ESPN NBA

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- What was once indifference between the Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies has descended into hostility over six games. These teams actively dislike each other. The Clippers have made light of Memphis' "Grit 'n' Grind" handle and generally annoyed the Grizzlies with their posturing. Memphis has countered that the Clippers are a bunch of floppers -- its head coach going so far as to accuse Chris Paul in a live interview during Game 4. When the topic of Paul's injury came up after Game 6, Zach Randolph fired back that he didn't even know Paul was hurt, implying that the Clippers' injuries were merely incidental, a sideshow.

All of it will come to a head on Sunday afternoon in Game 7.

The health of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin
Whatever Randolph says at the podium, the Clippers simply aren't the same team with Paul and Blake Griffin hobbled. On Friday night after the Grizzlies' Game 6 win in Los Angeles, Paul, Marc Gasol and Randolph pointed out that nobody is 100 percent this time of year. True, but the Clippers can't function as an offensive team without Paul and Griffin. When the Clippers had their offense rolling late in Games 1 and 3 and most of Games 2 and 4, the formula was simple: Make the Grizzlies choose between bringing bodies to the paint to stifle Paul's penetration, which presents problems on the perimeter and with balance, or yield seams to Paul and pray that the help will come from the right place at the right time.

Paul clearly doesn't have the same burst off the bounce or the ability to change speeds, probe, beat his guy and get to his spot for an elbow jumper before the defense can recover. Without that, the Clippers' offense suffers from rigor mortis. Paul can't split a trap, and ultimately, the Grizzlies can play him straight up, while the help can stay home on the Clippers' perimeter shooters. With Paul on the court in Game 6, the Clippers shot only 39 percent.

Meanwhile, Griffin pummeled Memphis in his breakout Game 4 as the roll man with Paul, posting up and going decisively into his move. That's the key: Griffin's knee won't prevent him from being on the floor, but without a confident face-up game, he must rely entirely on those up-and-unders, spins and step-throughs. With the bum knee, he's a step slow -- and you can slice a few inches off the vertical. That's the difference between wreaking destruction at the rim and having to finesse his way to the basket.

The Grizzlies' inside job
Gasol got what he wanted after a frustrating long weekend in Los Angeles during Games 3 and 4: He's again the centerpiece of the Memphis offense. On Friday night, there was a lovely balance to Gasol's game, an exhibition of his versatility. Memphis used him to run a pick-and-roll in the left slot, from where he was able to beat the Clippers' rotation on the dive. They posted him up on the left block, where he launched that pretty hook over the Clippers' defense. And when the Clippers came hard at Gasol in the high post, he dumped it off to Randolph (the recipient of all three of Gasol's assists) in Memphis' savvy high-low game.

The pinpoint bounce pass that Gasol delivered to Randolph at the three-minute mark in Game 6 was a thing of beauty. Mike Conley and Gasol ran that angle pick-and-roll on the left side. Gasol stopped at the edge of the paint and received the pass as the Clippers trapped Conley, forcing Kenyon Martin to rotate up from the baseline. As Martin approached, Gasol hit Randolph wide open beneath the hoop on the right side. A perfectly executed play by Memphis at the biggest moment of the series, which is how you advance in the postseason.

Randolph has found his legs and looks more like the bully from last season's playoffs than the player who was struggling to carve out space for himself down low. For Randolph to be successful, he needs to rip through and keep his defender moving. That's how he creates that space, and that's what he's been doing the past few games.

Having two big men with diverse but overlapping skill sets allows Memphis to do some interesting stuff in the half court. Sometimes the offense just needs a nudge.

Who else for the Clippers?
With Paul and Griffin banged-up, the Clippers must get something exceptional from one of the supporting actors. Randy Foye, Caron Butler, Mo Williams and Nick Young have each had their moments over this season and, to a lesser extent, in the playoffs. In Game 5, that performance came from second-year dragonfly Eric Bledsoe.

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro isn't predisposed to trust young players. Whether it's because he's risk-averse, conflict-averse or just more comfortable with guys who've "been there," Del Negro favors vets. With Paul hurting and Williams suffering a hand injury in Game 6, Del Negro had to lean on Bledsoe for significant minutes -- and it's about time.

Bledsoe doesn't stretch the floor for the Clippers, but he's their best perimeter defender on and off the ball. He has an uncanny synergy with Paul in the backcourt. For aforementioned reasons, the two played together for only 76 minutes in the regular season. The Clippers scored 111.4 points per 100 possessions during that time and gave up only 93.5. In this series, Bledsoe is a plus-35. When Bledsoe on the floor, Conley is minus-34 (and plus-47 when Bledsoe is off).

Both Bledsoe and Foye, who has struggled in the series, will have to make major contributions on Sunday for the Clippers to escape Memphis with a W. The Clippers also will have to be more resourceful because their two best creators are limited. When Reggie Evans is your roll man off the high ball screen, life doesn't become any easier, because now two defenders are blitzing Paul. As it is, Tony Allen and Conley make things difficult enough because they can play the Clippers' perimeter straight up. Getting the shooters clean looks at the basket will have to come via flare screens and a ton of movement in the half court.

So who's it going to be?

The battle on the margins
In many ways, this series has been fought in the periphery -- on the offensive glass, in passing lanes, at the foul stripe. Neither team has gotten much of what it wants offensively, but there have been ample opportunities to supplement that cruddy output with extras. For instance, the Grizzlies have annihilated the Clippers on the offensive glass, where Memphis has collected more than one out of every three available rebounds -- its 33.7 offensive rebounding rate is tops among postseason teams. (As a frame of reference, the Bulls ranked first in the regular season with a 32.6 offensive rebounding rate.)

For the Grizzlies, this is vital because they're a terrible shooting team. They've been outshot by the Clippers in the series but have been able to make up ground by getting additional looks at the basket -- at short range, no less. Memphis' prowess on the offensive glass is especially impressive when you consider that the Clippers were a pretty decent defensive rebounding team during the regular season. Overall, the Grizzlies have racked up 15.4 second-chance points per 48 minutes, with only 10.2 for the Clippers.

In the turnover event, the Clippers protected the ball better than any team other than Philadelphia during the regular season, and Memphis led the league in opponent turnover rate. Something had to give, and true to form, the Clippers and Grizzlies have played to a draw with identical 12.69 turnover rates. The Grizzlies had been winning the turnover battle but coughed the ball up 22 times in Game 6 -- the only reason the Clippers were in a game in which the Grizzlies shot better and controlled the glass decisively.

Then there's the foul game. Both teams hack with impunity, and both are spending plenty of time at the stripe in this series. But the team that has gotten to the line with greater frequency has won five of the six games -- the Clippers' Game 3 rally the only exception.

Here, the Clippers have to be careful on Sunday. When players are gimpy, they have a tougher time staying in front of their guy. They're more desperate defenders and, in turn, tend to be more likely to foul. Paul didn't foul out of a game all season but was whistled for six fouls in Game 6. Evans, who likely will pick up some of Griffin's minutes, is a foul machine. With the Grizzlies re-establishing their inside game, there will be more pressure than ever on the Clippers' defense to body up on the block. They'll have to do so carefully.

---

Information in this post was provided by NBA.com.

LOS ANGELES -- There's a distinct static that hovers over a team that's trapped in a downward spiral. You could feel that buzz on Saturday morning at Staples Center -- almost as if there was a fluorescent light tube on the fritz above Los Angeles Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro as he addressed the media prior to the Clippers' 101-85 win over Memphis.

Del Negro did his best to diffuse the tension, which was palpable as he fielded questions about his job security. He ran through the litany of reasons the Clippers are underperforming -- and stipulated that these weren't, of course, excuses -- then pledged on behalf of the team and coaching staff that everyone would do a better job going forward. He ended the presser with a wry smile.

"Nobody died," Del Negro said. "Everybody relax. Take a deep breath. It's OK."

How close to the precipice Del Negro stood heading into the opener of a five-game homestand is a matter of debate, but the Clippers' resounding performance on Saturday afternoon should cool the temperature beneath his seat. Intensity is a difficult thing to measure, and we often do so retroactively, ascribing wins to a heightened sense of urgency after the fact. But from the opening tip, Del Negro's team showed an edge.

