Game Day: Clippers (30-18) @ Suns (15-33), Wed 2/1/17

[Shabazz]

Watson seems to have lost confidence in Knight (warranted) and Len (unwarranted and kind of dumb).

Also, playing Bledsoe the entire 2nd half is dumb. We have 4 point guards on the roster. Bledsoe made some dumb/sloppy plays in crunch time and I have no doubt they were partially due to fatigue. Give the guy a two minute breather around a TV timeout so he's not gassed at the end of the game.

[Split T]

Chriss is playing s*** defense is 2-13 from the floor and is still in there. Meanwhile if Bender sneezes wrong he gets yanked.

Heh. Just what I was thinking.

Not sure why we have to hate on Chriss to throw some support for bender. I'd love for bender to get more minutes too, but it doesn't have to be chriss or bender, it can be both. And let's not pretend like bender has been any good when he's been out there. He's shown flashes, just like Chriss, but his stats, regular and advanced, aren't very good. In fact they are pretty bad. Why is Chriss starting over bender? I'd guess it's because he was producing better during preseason and got the nod first. Has he looked better than bender recently? Not really, but bender hasn't done anything to take his spot either. Both look like 19 year olds who aren't quite ready for serious NBA minutes. Hopefully Tucker is gone soon and both can get valuable experience.

It isn't about Chriss getting more minutes than Bender. It isn't one or the other it is about the consistency on how they are treated by Watson. Chriss was really horrible tonight. I'm not hating on him it just is what it is. Part of it has to do with coach forcing him to defend Griffin with no weak side help. He was left on an island all game long and it was shameful how little help he got from anyone on the team. Yet it didn't change how many minutes he got to play. Which is fine but why isn't that the case for Bender?

I could understand if this was some isolated instance but this has been ongoing the whole season. Playing well in a few preseason games over 3 months ago doesn't justify more than double the playing time for one over the other. Just no real reason not to balance out the playing time. Bring Chriss down to 20 and increase Bender to 20. I think 20 minutes a game for each of the rookies would be awesome.

I get that, benders lack of minutes is strange. I think Chriss has been a little better, but he's been given a longer leash as well. And I didn't mean to single out you or carey, just feels like a lot of negative comments about Chriss lately. I missed the game tonight and it looks like he was pretty bad, but he has some nice moments from time to time. Watson has this idea of him being a draymond like defender and I think that's why we see him isolated on guys like griffin, towns, and Aldridge often. It is strange that playing Chriss seems to be our one constant tanking move. Every other move from Watson seems geared towards winning at all costs. Including Chandler, Bled, and Tucker getting 40 minutes from time to time. 20 minutes a piece sounds good to me for the rooks.

[Superbone]

Booker isn't getting 20 tonight.

Just by the skin of his teeth. Sorry I wasn't able to start the game day thread today. I've been working like a dog and haven't had a chance to get on until now.

[Superbone]

Glad to be wrong.

I'm actually kinda glad I get the other teams stream most of the time. So I don't have to listen to them go on about the streak.

The Clippers announcers talked about the streak.

[Superbone]

and on a positive note, the Suns lose ground to Dallas and Miami and are starting to look like a good bet for a top-3 pick.

Could this finally be our year? Fultz speed ahead!

[Superbone]

scoring 20 on another sub-40% shooting night isn't that impressive.

We should trade him. Scoring 26.5 ppg on 47% in his last 10 games at only 20 years old. Sad. Should be 30ppg on 50% at least.

I read that like a Trump tweet. The "Sad" sells it.

[Superbone]

Chriss is playing s*** defense is 2-13 from the floor and is still in there. Meanwhile if Bender sneezes wrong he gets yanked.

Someone in Reddit said it's because Watson is black and is gonna prefer the black player Chriss over Bender.

Obviously it's silly but games like this makes me wonder. Sure Chriss had a good game last game but if he's struggling tonight then take him out and let Bender play instead of watching Chriss chuck away.

Griffin is literally double teaming off of Chriss.

Can we stop spewing bullshit from reddit and realgm?

Really. Watson is playing Chriss because he's black. Yeah, okay.

And the matter-of-fact that Bender was out until the all-star break despite all quotes from him stating he was close to coming back and had been practicing was also WAY OFF and without any backed up sources.

I agree. I think that notion that Watson is playing Chriss over Bender is because of his skin color is ridiculous.

[carey]

I read that like a Trump tweet. The "Sad" sells it.

That was my intent.

[ShelC]

I think Watson is playing Chriss because that's where the divide was in the room of draft night. Watson was big on Chriss, FO/McD was big on Bender so they got both and now Watson is giving his guy every opportunity.

