[SEA/LAC] The fix is in?

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Anybody else think that the Clippers "tanked" that game to get the sixth seed against the Nuggets? I ask mostly because Brand is the only Clippers starter to play more than twenty-five minutes, and Kaman didn't play at all...

Oh, and Vin Baker got some PT as well...

 

[sc3252]

Thats not half bad idea, if i was the clips I would do the same.

 

[vj9999]

Radmanovic scored 2 points for Sonics.. He really is a headcase He forgot he doesn't play for them anymore.

 

[piksi]

Well, Clips decided to avoid Dallas & San Antonio path. Can You really blame them ?

 

[HndsmCelt]

Never could condone tanking a game for anyreason or avoiding a tough opponent in a play off situation, but I can understand the logic.

In my book you fight to death and play to win. The play offs are the way to the championship so facing the toughest team first only means it gets easier. facing a soft opponent to simply advance rounds is about apearance not substance. Not sure where the Clips coaching staff stands, but again I can see where Slim is comming from and how some coaches might go there.

 

[Fillmoe]

Radmanovic scored 2 points for Sonics.. He really is a headcase He forgot he doesn't play for them anymore.

huh?

 

[jacobdrj]

Never could condone tanking a game for anyreason or avoiding a tough opponent in a play off situation, but I can understand the logic.

In my book you fight to death and play to win. The play offs are the way to the championship so facing the toughest team first only means it gets easier. facing a soft opponent to simply advance rounds is about apearance not substance. Not sure where the Clips coaching staff stands, but again I can see where Slim is comming from and how some coaches might go there.

Credit where credit is due: Its about money, not apearance, unless money = apearance...

 

[SacTownKid]

I remember last year. 6th was the place to be right? Worked for us huh?!

 

[kingkung]

I'd be surprised if there WASN'T a fix, though obviously no team would say that publicly.

Kaman even ADMITTED that they want the 6th seed:

"Dallas is a tough match for anybody, so whoever's sitting in sixth is a lot better off than the team sitting in fifth," Kaman said. "They're a beatable team, but we haven't beaten them this year.


"Obviously right now, Denver is probably a little bit easier for us than Dallas, so we're happy with the sixth spot right now. But I don't think anybody's going to do anything intentionally to try and lose a game because there's too much pride in this locker room. I think Mike is way too competitive for that."

Hmmm... let's think for a moment here... would a competitive person want to win A) a regular season game, or B) the first round of the playoffs? That's a tough one...

 

[AriesMar27]

i dont blame them... i think memphis could handle dallas.... pau is that dude for real.... knawmean....

 

[vj9999]

huh?

Sonics were shooting free throws. Radmanovic went for the rebound and ended up tipping the ball in. They were making fun of it on BSPN Sportscenter.

 

[Bricklayer]

Never could condone tanking a game for anyreason or avoiding a tough opponent in a play off situation, but I can understand the logic.

In my book you fight to death and play to win. The play offs are the way to the championship so facing the toughest team first only means it gets easier. facing a soft opponent to simply advance rounds is about apearance not substance. Not sure where the Clips coaching staff stands, but again I can see where Slim is comming from and how some coaches might go there.

As always remain torn on this.

Of course the above is the competitor's mantra, a thing that I normally subscribe to.

But on the other hand I long ago learned that I love to outsmart people even more than I love to outcompete them. And if I can make some strategic manuever to tactically outflank an opponent, I'll take more pride in that than the otherwise highly diverting bashing of heads in a lunkhead test of machismo.

So the competitor's mantra is screaming no!!!! But the strategist's mantra is going "hmmm....let's be clever and win the war, not the battle".

 

[mavsman]

I'd be surprised if there WASN'T a fix, though obviously no team would say that publicly.

Kaman even ADMITTED that they want the 6th seed:

"Dallas is a tough match for anybody, so whoever's sitting in sixth is a lot better off than the team sitting in fifth," Kaman said. "They're a beatable team, but we haven't beaten them this year.


"Obviously right now, Denver is probably a little bit easier for us than Dallas, so we're happy with the sixth spot right now. But I don't think anybody's going to do anything intentionally to try and lose a game because there's too much pride in this locker room. I think Mike is way too competitive for that."

Hmmm... let's think for a moment here... would a competitive person want to win A) a regular season game, or B) the first round of the playoffs? That's a tough one...

HAHAHAHA - Kaman last week admitted he wanted to play Dallas.

I personally think its a shame. There's no hiding in the western conference, from seeds 1-8. You're gonna play someone tough in every round regardless of seeding so I'm disappointed they tanked one.

 

[Gargamel]

That's why they're changin it up next year. How hard was it to foresee complications w/ 3-division conferences?

 

[HndsmCelt]

As always remain torn on this.

Of course the above is the competitor's mantra, a thing that I normally subscribe to.

But on the other hand I long ago learned that I love to outsmart people even more than I love to outcompete them. And if I can make some strategic manuever to tactically outflank an opponent, I'll take more pride in that than the otherwise highly diverting bashing of heads in a lunkhead test of machismo.

So the competitor's mantra is screaming no!!!! But the strategist's mantra is going "hmmm....let's be clever and win the war, not the battle".