The Grizzlies have made their living as a team that shrinks passing lanes, generates deflections and bottles up your half-court game, one reason they rank eighth defensively, despite having a couple of slow-footed big men and an undersized point guard. Yet on Saturday, the Clippers were the more aggressive defensive squad. They pounced on entry passes to Marc Gasol at the foul line, swiped at loose balls and ambushed the Grizzlies from the back side. Help was prompt and rotations were tight. DeAndre Jordan didn't stuff the stat sheet, but for a young player who has had his confidence stunted in recent weeks, he looked like the kind of defender who had observers calling him Tyson Chandler-esque at the outset of the season.

Offensively, the Clippers ran their usual staple of high ball screens and elbow sets on Saturday, but there was a little more diversity and intelligence to the offense. Chris Paul utilized his size to back down Mike Conley and attacked the Grizzlies in the slot, rather than confine the Clippers' offense to the sidelines that Memphis will gladly yield to ball handlers who want to risk suffocation.

As the Clippers' lead surpassed 20 points at the start of the fourth quarter, Del Negro continued to patrol the sidelines, yelling out play calls and gesturing to defenders to get into proper position. He looked like a coach fighting for his job, unwilling to leave the balance of the game to chance, even with an enormous cushion. When asked after the game about its import, Del Negro placed the win into the businesslike context of the standings, rather than an abstraction like confidence.

"It's such a tight race," Del Negro said. "Every win is big for us."

Particularly this one -- for both the Clippers' fortunes and their coach's prospects. Despite the firestorm that followed Del Negro around on the team's disastrous three-game road trip, during which they lost games in Indianapolis, Oklahoma City and New Orleans, the Clippers left Staples Center on Saturday afternoon as the No. 4 seed in the West. They have upcoming home games against New Orleans, Phoenix, Portland and Utah, all miserable road teams.

The Clippers still need to work out their systematic problems -- their 22nd-ranked defense that's never coalesced and a pokey offense that too often gets stuck in reverse. And while Del Negro might not be Clippers' coach of the distant future, Saturday's trouncing of Memphis means that he's still the coach of the present.

LOS ANGELES -- For all the fanfare that arrived with the acquisition of Chris Paul and the incorporation of Lob City into Los Angeles, nobody has a handle on where the team should set the benchmark for the season. Would a conference semifinals berth represent success or a buzzkill? If this team is a contender, as some have suggested, does that mean anything short of a competitive showing in a conference finals would be disappointment?

As a general rule, NBA teams rarely call their shots. They don't declare their expectations publicly -- the exception being the Miami Heat’s pep rally during the summer of 2010. Privately, though, virtually every owner, general manager, coach and player has set the bar. Neither LeBron James nor Kevin Durant has to come out and say it, but everyone knows that for Miami and Oklahoma City -- along with Chicago and the Lakers -- it's title or bust. For nearly half the league, making the playoffs would render their season a success.

When you speak to Clippers' management, coaches, players and fans, it's clear the team exists in expectation purgatory. They aren't playing coy or feigning modesty, even though they're a supremely confident -- sometimes brash -- bunch on the floor. They honestly don't have a firm grip yet on how to appraise their team. After the Clippers' wild 95-89 overtime win against Miami on Wednesday night, Blake Griffin took a battery of questions from a scrum of reporters that, in sheer numbers, is beginning to rival any press corps in the league. He patiently catalogued the various takeaways from the win, the places where the Clippers still need to improve and the attributes of his teammates. Then he was asked whether the Clippers were an elite team.

The question gave Griffin pause -- and it wasn't because he was trying to summon his best Crash Davis/Nuke Laloosh postgame clichés. This wasn't a case of a player being politic or reticent about giving the rest of the NBA bulletin board material or managing the expectations of the fans. Griffin, like most of his teammates, simply isn't sure.

"I'm not even ... I'm not ..." Griffin let out a little chuckle, then continued. "I'm not even thinking like that. I don't worry where our team is ranked, or what other people think about our team -- whether we're a top team, or a mid-tier or whatever."

Griffin isn't a young player who lacks self-assurance, nor do most of his teammates. But even after a bizarre and spirited win over the league's marquee team, the Clippers are treading with care as they navigate the season. In recent days, they've tried to disown the Lob City tag. They're determined not to fall victim to the kind of hubris that followed the Heat around last season.

However you rate the Clippers, the win over Miami represents their first real milestone of the season. They came into Wednesday night 4-3. They notched three wins against lesser opponents, and a fourth on their home floor against a quality Portland team. Meanwhile, they lost their three most difficult games (at San Antonio, vs. Chicago, at Portland). Though he tailed off a bit down the stretch, Paul put together his most prolific game as a Clipper. He exerted complete authority over the game during the middle two quarters, orchestrating pitch-perfect possessions that showcased his instincts and vision. The team had seen it in stretches over the season's first two weeks, but this was Paul's most sustained performance.

The Clippers entered Wednesday night's matchup with the NBA's 25th-ranked defense and now faced the challenge of combating two of the league's most lethal wings in the league with a platoon of Caron Butler, Chauncey Billups, Randy Foye, Mo Williams and Ryan Gomes. Yet they proceeded to hold the Heat to 89 points in 99 possessions. The rotations weren't always fluid, and the pick-and-roll coverages were, at times, scattered, but the Clippers showed a brand of physicality they hadn't previously demonstrated. The Heat got their fair share of deep catches and crisp ball reversals early, but after a rough patch early in the second quarter that saw the Clippers' second unit falter, the starters returned and lured the Heat into a barrage of tough jumpers. When the Heat tried to spread the Clippers' defense, they Clips closed gaps quickly and decisively.

Have the Clippers turned the corner on their defensive issues? A bit, perhaps, though there's almost certain to be some recidivism going forward. The combination of raw youth and creaky veterans virtually guarantees as much. And that's probably why the Clippers remain cautious about setting goals.

“I think if you get too caught up in the results, I think you forget about the process," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. "Then I think you miss things and I don’t think you can be as good as you can be if you do it that way.”

The Clippers want to see some refinement before they figure out if they're a title-chasing team in earnest, or merely consolidating in preparation for something bigger in 2012-13, when they'll have a season under the belt and the opportunity to address the deficiencies on their roster.

Across the way outside the Miami locker room, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra explained the hazards of setting wholesale goals, especially with a newly-assembled team, an exercise he's well-versed in.

"The thing that nobody wants to hear is that it takes time in this league," Spoelstra said. "Even if you can put a lot of talent and a lot of pieces that you think naturally fit together, it takes time. Very rarely in this league are you able to put together a team with a lot of new players and to immediately succeed. [The Clippers] have done very well. They’ve gotten off to a great start."

How do you balance restraint when you want to achieve success? That's the diciest part of all.

"I’m not a patient person," Del Negro said. "So I want to see results quicker.”

80 percent of life is showing up.

Of all of Woody Allen's enduring punch lines, none is so practical as a life lesson. You don't have to be a genius to achieve success -- just show up. Those silly perfect attendance awards they hand out in school? They're a better predictive measure than we think -- and we can apply that lesson to basketball.

At its very root, a basketball possession is an opportunity for points. There are no promises you’ll score. But NBA teams that get a shot off at the basket score an average of 1.16 points per possession. Barring an illegal defense call or a foul away from the ball, teams that don’t get a shot off score exactly zero points on average.

The lesson here is fairly simple: Show up for the possession and you’re likely to pad your lead or narrow your deficit. That's a primary reason Dean Oliver rates turnover rate as one of his "Four Factors of Basketball Success," second only to shooting proficiency.

The Clippers have ranked as one of the three most efficient offenses in basketball since the outset of the season. They’ve accomplished this while running very rudimentary stuff in the half court. Much of the playbook consists of angle pick-and-rolls, some early drag screens and horns sets (bigs at the elbow; wings in the corners) that move into simple curls or ball screens. In recent days, they've added some second-side actions in which after an initial pick-and-roll with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, the ball is swung quickly to Chauncey Billups, who will get into a similar action with DeAndre Jordan.

