Courtesy: Dominic Ceraldi
Watching the fall of the Clippers was sickening. It was as some would say a “clinic” what the Clippers were showing the Houston Rockets. They controlled the series from the first two games. Blake Griffin led the team in points, rebounds and steals. In the absence of Chris Paul, Blake led the Clippers to an awesome run in both games. You have to remember that basketball is a game of runs. How you counter act what the opposing team is doing when your team is hitting a drought. Well, the Clippers lost control of fourth quarter runs. Jason Terry, Terence Jones, Corey Brewer and Josh Smith proved to the world that when you make a run you do just that! The Rockets had runs of 18, 21 and 16 points respectively on the Clippers. The defense disappeared right when it was needed. What’s next for the team? Signing free agents and rebuilding the bench.
Keeping the Core together is important!
As the head coach, it’s tough to swallow what happened in Game 7. As the president of basketball operations, there’s not much time to think about that. The latter title for Doc Rivers becomes more prominent now as the season draws to an abrupt close, and as Rivers mulls the decision the Clippers need to make in the offseason, it’s clear he wants to keep the core intact. “We were a quarter away from the Western Finals,” Rivers said Monday. “So, I don’t think we need to blow this thing up. We don’t need to do a lot. We don’t need to go and get a max player, except for the one we have.” Keeping the core in place begins with finding a way to keep DeAndre Jordan, who’s the only one among the trio, of Jordan, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. It appears evident that giving a max deal to Jordan is the plan, with Rivers joking that he thinks he can say that at this point. But the ball will be in Jordan’s court. Jordan wasn’t ready to make any sort of statement about his future immediately after the Clippers’ loss. When asked about the process heading into the offseason, Jordan responded by saying he’s not a free agent until July, and as tough as it may be to think about later, it’s not on his mind yet.