But that IS my point in a play off situation avoiding a tough match up in the early rounds only postpones the inevetable winning the BATTLE not the WAR. And the process of tanking a game to achive the preferd match up sendsaclear and damaging message to your team undermining their confidence in the later rounds.

Trust me I am ALL about stratey, and compleetly agree with the prefrence of out smarting an oponent but in this case Id say the only ones being outsmarted here are the Grizz at best, if that is the extent of the Clippers desire for competition in the play offs I just don't see any chance at all for them.

 

[vj9999]

Funny thing is that next two games Clippers play are against Grizlies and Dallas. It would be funny if Grizzlies try to lose too and we get the lowest score ever in the NBA game

 

[HndsmCelt]

Funny thing is that next two games Clippers play are against Grizlies and Dallas. It would be funny if Grizzlies try to lose too and we get the lowest score ever in the NBA game

Sort of a scoring Limbo contest? Well that should be enough to get the NBA to reconsider the stupid 1-3 for division leaders idea!

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

But that IS my point in a play off situation avoiding a tough match up in the early rounds only postpones the inevetable winning the BATTLE not the WAR. And the process of tanking a game to achive the preferd match up sendsaclear and damaging message to your team undermining their confidence in the later rounds.

No it doesn't. It's an elimination tournament; you want to take the path of least resistance. It's not sending a "damaging" message to your team, it's sending the message of "we want the easiest path possible." These players might sell you a bill of goods about how it doesn't matter to them who they play, but they don't really believe that. They want the playoff positioning that's going to give them the best possible matchup, and the likeliest chance to win.

 

[VF21]

Funny thing is that next two games Clippers play are against Grizlies and Dallas. It would be funny if Grizzlies try to lose too and we get the lowest score ever in the NBA game

Reminds me of a couple of months ago, when the 49er-Texans game was supposed to lead to the lowest scoring game in the NFL.

 

[Bricklayer]

But that IS my point in a play off situation avoiding a tough match up in the early rounds only postpones the inevetable winning the BATTLE not the WAR. And the process of tanking a game to achive the preferd match up sendsaclear and damaging message to your team undermining their confidence in the later rounds.

Trust me I am ALL about stratey, and compleetly agree with the prefrence of out smarting an oponent but in this case Id say the only ones being outsmarted here are the Grizz at best, if that is the extent of the Clippers desire for competition in the play offs I just don't see any chance at all for them.

If your path is Suns/Nuggets to get to the WCF or Spurs/Mavs to get to the WCF -- well, that's not even the same war. Its not always so stark, but in this case, there is definitely a path of least resistance to the WCF. If you're the Spurs and an elite team thinking you are better than everybody else while playing for a title, sure, maybe you just try to rumble on through the other powers in linear fashion. But when you are the Clips...anything you can do to lessen the challenge clearly can pay benefits.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

.. If you're the Spurs and an elite team thinking you are better than everybody else while playing for a title, sure, maybe you just try to rumble on through the other powers in linear fashion...

And I don't buy that, either. If the Spurs really didn't care who they played, they wouldn't have fought to get that #1 seed; they'd have been happy with the #4 seed and been, like, "bring 'em all on!"

 

[HndsmCelt]

If your path is Suns/Nuggets to get to the WCF or Spurs/Mavs to get to the WCF -- well, that's not even the same war. Its not always so stark, but in this case, there is definitely a path of least resistance to the WCF. If you're the Spurs and an elite team thinking you are better than everybody else while playing for a title, sure, maybe you just try to rumble on through the other powers in linear fashion. But when you are the Clips...anything you can do to lessen the challenge clearly can pay benefits.

No question that if a person has a simple choice the path of least resistance is the logical one. But the problem with your logic is that you assume the choice is free, with out cost. Once again I'll beg to differ with Slim. I think tanking games does destroy a teams confidnece. I watched Jerry Tarktanian's teams shave points and throw games, and while none were NCAA championship calliber a lot of good teams went no where at all and I belive a good part of that had to do with players who had no confidence.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

We're not talking about kids; if NBA players had confidence issues, they wouldn't be in the NBA.

 

[BigSong]

Anything other than first seed with the best win record and your not going to get homecourt advantage, whether you believe in that or not though is up for debate. Personally I'd play to win all the time. But just like the suns sitting out Nash, Dunleavy could just be saving his players, avoiding injury and what not.

 

[HndsmCelt]

We're not talking about kids; if NBA players had confidence issues, they wouldn't be in the NBA.

It's not a matter of maturity, it just plain human. Sure there are some pro's that have all the confidence in the world, usually seasond Vets with lots of experience in improtant games, but I would venture to guess that we are talking about less than half the palyer in the NBA or any other pro-league. If confidence were not a problem for pros's Sprots psychologist would not exist at all, much less be in abundace and still able to charge thousands of dollars for their services.

The truth is we are talking about the Clips here, not the Spurs. If anything is going to give you a complex it's going to be BEING the best team in a town that still roots for the scrubs who share your facility.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I assure you that there's no confidence issues in "Clipper Land." Most of their key players have been to the playoffs, and the ones that haven't (Brand, Maggette) are in no kind of way lacking in confidence. The only thing that they're likely thinking about is "cool, we get home court in the first round!"