But as the Atlanta Hawks demonstrated during the latter seasons of the Mike Woodson era, you can rack up some nice efficiency numbers if you protect the ball -- even if your offense is obvious and not remarkably innovative. The Hawks’ game plan was so utterly predictable that “Iso Joe” became a calling card. Yet when you'd visit any advanced team stats page, you'd find the Hawks near the very top of the rankings. How could an offense whose trademark set consisted of a swingman pounding the ball one-on-one possibly rate so high? The answer: Atlanta rarely turned the ball over.

The Clippers rank second in turnover rate, behind Philadelphia (which, not coincidentally, is the only team with a more statistically efficient offense). Wednesday night against Houston, the Clips didn’t turn the ball over once in the first quarter while scoring 41 points on 26 possessions. Everything they threw at the basket fell through, though little of it was the result of brilliant choreography. As usual, the Clippers used very basic actions to find shot attempts -- and they generated at least one each time they brought the ball across the time line by simply being careful with their possessions.

Against Milwaukee on Saturday night, the Clippers turned the ball over 10 times in the first 18 minutes and looked dreadful doing it -- trailing the Bucks 28-24 when a timeout was called at the 5:42 mark of the second quarter. From there, the Clippers went 16 minutes without a turnover. Over that stretch of 27 possessions, they scored 41 points.

The Clippers are getting the ball in the hands of the right people in the right spots for a lot of easy baskets. Like every good offensive team, they suffer lulls like the one they endured during the first half against Milwaukee on Saturday (and that drought was largely because of an uncharacteristic barrage of turnovers). But by and large, the Clippers are crafting a simple offense predicated, more than anything, on showing up. They aren't even getting very many second chances -- they rank 27th in offensive rebounding rate -- but the likelihood they'll get a first chance is very high.

Never has an effect had so obvious a cause. The arrival of Paul has completely transformed the Clippers’ attack, which logged the highest turnover rate in the league last season. A Paul team has never ranked below 8th in turnover rate, and it’s not hard to understand why. Paul exerts more careful control over a possession than any point guard alive. His teams rarely turn the ball over not only because he’s protective of the basketball, but because he has an incredible capacity to deliver the ball to teammates in low-risk, high-reward spots. Someone, somewhere will end up with a shot, and because Paul is capable as a distributor, he doesn’t need a lot of tactical help or fancy plays to find that someone.

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro rejects the idea that the Clippers' playbook is decidedly less intricate than what the rest of the league is doing.

"Everybody runs the same stuff," Del Negro said. "I would say 80 percent. Everyone tries the post-up guys. Everyone runs isolations. Everyone runs pick-and-rolls. It's all the same stuff; they just have different visuals for it. We call something horns -- it's an elbow set. They call it 54. Everyone runs ... we call it floppy, single-double -- other teams call it power or they call it 2-chest."

Del Negro said there's little variance in the schematics of NBA teams, with very few exceptions.

"Most of the stuff is very similar,” he said. “Angle pick-and-roll, high pick-and-roll. Everyone runs those. Other than probably the old Utah stuff -- the UCLA stuff, which we run, which other teams run -- or the triangle offense, which only the Lakers used to run, everyone runs pretty much very similar stuff."

Del Negro said he believes that execution far outweighs design on the basketball court. On Friday, he said he calls only about 50 percent of the Clippers' half-court sets from the sidelines. As a coach, he's not there to put his stylistic imprint on his team or to wow the league with his tactical prowess. He's in Los Angeles to inspire basketball players to play basketball. Give him quality players, and he'll give you a quality product. This is the Vinny Del Negro brand.

The Clippers' most imposing challenge right now is improving their 22nd-ranked defense. After getting torched by San Antonio and Chicago, they've turned in three strong performances at home. Griffin and Jordan have the speed to cover a lot of ground, while Paul is a pest on the ball, but there are still nuances that haven't been refined, a process that will continue under the direction of Clippers assistant Dean Demopoulos.

At some point, Del Negro will find himself in a chess match, and the stakes will grow larger and larger as the calendar moves through the season and into the playoffs. He'll have to draw something up for a final possession or add a wrinkle to fully maximize a mismatch. There will be opportunities to exploit an opponent's weakness and to combat a strength. Great coaches recognize those opportunities quickly and decisively -- can Del Negro? And to the extent he's right about 30 teams all running the same sets, will he know how to distribute those play calls down the stretch of a crucial game?

In the meantime, can the Clippers win big by playing the Woody Allen offense? By merely keeping turnovers low with Paul at the controls, can they maintain a hyper-efficient attack -- irrespective of how elegant or creative the X's and O's? Is it possible that showing up is 80 percent of a possession?

LOS ANGELES -- If Lob City is going to be a functioning municipality, then it's going to need some law and order. Every day can't be a celebratory parade or a civic orgy. Somebody has to sweep the streets, fill the potholes and pick up the garbage.

During the first week of the season, the Los Angeles Clippers delivered spectacle and frills, and entered Sunday's action as the NBA's most efficient offense. Unfortunately, the Clippers' defense was every bit as putrid as their offense was prolific. They knew they’d need a couple of weeks to craft a coherent defensive game plan, but they never imagined that they’d rank dead last in the NBA defensively a week into the season, giving up an unsightly 113.3 points per 100 possessions.

On Sunday night, the Clippers showed signs of life on the defensive end in their 93-88 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. The sellout crowd was treated to its fair share of acrobatics above the rim courtesy of Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, but the Clippers fought this game in the trenches for 36 minutes, then weathered a scintillating 36-point fourth quarter by Portland to hold on.

"I thought we did a good job limiting their easy baskets as much as possible," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. "They got behind our defense a couple of times in the fourth quarter, but overall I thought that was an important part of the game for us."

The Clippers applied tough ball pressure on the Trail Blazers for three quarters, something that was notably absent from losses to San Antonio and Chicago last week. For the game, the Clippers logged 25 deflections -- an average effort for the team generally falls in the 15 range.

"We were in them the whole time," Griffin said. "We were on top of them, getting loose balls, getting steals, deflections. A deflection forces them to have to take a tough shot at the end of the shot clock. It's huge."

Portland is an efficient offensive club that opened the season with three straight wins, but it's not really a rhythm team in the classical sense. The Trail Blazers rely on a lot of pin-downs and pick-and-pop plays for LaMarcus Aldridge, with a few flex cuts sprinkled in to get their wings some open looks. The Clippers denied the Trail Blazers easy passes to Aldridge and forced 21 turnovers on the night -- much of the credit due to center Jordan. On the rare occasions when that intense pressure yielded penetration, the Clippers' back-line defenders were prompt to rotate. The Trail Blazers couldn't find anything in the half court and Clippers held a 69-52 lead after three quarters.

That's when the trouble began for Los Angeles, as Portland began to work away at the deficit. Nicolas Batum wreaked havoc off the ball (with a nifty baseline cut), as a spot-up shooter (two silky 3-pointers) and in transition (a breakaway slam off a deflection). Jamal Crawford scored 13 points on a combination of long jumpers and foul shots courtesy of his patented kick motion.

By the time Raymond Felton burned the Clippers on a couple of pick-and-rolls -- one resulting in an easy weak-side jumper by Aldridge, the other when he squirted to the hole past a backpedaling Jordan -- a laugher had morphed into a 5-point game and it grew only closer from there.

"In the fourth quarter when Jamal was getting loose, we did a poor job [defensively]," Griffin said. "We just have to bridge the gap and make it a four-quarter thing."

The win was anything but seamless, as the Clippers wobbled defensively and failed to find clean looks on the other end. Caron Butler, who scored 19 points on the night, missed a pair of free throws that would've extended the Clippers' lead to six points with 1:19 to play. On their next possession, the Clippers piddled around in the half court before Butler launched a contested 26-footer with the shot clock expiring. Aldridge then took an inbounds pass, and beat Jordan off the dribble on the right side with a bank shot to cut the lead to two.

Ultimately, it was Chris Paul who bailed the Clippers out on both ends. With 9.3 seconds remaining, Paul scored the final two of his 17 points and gave the Clippers a 92-88 lead. Paul split two defenders off a step-up screen from Jordan, then skated through the paint, finishing with a running bank shot from five feet.

