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November 6th, 2008

Mike Dunleavy Drops an Early Hammer on the Clippers

By Brian Kamenetzky | What I See, Los Angeles Clippers, Column

After watching his team dissolve in the face of a 22-0 fourth quarter run from the Lakers in their 106-88 loss to the purple and gold Wednesday night at Staples, Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy was hardly in a charitable mood:

“I’m disappointed in our guys. We play to a high enough level through stretches of games right now, but we’re not there mentally, or physically disciplined. At the six minute mark (of the fourth quarter), it was a couple point game. the Lakers down the stretch, they got tougher, we got softer. We settled for b.s. shots- I didn’t like our shot selection at all. I didn’t like our toughness at all. I asked our guys the first night, “Who in here wants to run?” Everybody raised their hand. The second night, “Who really wants to run?” Everybody raised their hand. But the misnomer is that it’s easy to run. You have to be more disciplined, you have to be tough minded to run because you have to do all the right things and push it. We can play teams close right now, but until we make up our minds- until we get our guys conditioned and make up our minds- that we’re going to tough it out, we’re going to struggle winning games.”

In my Clippers season preview, I wondered about the myriad obstacles facing Dunleavy’s bunch in their quest to return to the postseason. Incredible roster turnover, a serious risk of injury, a thin margin for error, and a roster of guys who might just not be “Dunleavy guys,” just to name a few. Fair to say that five games in, whatever could go wrong for the Clippers has. Baron Davis and Marcus Camby missed the preseason. They’ve lost five games while sporting the league’s worst point differential- by a mile, I might add- leaving them in an early hole against a tough Western Conference.

It’s early, but the frustration is already there for MD Sr. Realistically speaking, it’s hard to believe the Clippers can get all the parts working together before another 10-15 games go by. Unfortunately, they likely don’t have that kind of time.

Brian Kamenetzky hosts the Lakers Blog and Blue Notes: A Dodgers Blog for the LA Times.com. He’s a contributing writer to ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, and is a frequent guest on 710 ESPN radio in LA. Write him at bk@sportshubla.com.

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