest of the team doesn't have shyt and brings CP3 back in, who immediately sets up a made three for Crawford, but with Terrance Jones hitting a three on Blake the lead is now just 13 going into the 4th quarter.

In the 4th Corey Brewer suddenly goes crazy, scoring 9 of the next 12 points (the other was a 3 by Ariza). Then Josh Smith suddenly catches fire, scoring 8 straight before Brewer makes 5 more. The two of them take turns down the stretch in the most unlikely playoff scoring duo ever.

Meanwhile, everyone on the Clippers not named "Chris Paul" looks like they forgot how to play basketball. Blake Griffin goes 0-5 for the quarter, with four of those misses coming at the rim, and commits three fouls while being completely unable to stop either Brewer or Smith. Crawford goes 0-4 and commits two fouls. CP3 was missing some shots too, but still scored more than everyone else on the Clippers combined (9 for CP3 in the 4th, just 6 for everyone else). And despite all the time that CP3 has the ball in his hands, there were 4 Clippers turnovers in that final 15-minute run and not a single one was on him.

And you're talking about the guy who had just had the incredibly clutch Game 7 against the Spurs in the first round (27 points on 9-13 shooting including the game-winner over Duncan, all on a pulled hamstring) and who had missed Game 1 and Game 2 due to that same injured hamstring. He was running around at 75% and still looked like the best player on the court.

I don't know what you wanted CP3 to be able to do to stop Smith/Brewer from lighting up the Clips, get Blake to stop turning the ball over and missing bunnies, and have Crawford hit a damn shot when it mattered.



p.s. - in the three losses to end the series, the Clippers were -25 in 23 minutes when CP3 sat. That's why Doc had to force an injured player to stay in 40 minutes/game.

Some of the highest levels of ineptitude I've seen from a star player since Malone has come in the form of Blake Griffin and now I'm supposed to believe he is James Worthy after 2 game winners and 1 go ahead in like a 8 year career?

 

[Jplaya2023]

injuries to both cp0 and blake have been the clippers biggest issues, but when one is out the other carries the team on their back.

 

[BigTyme Records]

Count all of Blake's defensive miscues starting with him giving up middle penetration on Terrance Jones drive (with the behind the back move).

Blake's defense<<<<

Whole team was fukkin embarrassing, forgot harden was on the damn bench, sheesh

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

You're joking, right?

CP3 is one of the most controlling players in the league. Blake was never going to 'reveal himself' while Paul was on the team. It's usually the case with ball-dominant players.

The players aren't coaching themselves. Whomever is getting those touches during crunch time is an organizational decision. You seem smart enough to understand that. There is no way an unproven winner in CP3 can go against the word of a ring having "elite coach" in Doc with no blowback. I've watched BG/Clips for years since Chris got to town. Even when the game was on the line he wanted no part of that action. Didn't seem like it was in him at all. If DJ wanted more touches in the paint like he claimed he would have worked on his shyt and omit Blake wanted those looks in the 4th he would have shown that the moment wasn't too big for him...neither of them did that

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

Facts that cannot be Gilsplained away:

CP3 had 21 of the Clippers' final 33 points, no one else had more than 3.

The Houston run started the exact moment that CP3 was taken out after leading a big LA run, and LA immediately went 0-for-until-CP3-comes-back. THAT is what gave the Rockets their momentum.

Blake, Barnes, and Davis accounted for the 4 Clippers turnovers in the 16-minute Rocket run. CP3 had zero.

Blake and Crawford, the other two Clippers scorers, were 0-9 for 0 points in the fourth.

Terrance Jones, Corey Brewer, and Josh Smith, three 6'9" guys, scored 36 points in the Houston run. CP3's men didn't do shyt.

And all that while CP3 was at 75% with a hurt hamstring.


All of those are facts, not revisionism. Blaming CP3 for that game is stupid on its face. You can Gilsplain the play-by-play all you want to ignore literally every time CP3 scored, every time anyone not named CP3 let the Rockets score, and somehow stretch the truth to blame every error and limitation of the other 4 guys on the court on CP3. I've seen you do it before. And yes, Chris Paul did not play a perfect game, no one ever does. He made mistakes and some of those mistakes were in the 4th. But even with those mistakes he was better than anyone else on the court that night, especially his teammates who made just as many mistakes without anything positive on the other side of their ledger. I posted straight facts up above and none of your inane revisionism is going to make any of those facts change.

Numbers are so misleading in life. Didn't Clips have like 15 in the 4th? lol Wasn't the majority of that 21 in the 3rd? It would be bullshyt for me to place blame on him alone when so many people fukked up

 

[BigTyme Records]

The players aren't coaching themselves. Whomever is getting those touches during crunch time is an organizational decision. You seem smart enough to understand that. There is no way an unproven winner in CP3 can go against the word of a ring having "elite coach" in Doc with no blowback. I've watched BG/Clips for years since Chris got to town. Even when the game was on the line he wanted no part of that action. Didn't seem like it was in him at all. If DJ wanted more touches in the paint like he claimed he would have worked on his shyt and omit Blake wanted those looks in the 4th he would have shown that the moment wasn't too big for him...neither of them did that

I actually remember them giving deandre post touch for a short while, then they just went away from it lmao

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

The players aren't coaching themselves. Whomever is getting those touches during crunch time is an organizational decision. You seem smart enough to understand that. There is no way an unproven winner in CP3 can go against the word of a ring having "elite coach" in Doc with no blowback. I've watched BG/Clips for years since Chris got to town. Even when the game was on the line he wanted no part of that action. Didn't seem like it was in him at all. If DJ wanted more touches in the paint like he claimed he would have worked on his shyt and omit Blake wanted those looks in the 4th he would have shown that the moment wasn't too big for him...neither of them did that

The problem is, a lot of the time BG would never get the ball where he was comfortable. He's a rhythm-confidence player, he needs regular touches and he needs touches where he's at his most comfortable state - not given the ball in situations/positions where he has to force things. It's a conflict that typically arises with ball-handling, ball-dominant guards/wings and their surrounding rosters. Which is why he always looked great whenever CP wasn't playing because he could control the ball when/were he wanted, and why he always looked great next to PGs who weren't ball-dominant.