Paul then drew the task of defending the much taller Crawford on the subsequent inbounds play. With Crawford desperately trying to find space along the perimeter, Paul pestered and harassed him. As Crawford elevated for a shot, Paul went with him and a jump ball was called.

"I know Jamal Crawford really well," Paul said. "He's an unbelievable scorer and can handle the ball like crazy."

Crawford is the all-time NBA leader in four-point plays. Was that a thought that drifted into Paul's mind?

"No question," Paul said. "I felt I just had to stay down, don't jump, and I got a deflection."

It wasn't a terribly artful win for the Clippers, who would've preferred to clamp down for 48 minutes rather than watch what they build for three quarters spring a leak. But governance is never pretty, no matter how glossy the city's marketing campaign might be.

A shooter waits in the right corner, feet set and hands ready. A big, bouncy center creeps along the left baseline and prepares to dunk anything that comes his way. From the right wing, a second shooter cuts through the paint to the opposite corner as the shooting guard floats up to the left wing. Chris Paul dribbles facing the rim and casually drifts to a spot on the 3-point line -- a straight line drawn between his feet and the basket would pass directly through the right elbow.

This is Paul's spot.

What he does from here is more or less why Chris Paul is the most deadly crunch-time player in the NBA. What he does is shoot.

In the second half of the Clippers' opening night win against the Golden State Warriors, Paul shot 4-for-4 from the six-by-six foot box in between the right elbow and the 3-point line. It's precisely this ability that separates him from other pass-first blurs like Rajon Rondo.

Paul was brought to Los Angeles to help make Blake Griffin truly great, to smooth out the jagged edges in DeAndre Jordan’s game and to revitalize Caron Butler. But most of all, he came to win and win big by making everyone else better with his passing and exquisite command of pick-and-roll dynamics. So why let his teammates just stand around while he isolates 25 feet from the hoop?

Well that passing ability is good for more than just selling Lob City T-Shirts. Paul’s insistence on finding the open player, whomever it may be, is also why he’s able to find himself open for flatfooted jump shots -- even when the whole defense is staring right at him.

When Paul winds his way around a screen, his shoulder snug to the screener’s hip, or when he signals he’s ready to score by bending low from the waist and beginning his mesmerizing crossover routine, help defenders stay put. They know that despite signs to the contrary, though his focus seems like it could melt the steel rim, Paul's vision extends to every inch of the court. Send three defenders his way as Chicago did to Kobe Bryant on Bryant's potential game-winner and Paul is sure to find the open man.

So because defensive help’s heels are tacked to the hardwood, the player with the undesirable task of staying in front of Paul, last night Monta Ellis, must concede an extra foot or two to stop the drive -- a killer crossover soon becomes a dump off to dunk-happy DeAndre Jordan.

The only goal of Paul’s defender is to shuffle his feet fast enough to prevent Paul from shattering the team’s defensive structure. Staying in front of him is more important than staying close to him.

And that’s just the air space Paul, who is only 6-feet tall and does not get much elevation on his jumper, needs to shoot without so much as a hand in his face. Instead, Paul shakes and shimmies until the defender’s knees and ankles approach the consistency of pudding, then gathers his feet, rises straight up and lofts the ball gently through the net.

Hoopdata tells us that for the last four seasons, Paul has shot about 45 percent from 16-23 feet -- an impressive rate from that difficult distance. In that same time, the percentage of his total field goal attempts from this range has increased, absorbing what used to be more efficient attempts at the rim. This shift is why many remain unconvinced that Paul is his old 2008 self.

But while the 19 foot pull-up is hardly the best shot in basketball, it’s a shot Paul makes and that his skill essentially forces the defense to concede. It’s impractical to trap Paul because his ballhandling wizardry and powerful frame make him impossible to bully. And while simply getting the ball out of his hands counted as a defensive victory during Paul’s last two seasons in New Orleans, Paul’s new SoCal teammates will feast on opportunities to go 4 on 3.

Vinny Del Negro didn’t acquit himself all that well in his first game as helmsmen of the new Clippers. The team showed a worrisome lack of offensive imagination and organization and was fortunate that the absence of purpose and weakside motion wasn’t fatal against the Warriors’ dilapidated defense.

But credit Del Negro this: He knows that when his team needs a bucket, you could do much worse than a 18-foot Chris Paul jumper over a backpedaling defender. When your last resort is your best player’s go-to move, and that player is Chris Paul, it seems not even the Clippers can screw it up.

• Ben Swanson of Rufus on Fire writes that, given all we know about Michael Jordan's competitiveness, it's not surprising he'd be leading a charge of hard-line owners to secure as much revenue as possible.
• Kate Fagan covers the Sixers for the Philadelphia Inquirer. She also played basketball at the University of Colorado while the school was confronting a recruiting scandal and understands the complicated culture of big-time college sports: "Big-time athletic programs are not entirely unlike nation-states. Everyone wears the colors, says the pledge, and sings the school anthem. Everyone worships the logo, recites the fight song, and reports up the chain of command. Everyone's committed to defeating a common enemy: Ohio State or Nebraska or Michigan. This is what makes college athletics galvanizing and wonderful. And also, for anyone who has been inside it, it's what can make college athletics frightening. When you're inside, you're often a rah-rah believer. Blind acceptance exists that coaches and administrators, those who have established the institution's culture, possess absolute authority."
• On Friday night, the University of North Carolina will play Michigan State on the USS Carl Vinson, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that hauled the body of Osama bin Laden to his burial at sea. Tarheel alma mater Danny Nowell is excited for the game. At HoopSpeak U, Nowell explores many of the same contradictions and mixed feelings Fagan has about the fervor of college sports in places like Chapel Hill and State College.
• A French parody of MTV Cribs featuring a muppet Tony Parker, which concludes with some curious plant life.
• I've received a number of emails from Canadians who maintain the NBA lockout is illegal under Ontario law, even though the NBA has a labor exemption under antitrust law in the United States (which allows it to impose things like a salary cap which would be illegal in other commercial sectors). Law professor David Doorey of York University looks at Ontario's Labor Relations Act and asks some interesting questions.
• Noam Schiller of Hardwood Paroxysm has a memo for new Warriors head coach Mark Jackson: "According to BasketballValue.com, Stephen Curry, Monta Ellis, Dorell Wright, David Lee, and Andris Biedrins played almost 687 minutes together last season. in that time, they were outscored 1553 to 1484, for a net efficiency rating of -4.60."
• ClipperBlog's Jovan Buha writes that Los Angeles native Tayshaun Prince could be an interesting fit for a Clippers team that's been looking for a solution at the small forward spot since the Taft Administration.
• Tom Haberstroh has a conversation about the lockout with the hilarious, insightful, sometimes goofy and always thought-provoking behavioral economist Dan Ariely.
• Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire occupy Sesame Street.
• Several weeks ago, Knickerblogger's Robert Silverman observed Chris Bosh's charity fashion event at Saks Fifth Avenue: "All I could think about while staring at the huddled masses was the original (and awesome) 1978 Dawn of the Dead -- where zombies have overtaken a mall and are riding the escalators, numbly staring at stuff they couldn’t afford in some half-remembered haze, doomed for all eternity to repeat the pointless, boring, soul-deadening rituals of their former so-called life." Silverman goes on to explain, in further detail, how sports are like zombie movies.
• Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro speaks about the influence the late Jim Valvano, who was fond of reciting poems to his players at N.C. State.
• Seattleites take note: Metta World Peace feels for you. Among the other things he misses: "I miss the refs running down the court like they have hot tomales in their pants. I miss Charles Barkley commentating."
• On his Twitter feed, Larry Sanders offers relationship/break-up advice: "When a good thing goes bad it's not the end of the world, it's the end of a world that you had with one girl."

From T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times:

A couple of months ago this was going to be the summer of all summers for the Clippers, a fresh start, a chance to hire a new coach, $17 million in cap space to go after LeBron or other big names like him and make a huge splash.

And so they signed Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes.

Or, as Sterling put it, "If I really called the shots we wouldn't have signed Gomes and what's the other guy's name?

"You know, they told me if we built a new practice facility we'd attract all the top players in the game," Sterling adds. "I guess I should have doubled the size of this place."

