If you’re a Clippers fan and your glass was half-full Monday night, it’s only because DeMarcus Cousins poured it.
Otherwise, the Clippers arranged a couple of happy hours for the Pelicans, with no hurricanes but copious turnovers.
The underachieving Pelicans throttled the Clippers, 120-103, with a hail of Big Easy shots and fast breaks. Sure, it was one night on the endless NBA treadmill. But it was tawdry enough to cause some re-examination of this exuberant April.
Coach Tyronn Lue excused Paul George from garbage time, particularly after he banged up his ankle, as the Pelicans enforced Lawler’s Law with their 100th point at the 9:23 mark of the fourth quarter.
“We missed some shots early that we normally make,” Lue said, “but we can’t let our offense affect our defense.”
The Pelicans turned the Clippers’ 19 turnovers, several of which were Shaqtin’-A-Fool-caliber, into 21 points. They also streaked for 23 points in the open court.
New Orleans’ defense is usually a mere rumor, especially inside, so the Clippers responded by hoisting half of their shots, 45 of 90, from 3-point land. They hit only 14 and were 3 for 21 in the first half.
When you commit a double-dribble (Terence Mann) and a 3-second violation (Ivica Zubac, thanks to indecisive ball-handling by the guards) in the same game, you’re probably not winning. When Zion Williamson rises up and drills a 3-pointer, New Orleans probably is not losing.
So why belabor such a fiasco in the midst of a four-game road trip and a 72-game schedule, particularly with Kawhi Leonard, Patrick Beverley and Serge Ibaka still grounded?
Well, it’s because the Clippers have been playing with fool’s gold during this 9-out-of-10 streak that, going into Monday, put them in a virtual tie for second place in the Western Conference with Phoenix, which plays host to the Clippers on Wednesday.
There’s no doubting how feisty and resourceful they’ve been. They won at Portland because George turned the final minute into his own drum solo. They won at Houston even though they scored 11 points in the third quarter. They won at Detroit when they were down by 20, with George and Leonard both out. And they beat Memphis because Yogi Ferrell, striking a blow for 10-day contractors everywhere, seized the second half of the fourth quarter.
You don’t overcome such things in most playoff series, although it’s true that Denver found some heroics in Games 5, 6 and 7 vs. the Clippers last season.
“We’ve got to start getting some guys back, getting guys in rhythm,” Lue said.
The one rhythmic Clipper on Monday night was Cousins, who will be with the club the rest of the season and seems poised to remind a forgetful world that he owns an Olympic gold medal and, for years, was the only reason to go see the Sacramento Kings, other than air-conditioning.
If the other Clippers were watching, they should have seen how Cousins exposed the New Orleans interior. Lue certainly gave him every opportunity.
On the final possession of the first quarter, Cousins held rebound position and drew a foul on Jaxson Hayes, and made both free throws. He began the second quarter by taking on the Pelicans on four consecutive possessions and scoring three times. He spun and dunked, he broke down Willy Hermangomez for another basket, and he stepped back and scored from the baseline.
Later he took a charge from Williamson when the game was safely refrigerated for New Orleans, and he hit Marcus Morris for a 3-pointer. Cousins wound up with 16 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots in 24½ minutes.
“Coach knows I’m a willing passer,” Cousins said, “and teams have been double-teaming me, which I don’t really understand. It’s been a smooth transition, but it’s going to be a work in progress. Our playbook is the size of a dictionary, so I need to get through that, but I want it to be second nature for me.
“The atmosphere here is great. It’s crazy, but everybody on the team seems to get along really well. You can talk to everybody in the building. That’s unusual.”
The Clippers don’t need the All-Star version of Cousins, the one before the siege of serious injuries that pushed his career to the edge. They just need those moments in the second and fourth quarters when they give him the ball, watch him compress the defense, and reap the benefits of his judgments.
“Obviously I bring a different dynamic to the team,” Cousins said.
They’ll welcome more obvious days from Cousins, and more days that put Monday at a distance.
The Link LonkApril 27, 2021 at 11:06AM
https://www.ocregister.com/2021/04/26/whicker-clippers-demarcus-cousins-sparks-old-memories-on-a-night-to-forget/
Whicker: Clippers’ DeMarcus Cousins sparks old memories on a night to forget - OCRegister
https://news.google.com/search?q=forget&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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