[The Bobster]

Watson's coaching record after 82 games: 24-58, .293

[carey]

I think Watson is playing Chriss because that's where the divide was in the room of draft night. Watson was big on Chriss, FO/McD was big on Bender so they got both and now Watson is giving his guy every opportunity.

That certainly seems possible. I want to note that even though Chriss was terrible last night my only complaint is about Bender being treated differently. I wouldn't have anything to say if Bender could stay out there for long stretches of bad play as well, but I see him get pulled after a late rotation, a bad shot or sloppy ball handling all the time. Why the need to treat one differently than the other? Does the label "starter" imply something I'm missing? It doesn't seem to when Tucker comes in for Warren and then plays more minutes.

[carey]

Watson's coaching record after 82 games: 24-58, .293

Is that bad? That seems bad.

[LazarusLong]

Watson's coaching record after 82 games: 24-58, .293

He's in a league with Red Kerr, John Wetzel and Lindsey Hunter ...

[LazarusLong]

I think Watson is playing Chriss because that's where the divide was in the room of draft night. Watson was big on Chriss, FO/McD was big on Bender so they got both and now Watson is giving his guy every opportunity.

That certainly seems possible. I want to note that even though Chriss was terrible last night my only complaint is about Bender being treated differently. I wouldn't have anything to say if Bender could stay out there for long stretches of bad play as well, but I see him get pulled after a late rotation, a bad shot or sloppy ball handling all the time. Why the need to treat one differently than the other? Does the label "starter" imply something I'm missing? It doesn't seem to when Tucker comes in for Warren and then plays more minutes.

Chriss attempts the spectacular play, so when he does connect, he's a crowd pleaser. But he's erratic.

Bender, to my eyes, looks like the smarter player, at least at this stage. He knows his limitations and plays within those parameters.

[djy2j]

Had a girl over while watching the game. She really only stayed for the first quarter but at one point she looked over and said, "What's wrong with them? They look like some sort of sad high school team." Harsh words for high school teams everywhere.

Chriss sucked but at least he wasn't out there getting in foul trouble after 2 mins.

Would have liked to see Len more.

Bledsoe showing more proof that he mailed it in on Monday. I agree with those who think we should sell high on him.

Chandler is playing like he's running out of gas this season already.

I do not understand Watson's method of who gets playing time. I just don't.

[Danimal]

Kinda worried we are getting carried about with the high scoring guard combo since its the most marketable thing we have going at the moment. Forcing Bookers 20pt streak etc. A bigger is issue for me is Warren is MIA frequently lately. He has had a few rough shooting nights, but tonight there was next to no attempt to involve him. Granted bled and booker are doing some good things but with all the offense on the two of them we are basically a shitty version of the blazers. Warren is a scorer but he rarely gets looks off some of the cuts he makes from booker and bled. Feeds like he got from bender tonight could be a little more frequent. Frequently tonight there were times when he was standing in the corner 3pt line with his hands on his hips like he had no expectation he would ever get the ball. He had a mismatch from the get go with Rivers but he didn't touch the ball for the first 5 minutes of the game. First time he did, he scored and rivers was taken out.
I like warren on the pnr, doesn't force as much and actually looks for the pass if its there. His best games are when he is getting some opportunities in the pnr and some screens so he can get it at mid range.

Vet guards seems to be guarding booker event closer lately and i feel its because we need to find a better balance in scoring warren, booker and Bledsoe.
Thoughts on this? Otherwise might as well put tucker in the starting 5 so warren can get more looks off the bench. He just seems wasted at the moment.

On the subject of tucker it was nice to see coach rule with iron fitst tonight. Suns get it close in the 4th. Tucker gets a tech so coach thinks its time to send a message ... so TJ goes to the bench. Their names are close, i guess he got mixed up.

[JCSunsfan]

Bledsoe and Booker got their points.

Chriss got minutes.

Bender is back and playing again.

Suns lost.

What is NOT to like here?!?

Loved this game. Just play Len more, that'd be nice.

There were like 11 scouts checking out BK last night. He played about as bad as possible.

There is always a dark side.


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[The Bobster]

Watson's coaching record after 82 games: 24-58, .293

He's in a league with Red Kerr, John Wetzel and Lindsey Hunter ...

Well, he's lasted longer than BVK!

[Mori Chu]

Watson's coaching record after 82 games: 24-58, .293

I will be quite happy when Earl Watson is gone. Is there any real defense of the guy at this point?

[Mori Chu]

It's great that Bledsoe and Booker are scoring a lot lately as a duo. But they are hogging almost all of the total shots (they took 41 FG last night). I will give them credit for getting 8 and 6 assists respectively. But our offense looks like a clogged toilet overall. I really wish we had a pass-first PG and an overall team sense of sharing the ball. And let's not even get started on our defense.

TJ Warren, where art thou? Is this just a lost season for Warren at this point? I really don't know what to make of it.