He's no different than most Clippers fans.

"I swear to you, I never heard of these guys," Sterling says, "but what if the coach says he wants them?"

Try to imagine you're at a business gathering, maybe a trade show. Your boss holds court in one corner of the room. He's surrounded by people who are insiders in your industry -- some of whom know you personally, while others are only vaguely familiar with your work.

The next morning you find out through a third party who doesn't even work for your company that your boss told those insiders he has no idea why the company hired you (only he called you "Whatshisname.").

Or maybe your boss told the circle you have lousy taste in personnel and couldn't lure the real comers in the field, even though that was your job. Your boss complained about how his investments in capital improvement were supposed to attract better talent, only you couldn't close.

The irony of Sterling's griping about his organization's inability to lure top talent is almost too obvious to acknowledge. You might agree with Sterling that the signings of Gomes and Foye represent a failure for the franchise this summer. You might hold Clippers general manager Neil Olshey accountable for that, or head coach Vinny Del Negro for his input in those choices. I think Olshey exercised discipline and deployed a sound long-term strategy given the circumstances -- Sterling being one of the primary circumstances. Intelligent people can disagree about how the Clippers fared this summer in the marketplace. But whichever side of the argument you fall on, there isn't a reasonable excuse in the world for what Sterling did to Gomes, Foye, Olshey and Del Negro.

The Clippers' curse isn't a supernatural phenomenon. It has a name, a face and an unfortunate history of personal failure.

Over the past few years, I've gotten to know a lot of people who work for the Clippers. They exist across the organization in sales, marketing, communications, digital media and basketball operations. These are professional people who are proud of their work -- and they should be because every day they do a solid job for a brand few people think very much of. Yet they do the work, some of them with a sincere hope that one day they'll be able to say that they had something to do with the moment the Clippers became an entity that mattered in Los Angeles and in the NBA.

Although I haven't met Foye, last week I visited with Gomes for the first time one-on-one. I found a thoughtful professional. A very measured executive for one of the league's most well-respected franchises told me that Gomes is one of the best people involved in professional basketball. Olshey is eager to do his job well. He's always courteous, has pretty decent taste in basketball players and is a more creative dealmaker than he's been allowed to be. Del Negro has been with the team for only five weeks, but has brought the kind of charisma and exuberance that vaulted him to the top of Sterling's list of coaching candidates.

Whether Gomes, Foye, Olshey and Del Negro are basketball geniuses or likable doesn't really matter. As employees of the Los Angeles Clippers, they all warrant Sterling's basic respect, which ultimately requires so little of such a blessed, wealthy man. All Sterling has to do when asked about his employees in polite company is offer an endorsement -- or, at the very least, not publicly humiliate them. That's his only ambassadorial duty as team owner on a day when the Clippers introduce the media to some minor stylistic tweaks on their uniforms.

Imagine it's your world again. We return just as you've found out your boss was trashing you to people outside your company. Now ask yourself:

Is this a place you want to work?

"Go get him, 'Nique!" was the call from the Dallas bench as John Wall revved up to make his move against Mavericks' rookie Dominique Jones. A naturally dogged competitor, Jones stayed light on his feet and locked in against Wall. The top overall pick unleashed his crossover, but Jones defended him in both directions. Wall then elevated for a jump shot, but the ball never got past Jones' outstretched arm and was swatted away.

"I like playing against people like [Wall], because they compete," Jones said. "All I try to do is make it hard for the defender. I try to predict what they're going to do and I try to reach. I've got a 6-10 wingspan so I'm trying to get lucky too."

Add that wingspan with Jones' quickness and anticipation and the Mavericks have a stifling perimeter defender. Jones spent most of the afternoon blanketing Wall, who finished with 21 points on 4-for-19 shooting from the field and 13-for-15 from the line.

On the other side of the ball, Jones was the most creative guy in the gym (Jeremy Lin's ridiculous 270 aerial spin move notwithstanding). Jones, chosen 25th overall by Memphis then dealt to Dallas on draft night, is yet another dynamic combo guard to the Mavericks' stable. His advanced ball skills give him limitless options, primarily as a scorer but also as a playmaker. The trick for Jones is seeing the court, then exploding from the top of the floor.

"The plan is to get into open space," Jones said. "Pull up in the paint, get to the rim or make things happen for my team."

For a high-volume shooter, Jones works efficiently -- his hallmark at South Florida where he led the Big East in scoring. On Thursday, he scored 28 points, converting nine of 17 from the floor and 10 of 12 from the stripe. Summer league rosters are loaded with wings clinically addicted to straight-line dribble-drives. Not Jones, who has a far more sophisticated approach with the ball than the average scoring guard.

"I just look at angles," Jones said. "It's basically reading your defender and knowing where you are on the court."

Jones' propensity for drawing contact and getting to the line isn't accidental -- it's a staple of his aggressive, but methodical game.

"I look at my defender when I'm in the lane," Jones said. If he's coming to me at full speed, then I'll make that contact. Once I get that contact, I have a chance for an and-1."

Jones played the point at South Florida and can distribute the ball in traffic, or make use of himself off the ball. He recorded four assists on Thursday and turned the ball over twice, which is a minor miracle for an active, high usage guard in summer league action.

"I love the point guard position, as people can probably tell the way I work with the ball," Jones said. "But whatever the Mavericks need me to do, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try to prepare myself and learn from Jason Terry and Jason Kidd so that when the time comes at either position that I play, I won't be a liability."

For an aging Dallas squad, the time might come sooner than later -- and Jones seems far more of an asset than a liability.

• Jeremy Lin stole the show late in the stellar Dallas-Washington game. With the Mavs down a couple of possessions, Wall and JaVale McGee trapped Lin off a high ball screen. Lin split the defenders, darting left through the opening. Against the collapsing Washington defense, Lin then propelled 270 degrees in the air to get off a right-handed jumper against contact. The acrobatics roused the Cox Pavilion crowd, who almost rioted when Lin was whistled for a charge.
• Scoring is easy in summer league for guys who are naturally inclined to do it. They can be tempted to put the blinders on and head to the hole without any regard for what's materializing on the floor. Alonzo Gee doesn't suffer from this epidemic. With the Lakers paying him a lot of attention on Friday, Gee was more than happy to work on the weak side and keep the ball moving around the perimeter until it found the open shooter. Outside of the handful of sure-thing lottery picks, there are few players who look more destined for a full-time NBA gig than Gee.
• Need to grab a table for ten at a popular joint during the dinner rush? Gani Lawal is the guy to send ahead. When the shot goes up on the defensive end of the floor, Lawal has two thoughts. First, can he use his reach to grab the miss? If yes, he lurches to the ball with his lanky frame and gobbles up the ball. If a teammate controls the rebound, then Lawal races downcourt, beating every defender to the rim. Any big man who wants to log minutes for the Phoenix Suns has to be able to run the floor, and Lawal has that event covered.
• An NBA scout on Derrick Caracter: "He's really skilled offensively, comfortable and 15 feet and moves well. He's playing with chip on shoulder and has an edge to him. If the mental aspects and work ethic are solid, he should be okay. But I'm not sure what [the Lakers] are going to do with him. I don't see him playing on that team and they don't have a D-League team anymore."
• Vinny Del Negro laced into the Clippers' summer league team at their morning practice. The Clips looked awful in their first two games, and Del Negro emphatically told the young squad that it didn't matter whether they were first-rounders who'd been paid or guys just trying to break into the league, losing two games by a combined 54 points was disgraceful. By all accounts, Del Negro's tirade was provocative and impressive. On Thursday night, the Clippers eked out a win over the Trail Blazers. Marqus Blakely brought the Clippers a badly-needed dose of defense, smarts and stability. He led the Clips with 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting from the floor.
• Zach Harper of Hardwood Paroxysm on the John Wall-Jeremy Lin fourth quarter battle: "Funny thing happened on the way to the Bellagio … Jeremy Lin and John Wall faced off in the fourth quarter of the Wizards-Mavericks game in Vegas and pretty much played each other to a standstill. That’s right. An undrafted Harvard, SMAHRT kid, point guard went toe-to-toe with the number-one pick in the NBA draft and sort-of held his own. The final box score will show John Wall with an impressive 21 points (let’s just forget about the 4/19 shooting), 10 assists and seven rebounds. But it won’t show that the majority of the Lin’s 11 fourth quarter points were the result of him getting the better of the 'best player in the draft' for times than Wall will care to remember. Lin and Wall played the equivalent of an iso chess match on the hardwood game board. The kid from the Ivy League refused to back down from the YouTube sensation and while Wall walked away with the highlight reel, Lin walked away as the fan favorite."
• D.J. Foster of ClipperBlog and ESPN Los Angeles on the Spurs' guards: "You’ll see a lot of guys provide token full-court pressure in summer league, but the Spurs’ players aren’t ones to take a task lightly. All game long guards Curtis Jerrells and Dwayne Mitchell stayed in the hip pocket of the Lakers’ ball-handlers and made them work for every inch on the court. The result of the inspired perimeter defense showed up in the box score – the Lakers’ guards went a combined 0-for-13 from beyond the arc, turned the ball over ten times, and shot just 40.5 percent from the field."
• Jeremy Schmidt of Bucksketball on Deron Washington: "In terms of pure athleticism, Washington can match anyone in summer league. He showed that on Thursday when he called dibs on blocking a Hawks player on a fast break (a questionable foul was called). But over the past three games, for the first time, he’s been showing there’s more to his game. Washington has been the Bucks biggest 3-point threat, hitting six of his ten 3-point attempts, while averaging 14.0 points and 5.3 rebounds per game."
• Jeremy Schmidt on Sam Young, who lit up the Thomas & Mack Center: "The rims at the Thomas & Mack Center are surely glad to see Sam Young leave ... The second-year Grizzlies forward did a number on them Thursday night, dunking early and often on his way to 35 points on 12-for-17 shooting against the NBA D-League Select team. A known athlete, Young was able to get out in transition early and often and if there’s one thing that Sam Young has always been able to do, it’s finish in transition."

