Well that was bound to happen. Playing their fourth game five nights finally took its toll on the Clippers. The Denver Nuggets ran away from them in the second and their quarters and thus ending their four game winning streak. A lot of factors were involved in this loss but the main culprit was Nuggets because of their terrific depth and the scheduling which exposed the Clippers lack of depth.
The Clippers who have been garnishing a lot of local and national attention came out strong as Blake Griffin continued his dunk feast by getting several early impressive dunks and knocking down a couple of jump shots. Caron Butler was hot making four out of five jumps shots as the lead ballooned to 13 by the end of the quarter. But the game turned quickly when the Nuggets bought in their second unit and just turned up pace of the game. The Clippers, who are normally a good three point shooting team, came out ice cold in the second quarter. This led to long rebounds as the Nuggets either got easy layups or dunks, and quick transition open threes. It was easy to tell the Clippers were tired as many of their shots were flat and short, like they were carrying and extra 20 pounds of weights on their back. Chris Paul was good, but Chauncey Billups, Mo Williams and Randy Foye struggled with their shooting and Caron Butler cooled off. Still because of their offensive rebounding the Clippers only trailed by 3 at the break.
The third quarter was when the wheels came off. The game actually turned when Griffin was about to take off and throw down a one handed dunk, when Nugget’s center Timofey Mosgov (of the original Griffin poster dunk fame from last year) laid out Griffin with a hard yet border line flagrant foul. Griffin laid on the ground for a couple of minutes, then proceeded to miss both free throws including an air ball. This foul seem to take away whatever energy the Clippers had left. The Nuggets sensing that the Clippers were almost done, started pressuring Chris Paul in the back court and frustrating him too. The lead ballooned to almost 20 by the end of the third quarter and the Clippers threw in the towel. The fourth quarter was strictly garbage time, as the Clipper reserves did not play. Williams and Foye showed a little life, but Brian Cook was flat out awful missing every shot he took badly and may have played himself off the team if they sign Kenyon Martin.
No lost is good, but in this shortened season these kinds of games happen when you just don’t have it and the Clippers did not have it. Now they embark on a six game road trip and with some luck may have Kenyon Martin in the fold as Chauncey Billups has not only become a solid starting guard for the Clippers, has been recruiting Martin hard. And now Martin has been cleared to rejoin the NBA, maybe as soon as this weekend.
It's just been announced that the Clippers have just signed Kenyon Martin for the rest of the year. Martin signed for the mini level expemption for 2.5 million. The deal will finalized as soon as Martin passes his phyical. With the signining the Clippers have improved their front court depth which has been a weakness. Martin who had been released from his contract with China was orginally thought to have to wait until the season ended in China (mid Feburary) to play in the NBA, but was cleared to return by FIBA (the international basketball federation). The Clippers expect Martin to back up both the power forward and the center position against the smaller centers. The Clippers owe Chauncey Billups who had been recruiting Martin. They might even let him coach a practice or two.
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