5 takeaways from Suns defeat of the Clippers; their 3rd straight

The Los Angles Clippers went up against the Phoenix Suns without Chris Paul in the lineup. Clippers won the last two matches vs the Suns in December. But they have a habit this season of getting back to back losses. Of their 11 losses, 10 have come in pairs. They came into this one after losing to the Thunder and Warriors. The Clippers came in with a 32-11 record and the Suns were 14-28, almost mirror images of each other. Although the Suns are tied for the last place in the Western Conference, they ultimately came out on top vs one of the best teams in the league. The Suns won 93-88.

The Suns were coming off a great comeback win in Sacremento which they won 106-96. The only game this season when they trailed by 10 and went in the fourth trailing and came back. This game was somewhat of a homecoming for some Clipps. Grant Hill played five seasons here after his career had been written off. Matt Barnes was here with Hill for a season too. Clippers’ head coach Vinny Del Negro ended his playing career with the Phoenix Suns.

Here are five takeaways from this game:

New coach, new start

“It’s been painful,” Scola said about the change in coaches. “You don’t want it to happen. It’s not the coach’s fault, it’s everyone’s fault. We couldn’t do it with Alvin, but we’re going to try to make this coach successful.” The Suns had fired Alvin Gentry and named their Player Development Coordinator, Lindsay Hunter as the interim head coach. There was some friction as the Suns bypassed the assistant coaches Dan Majerle and Elston Turner for the job. Hunter has no coaching experience but he did it right today. Turner left the job after an alleged confrontation with GM Lance Blanks.

It helps having a point guard who has learned the ropes from Steve Nash. Goran Dragic scored more than his season average of 14 points per game. He led the Suns with 24 points, 8 assists and 5 rebounds.

Griffin a no show

Griffin came in having scored 26 and 31 in the last two games for the Clippers. But he only had 12 points in this one on 5-9 shooting. Griffin needs to take 15 shots at least when Paul is out. He had 8 rebounds and 2 assists. He did however, give the fans some thunderous dunks.

Not an all-star

The Clippers have one of the best benches in the league. Matt Barnes is having his best offensive season of his career, 11.2 points per game and 48.4 percent shooting. But the super-sub Jamal Crawford was playing so well that he was being considered to be an all-star. As the reserves were announced today his name was left out. He led the Clippers with 21 points off the bench with 8-13 shooting and 4 assists. He hit a three in the last minute from the corner with 27 seconds left and made it a one point game with 86-85. The all-star snub must have been weighing on his shoulders. That was the Clippers’ first field goal in the last four minutes. But on the ensuing possession the Clippers committed a clear path foul instead of a simple foul and the game was pretty much over at that point.

Balanced scoring except for freebies

The Clippers got contributions all around. Five players finished in double figures. Griffin had 12, Jordan and 10, Bledsoe had 15, Matt Barnes added 11 and Jamal Crawford had 21. The Suns had four players in double figures. Scola had 14, Gortat added 15, Dragic had 24 and Markieff Morris had 14. The difference was at the free throw line. This game was played in Phoenix and the Suns had 37 free throw attempts to 26 of the Clippers.

Keep Eric Bledsoe

While Bledsoe, Butler and Odom are seen as trade chips, the Clippers would do well to not let go of Beldsoe. Mini LeBron is good enough to start on other teams and while the Clippers may be lured to getting Josh Smith for him and other pieces, the need a backup in case Chris Paul goes down with and injury as he is now. In this absence of Paul, the Clippers have gone 3-1. Paul has missed five games this season. Of his return, Vinny Del Negro has said, “There is no timetable. He’s pretty much just getting therapy and resting.”

Bledsoe is a dynamic athlete who is thriving on his athleticism and luck. He got away with a double dribble in the fourth quarter vs the Suns today and followed it up with a three pointer. But it wasn’t enough as he finished with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. “Chris is the orchestrator. He’ll organize everything out there,” guard Jamal Crawford said. “There’s no way to replace him, but collectively we’ll get it together.”

They need to get it together and soon. Vinny Del Negro and Greg Popovic are the two coaches in the running for coaching the Western Conference all stars, as the Thunder coach Scott Brooks was the coach alst year, he is ineligible this year. While the Clippers have dropped their third straight, Tim Duncan will be sitting out tomorrow’s game vs the Mavericks with a knee injury so maybe the race will be more even.