When the Chicago Bulls hired Vinny Del Negro in June 2008, he was regarded as an outside-the-box hire. Here was a young, well-liked member of the basketball fraternity coming off a two-year stint in the Phoenix Suns' front office. The Bulls brass admired Del Negro's charisma and felt he was the right leader to put in the bunker with the Bulls' combination of young players and established veterans. Two years later, the Bulls fired Del Negro after consecutive 41-41 seasons. But only a couple of months after his departure from Chicago, the Clippers tapped Del Negro to lead their core of young talent along with Baron Davis and Chris Kaman.

Evaluating Del Negro's legacy in Chicago is an inordinately difficult task. Del Negro's defenders point to two playoff appearances in two years and the maturation of Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson. Despite being undermined by management in Chicago and losing Ben Gordon, he had the Bulls on track. Naysayers saw an inexperienced and unsophisticated tactician who struggled to build a coherent offense.

Whatever your appraisal of Del Negro, he comes to the Clippers job not as a potential wunderkind, but as a guy with something to prove. We sat down with Del Negro following the Clippers' first summer league game on Monday night.

You’d be getting paid this season by Chicago irrespective of whether you took the Clippers job. Figure there will be another five or six openings over the course of the next 12 months, some of which will be pretty attractive. Why take this gig?
There's a comfort factor for me.

What's comfortable about it?
They have a lot of young talent and some good flexibility. It's Los Angeles. It's Staples Center. They have a great practice facility. I just felt comfortable with [Clippers general manager] Neil [Olshey] and [Clippers president] Andy [Roeser]. My meetings with [Clippers owner] Mr. Sterling went well. I'm very competitive and I enjoy the challenge of it. I love basketball and have been doing it my whole life. I thought this was a good fit for me. I didn't have to do it, but it just felt right. I'm not going to sit around and wait for opportunities. I want to continue to grow as a coach and as a teacher

Do you define your time in Chicago a success or failure?
I view it as a big success for me personally. I had the opportunity to coach one of the most successful franchises in the game and I was able to help that team develop its young players, make two playoffs when no one expected that. I don't care what anybody says -- they didn't expect that. I'm proud of my assistant coaches and the work they put in. I'm proud of my development. When I see Derrick Rose or Joakim Noah or Taj Gibson or Luol Deng -- the guys who really improved in a lot of ways. That organization is in a much better position now after the two years I was there than it was when I get there.

Did you deserve to be let go?
That's not for me to say. Those decisions are out of my control. My body of work speaks for itself. You're always trying to improve as a coach. Not every decision you make is going to be perfect. But I'm very comfortable with what went on there in terms of the basketball side. I'll leave it at that.

What did you do defensively in your second year to log that big improvement?
I think we focused more on it and I taught it better. Everyone got on the same page quicker. We had a core of players who returned after a year together and the team was built differently. They dynamics of the team in year two were different. We structured it a little bit differently and a little bit better overall. The players got more comfortable and they also grew as players.

Is Al-Farouq Aminu a 3 or a 4?
He's a 3. He's young and he's got to get stronger and develop. That's the coach's responsibility, to continually put him in an area where he can get better. He'll put in the work.

I know he's only been in the league for five minutes, but are his instincts 3-ish enough to succeed on the perimeter right now?
For one, I don't think he has the size and the strength for the 4. He has ball skills. He shoots it better than you think. He's got some things to work on there. He's young. He's just starting off.

In this day and age, do we overstate the importance of position?
Probably a little bit. You have guys who are 6-foot-10 and 7-feet playing behind the line and not playing in the post anymore. The post-up game is different. The rules are different. The game continues to evolve and that dictates a lot of the things you do on the court. Talent wins in this league. We all know that.

Do you see this Clippers offense operating on sets and isolations, or will it be more of an improvisational offense?
Probably a little bit of both. You want to flow freely with the way we're built, the way Baron [Davis] can push it, and the way Blake [Griffin] and Chris [Kaman] can run, but you're going to have to play in the half court as well. It's not just one style. You want to emphasize defense and rebounding. That's where we're going to win games, so we can get out and get some easy baskets. But our execution has to begin on the offensive end, which will help our defensive transition and our floor balance.

Baron Davis has said that he prefers that coaches not commandeer each set from the sideline. Are you okay with that?
That's not my style anyway. I think guys need to play. That doesn't mean we're not going to call sets, but everyone is going to buy in. Everyone has a job to do. As long as everyone is working toward the same goals -- whether it's Baron or anyone else -- this is the structure that we have.

There’s an old cliché that there’s a virtue to “treating every player the same.” Does that work practically? As a coach, can you really take the same approach with Baron Davis that you do with Blake Griffin or Eric Gordon or Derrick Rose, for that matter? Doesn't a coach in some sense have to tailor his approach to each guy individually?
No question. That's the biggest part, especially with all the young guys coming in the game and the development of them. You have to get to know them and sometimes be hard on them, but let them understand it's in their best interest and way for them to get better.

Your career in the NBA was touted as one of your stronger résumé items. Both you and Clippers management mentioned it in your introductory press conference. How relevant is a playing career to being a head coach? Is it really all that necessary?
I don't know. That's a difficult question. I think it helps, but it really depends on the situation you're in, the team that you're given -- whether they're young or old, whether they've had success or not, whether you've really studied the game if you weren't a player. Obviously, I think there's an advantage from playing because you know the things that go into it. I was very fortunate to have some tremendous coaches throughout my career and learned a lot from them. From that, I tried to assemble what I was comfortable with and how I feel the game should be played.

Looking back, pre-Chicago, do you ever regret you didn't spend a couple seasons on the bench somewhere as an assistant?
No, I don't. The reason I don't is that I felt like I was an assistant coach on the floor when I played. I played both positions. I played for great coaches. I used to watch a lot of film and study reports. Coaching is different, though. Some people probably need it more than others. I was just fortunate enough to have an opportunity to do what I believed in and my philosophies over 20-plus years. It just fell into place for me that way. I look at that as fortunate, but also doing a lot of the right things over a lot of years.

