Clips clip Rockets

Paul and the Clippers flexed their muscles

Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Clippers, November 4, 2013.

“Tempers clash in an early-season matchup,” the promo announcer intones, and this is before the game has even started…

Studio host Matt Winer says Doc Rivers is either the best or second-best coach in the NBA, with Popovich in San Antonio. Is Erik Spoelstra biting his lip?

J. J. Redick opens the game with two jumpers, then another one a minute later. A Dukie in the starting lineup is enough to not root for the Clippers…

Blake Griffin is averaging 21 and 11, so why does he still look like he’s underachieving? The Clips are the number-one scoring team in the NBA…

James Harden launches an airball, Dwight Howard misses a dunk, and after Redick drives (!) for a layup, the Rockets are down 15-6…

Howard has two fouls with less than six minutes gone…

Chandler Parsons, fresh from the tanning salon, has a couple of nice driving layups, but the Clips are rolling. Chris Paul has nine assists in ten minutes…

Howard returns and immediately picks up his third. The Clips lead 42-25 at the quarter…

Omri Casspi (not to be confused with teammate Omer Asik) gives Houston a nice lift off the bench with 12 points, and Greg Smith has 8 points and 6 boards in the second quarter (his first points of the season). The Clippers’ defense keeps everyone in the game…

DeAndre Jordan sinks the first of 2 FT and looks around for more people to fist-bump after he finds he has only four teammates. He makes the second, too. The Clips lead 78-66 at the half, putting up a team record for first-half points. Redick has 19…

Second half is more of the same. The Clippers surge out to 15 or 20 points ahead, the Rockets threaten to threaten. Howard looks like the same old fun-loving guy. James Harden’s defense on Redick, as the color guy points out, is “non-existent.” Chris Paul does a lot of dribbling. On one possession he makes at least a dozen fakes. The Clippers return to Lob City, and after one particularly impossible throw-down by Griffin on a Paul lob, they all retire to the bench, leaving Jamal Crawford to mop up with a series of hoists somewhere over the rainbow. Final is 137-118. The Clippers still lead the NBA in scoring. 

Clippers vs. Grizzlies, April 9, 2012

The two teams are fighting for 4th place in the West...Is there an announcer left anywhere who still uses the word passing? You say ball movement, I say have a bowel movement...Z-Bo snares a board within two seconds of coming in, and then another the next time downcourt...Joey "Uncle Festus" Crawford Ts up Chris Paul. Since he's yapping all the time, why now?...Z-Bo backs in on Blake Griffin and steps back for a bucket and a foul...

Second quarter: Gilbert Arenas takes all of 10 seconds to get up his first shot...Marc Gasol (anagram: crams goal) executes a gorgeous pirouette and step-back on shot-blocking impresario DeAndre Jordan...

Second half: Gasol gets hammered while holding the ball and gets called for offensive fall, the worst call I've seen this year...Scatter-shot offense devised (?) by Coach Vinnie del Negro puts the Clips in a 15-point hole they can't dig themselves out of, although they cut it to 4 in the 4th...The announcers caution over and over not to get Chris Paul mad. He got mad, but Grizzlies survived it.

Notes: Announcers say Griffin is a 7-footer. Is this right? He looks 6-9 or -10. He has no outside game but is good for at least one startling dunk a game...Z-Bo has 5 straight double-doubles off the bench...The Griz could be a contender--they are 10-deep with two All-Stars (Z-Bo and Arenas) coming off the bench...Is O. J. Mayo pissed at being a sub, or does he look like that always now?...Maurice Speights is a nice-looking player, and a crowd fave...Good win for the Griz, as the Clippers had won 9 of 10. They are a half-game out of 4th now.