The advanced stats movement is making huge strides. A lot of the more successful organizations are investing a lot in that discipline? How much do you rely on them? Do you find them useful?
I do, some. I think it can get overblown. You have to pick the right spots where you want to focus in. I think you have to get a feel for the pulse of your team. Certain guys can only adapt to certain things so fast. Sometimes less is more. So using the statistics in the right way can be beneficial, but for younger players sometimes they can be a little overbearing. But I sometimes look at the plus-minus stuff, what three, four, or five sets of lineups work well together. I'm also always looking at defensive field-goal percentage, rebounding totals and turnovers are obviously big. The most important thing is not to try to burden the players, but understand how the stats can be used to help them.

CHICAGO -- Prior to their game Saturday night against the Boston Celtics, the Chicago Bulls downplayed any invocation of last spring’s epic first round series between the two teams.

Asked what he remembered about the series, Bulls forward Luol Deng shrugged.

“Personally? Not much. I was on the bench,” Deng, who was inactive for the series due to injury, said.

Bulls head coach Vinny Del Negro was front and center on the sidelines last spring, but prior to the game, he dismissed any suggestion that the series bore any relevance on Saturday night’s game.

“No,” he said emphatically, clearly tired of fielding the question over the past 24 hours. For a Bulls team that came into the game losers of nine of their last 11, any parallel between Saturday night’s rematch and what transpired in the grueling playoff matchup seemed remote.

Saturday night’s 106-80 Celtics’ victory proved them right.

The arsenal Chicago deployed against Boston in that 7-game series was nowhere to be find. Last spring, a quick, agile Bulls team had the Celtics on their heels trying to defend Chicago’s lethal dribble-penetration. Saturday night, Bulls point guard Derrick Rose got loose on a few occasions, but the lack of an outside threat allowed the Celtics’ defense to smother him most of the night. Most of the evening, you could find the painted area encircled by five green jerseys.

"We sack the paint every night anyway," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "We try to force contested jump shots. They have a great point guard. If you allow [Derrick Rose] in the paint, you're going to lose. We knew that going into the game, and that's what we tried to take away."

Without Ben Gordon commanding attention along the arc and with little depth in the frontcourt, the Bulls couldn’t recreate their postseason magic. No nifty high ball screens with Rose and his big men, few transition buckets, and nothing resembling the ball movement the Bulls generated from good floor spacing. Like most of the Bulls’ recent opponents, the Celtics clogged the paint and forced the Bulls into a barrage of contested, off-balanced jumpers. Not one Bull shot over 50 percent from the field and Chicago finished the night only 32.6 percent and scored only 80 points in 101 possessions.

"If you don't move the ball, [the Celtics] use their length and physicality to take you out of stuff," Del Negro said after the loss. "They execute so well and make you pay with all the weapons that they have."

While Chicago resorted to one stagnant isolation matchup after another, the Celtics were running beautiful offensive sets with multiple options. They displayed their full array of tricks. Rasheed Wallace converted three buckets in the second quarter on easy step-outs against Joakim Noah. Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins teased Derrick Rose and Noah with screen-and-roll sets.

And, of course, there was the re-introduction of Kevin Garnett to whatever is left of this rivalry.

"Everything is predicated off Kevin," Del Negro said. "He gets everybody going. He brings great energy. He's a future Hall-of-Famer. You add one of those guys to your lineup, you're going to be better."

Garnett spent the evening rolling off picks to find open space for easy buckets from both the wing and in the basket area. He finished 6-for-8 from the field in 26 minutes.

Things really got ugly toward the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth when Boston ran off a 21-4 run. By the time Rose made him most assertive drive of the night with 9:01 left in the fourth quarter – drawing rare contact – the Bulls trailed 88-65 and most of the Celtics' veteran starters had retired for the evening.

The only thing that evoked the playoff series from seven months ago was Brad Miller’s flagrant foul against Rajon Rondo. In the first quarter, Rondo drove down the gut of the lane and was elevating to the rim when Miller clotheslined him with his right arm. The two teams remained relatively calm as the United Center crowd reached its highest crescendo of the night.

Although Boston eked out the 7-game series over Chicago last spring, the Bulls' gutsy performance was heralded as a moral victory for a team ascending, while doubts began to surface that an aging Celtics core wouldn't be able to re-establish itself as a championship-caliber squad.

"It's totally different now," Del Negro said. "Last year was last year. This is this year."

The Mavericks still have it, tired legs and all. So does Bruce Bowen, at age 37.  Old is new again at the TrueHoop Network.    

Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game: "Part of me wants to cheapen this win.  The voice in my head is telling me 'Well pffft, any team can win if they make their jumpshots and play half-decent defense.'  This is entirely true, and the Mavs haven't had much trouble winning when they actually do those two things.  Unfortunately, the defense tends to come and go with the shooting.  But you know what?  This one counts, and it counts big.  The Mavs weren't killing the Blazers' playoff chances like they did to the Suns the night before, but they also implode when faced with adversity and low expectations.  Myself and countless others hoped for a win in Portland, but generally resigned ourselves to the fact that the Mavs might go out and lay an egg.  It was the second night of a back-to-back, they played an awfully good Portland team that has been ridiculously good at home lately, and when the Blazers offered some resistance in the second half, the Mavs had every reason to fold.  They were on tired legs, and again, no one was scoring outside of Dirk and Terry.  But they stood their ground, and as a team the Mavs came up huge.  Dirk and JET took and made all the big shots, but the impact of players like Erick Dampier, Antoine Wright, and whoever invented the zone defense cannot be discounted.

So much of what the Mavs were able to accomplish in this game hinged on their play in the first and third quarters, which have been the most troublesome all season.  They started things off well, and though they were down one at the end of the first, it was evident that this was the Mavs' game.  The Blazers made their runs and had their chances, but it was a Maverick world and they were just temporarily leasing in it.  The third quarter, in which the Mavs typically implode on their way to a double-digit loss, instead had the Mavs standing their ground against a Blazer resurgence.  The storm was weathered, the Mavs bounced back, and the day was won.  Huzzah!"

Graydon Gordian of 48 Minutes of Hell: "At 37 years old, Bowen is undoubtedly in the winter of his career. Since joining the Spurs in the 01-02 season, Bowen started in every game in which he played before this year. During the Spurs' early season struggles, Popovich moved Bowen to the bench and decreased his minutes significantly ... Given Popovich's preference for veteran players (a tendency that has led him to continue to utilize several players far past their prime), Pop's decreased utilization of Bowen suggests Bruce must really have slid a peg or two.

But plenty of data (as well as the plain old tactic of trusting one's eyes) suggests otherwise. Bowen is most often used in the 4th most common 5-man unit deployed by Popovich. The four other men he most often plays with are Matt Bonner, Michael Finley, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker. It's important to note that of the other four, two are generally regarded as defensive liabilities, particularly for the Spurs' standards. Of the five most common units, this group of players has the strongest defensive efficiency rating: 87.3 ... To put that rating in perspective, the best defensive team in the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers, has a defensive efficiency rating of 98.4.

The fact of the matter is, Matt Bonner and Michael Finley aren't lockdown defenders. And although Duncan and Parker are both known as good defenders (Duncan is more accurately described as a 'great' defender), they can be found on the Spurs unit with the worst defensive efficiency as well. Like it or not, Bowen's presence on the court remains a (if not the) key factor in the Spurs having a good defense versus having a great defense."

Matt McHale of By the Horns: "I've tried to be patient with [Tyrus Thomas]. I've tried to defend him. I've tried to embrace the notion that he is part of The Future in Chicago. I've pleaded with Vinny Del Negro to give him minutes, to work with him, to focus on his development. But I've got to tell you: Tyrus is driving me nuts. He took 13 shots against the Magic. Two of them were attempted within his range (i.e., at the rim) while 11 of them were jumpers. Quick quiz: Is Tyrus Thomas a jump shooter? Quick answer: NOOOOOOOO! ... Why is he so quick to chuck it up from the outside? Dwight Howard was in foul trouble for most of the first half, but instead of taking it to Howard and trying to get him off the floor, Tyrus was content to just let 'em fly.

A lot of people hold Vinny responsible for Tyrus' lack of development as a player this season. But I can't believe that Ty's love affair with the jump shot is Del Negro's fault. I sincerely doubt he's instructing Tyrus to concentrate on his outside shooting. And if he is, I want him run out of Chicago on a rail.

Ty's coverage on pick and rolls was almost as awful as his shot selection. His lackadaisical help on the pick and roll led to three wide open layups for Rafer Alston during that killer third quarter. Tyrus honestly looked like he had no idea what to do in that situation. He didn't crash the offensive boards either. He finished with a measly 5 rebounds in 37 minutes. It was a lifeless performance."

THE FINAL WORD
Roundball Mining Company: A smart look at Denver's offensive woes (last night notwithstanding).
Hoopinion: Acie Law IV -- serviceable NBA point guard.
Raptors Republic: Toronto circles the drain. 

(Photos by Sam Forencich, D. Lippitt/Einstein, Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images)

A Spurs fan misses the old Suns.  Hating the Lakers unconditionally is as clichéd as bandwagoning.  Dallas hits its open shot.  Counter-intuition reigns in the TrueHoop Network: 

Josh Tucker of Hardwood Paroxysm: "Look, I get that you hate the Lakers. I really do. But going off like a ticking time bomb every time the Lakers get a break, and then looking the other way when they get a raw deal, doesn't make you clever, witty, or insightful. It makes you boring, predictable, and tired, not to mention completely unoriginal.

While we're at it, so does criticizing Lakers fans for being 'bandwagon fans,' or for being arrogant, smug, or condescending. Your anti-Lakers bandwagon is just as cliché, and your self-righteous attitude toward Lakers fans is just as arrogant, smug, and condescending." 

Graydon Gordian of 48 Minutes of Hell: "The Phoenix Suns have become a complete enigma to me. In some sense, they are struggling mightily. Compared to the gaudy regular season records they have posted for the last several years, their 25-18 record looks mediocre. As opposed to being in a race for home court advantage throughout the playoffs, they are in a race for the playoffs itself.

Shaquille O'Neal is having what some are calling an All-Star caliber season, but in order to do so he has displaced the comfort and effectiveness of many of his teammates. Coming into the season, Suns fans were talking about how Amare Stoudemire might make a run at MVP. Now Amare is rumored to be on the trading block. For years, Nash was the golden boy of the NBA: Exciting to watch and always a gentleman, win or lose. But in recent months he has betrayed his frustrations regarding the current state of the team. That being said, I have no doubt the boys in purple and orange will have their game faces on come this evening. When the silver and black come to town, the players formerly known as "fun-and-gun” get serious.

I have never been a defender of Mike D'Antoni. I always thought '7 Seconds or Less' was a flawed system and that Popovich could consistently outcoach D'Antoni over the course of a 7 game series. But, in some ways, the Suns-Spurs rivalry of old is something I dearly miss. Yes, the memories and malice remain. But, the presence of D'Antoni made the rivalry about so much more than two fan bases driven to the edge of insanity by their anger."

Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game: "To be honest, I've been really reluctant to do this recap.  Or any recap for this team, really.  Every win is 'hopefully something to build on' and a 'statement game,' and every loss is a 'wake-up call.'  How long until this team starts to form a cohesive on-court identity and actually plays with some consistency, one way or another?

I did find relief in at least one way, though: the Mavs can make open shots.  That's better than what they've been doing lately.  Josh Howard in particular was absolutely stroking it, and that's a sight for sore eyes.  That 12-footer on the baseline is going to be there for Josh, whether he has to spot-up or create.  Another weapon for the arsenal, supposing it's not just a product of a Warriors complex."

THE FINAL WORD
Wizznutzz: The ESPN Trade Machine now includes Don Rickles and a live lion. 
Knickerblogger: The Knicks are playing their best ball of the season...the video.
By the Horns: Introducing the Dull-Negro-Meter.


(Photos by Harry How, Sam Forencich, Nick Laham/NBAE via Getty Images)

Does coaching matter?  How do you know if a college star can translate his skills to the pro game?   What goes on inside the head of a Bobcat blogger ... from the perspective of a Mavs blogger? The TrueHoop Network ponders elusive questions: 

Trey Kerby of Hardwood Paroxysm: "The Bulls, obviously, have wasted another half season due to Del Negro's resistance to playing Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah extended minutes.  While Aaron Gray played well in his stint in the first half, keeping the Bulls in the game for stretches, he's maxed out his potential, whereas Thomas and Noah have the chance to be key pieces to a team.  Per 36 minutes, both Noah and Thomas perform well, but they are desperately in need of a coach that will push them to try hard.  That sounds silly; these guys should both know that when they play hard, they play a lot, and in turn play well.  However, VDN's annoyingly merit-based rotations leave players in fear of making mistakes, lest they sit for quarters at a time."

Jay Aych of The Painted Area: "Well established that...Davidson prospect [Stephen Curry] can drill from anywhere with his super-soft stroke (almost as sweet as his father's). No secret he's not a tremendous athlete, but has the ability to create space for himself thanks to great ball-handling & polished footwork. Has a very nice step-back move, especially when heading to his left. Also, has a killer crossover move where he can step back into a jumper. Definitely think he will be a defensive liability in the NBA, and do wonder how well he can finish deep in the lane ... But when you're not either a superb athlete or long for your position, one way to overcome physical shortcomings is to combine good ball-handling with sweet footwork, especially for perimeter players. It's an alternate way to create space for yourself vs. quicker, longer opponents. Two examples who come to mind are Brandon Roy & Steve Nash. Though Brandon is a better athlete than most realize, he has taken his game to all-star levels because of his adept ball-handling & advanced footwork. This is why I think Curry can be a pretty nice player at the next level. Maybe not an all-star, but a pretty solid starting pg."

48 Minutes of Hell: "I marvel at Popovich's ability to get results. Plenty of coaches complain about their team's defense. But the truth is, very few coaches are capable of turning the ship. Yet here we are again, approaching February, with Popovich and his team showing signs of digging in. Charles Barkley's 'Groundhog Day' moniker deserves wider application."

THE FINAL WORD  Rob Mahoney of Two Man Game: Why the Charlotte Bobcats are his "second team." Bret LaGree of Hoopinion: Joe Johnson's lousy night had nothing to do with his shot selection. Matt McHale of By the Horns: The Bulls don't have a go-to guy. 

You need a few of them. People need to not kill each other, for instance. It's good not to drive 110 in a school zone. No running by the pool.

I'm all for a few basic rules.

But then there are some things that come with pages and pages of rules. For instance, I recently saw the rules that govern certain kinds of financial transactions. I'm telling you right now: Nobody has internalized all those rules, and very few people will take the time to look them up. So how can you expect them to be followed?

Too may rules is a different kind of anarchy, because it's an invitation to tune out the people in charge.

That's one of many issues that comes up in this HoopsWorld post, in which Mike Moreau -- who coaches with David Thorpe at IMG -- talks about the kinds of struggles rookie coach Vinny Del Negro is going through in his first head coaching job, at the helm of the Chicago Bulls:

In 1986, as the head coach of the boy's basketball team at Hart Junior High School in Washington, DC, I wrote a letter to Notre Dame's Digger Phelps asking his advice for a first year coach. He wrote, "Be Yourself."

At age 24, I had no idea what that meant in regards to coaching. What I have learned over these last two decades is that Digger meant you have to know who you are, what you stand for, the things that are important to you, and what type of personality and delivery you will use to transmit those to your team.

You also have to know how you want to play, and how you will get your team to that point. The things you value as a person and as a coach -- that's what he meant.

You don't learn that being a player, and you certainly don't learn that as an NBA head coach.

You learn those things coaching junior high teams, working week after week of summer basketball camps, going to clinics, watching video tapes, staying up into the night with other coaches after a tough loss to St. Mary of Grace Prep at the buzzer.

The struggles Vinny Del Negro is having at the highest level of the game are lessons learned by most coaches with their first J.V. teams. They make mistakes in every phase of the profession -- from dealing with players to structuring their programs to substitution patterns. They learn the best way to discipline players, and develop a sense of what rules are truly important.

You learn that you can't start instituting silly rules and fines for things like eating in the locker room after your players have already realized you are way over your head.

How'd that curfew for the Kings translate into success for Head Coach Reggie Theus?

One crusty old veteran coach I knew told me, "I had two rules: Be on time, and play like hell when I tell you to."