As of this morning (Tuesday, Feb 14) the Los Angeles Clippers are 17-9. That's 17 out of 26 for a winning percentage of a little over 65%. If the Clips keep winning at the same rate they'll win around 43 games, equivalent to around 53 games in an 82 game season. I worked out these numbers a few minutes ago and it made me feel good. If anyone told me the Clips would do that well at the beginning of the season, I'd have taken it.
But then I made a mistake and I happened to glance at the Clipper's schedule for March and April. Make the jump for the bad news.
Here's the Clipper's schedule in Google Calendar. You're in February, but tap the blue right arrow at the top to jump ahead to March...
Did you do that? Good! Now take it in for a few seconds.
Huh?!!? Wha!!!? Holy cow!!! Look at this mess!! Twenty games in thirty one days! Six back to backs and a back-to-back-to-back! Never more than a single day off in-between! The team starts off the month with a six-game road trip, and the triple-nighter is entirely on the road, three cities in three nights.
But, it's okay, right? Because April's bound to be better, plenty of time to tweak the rotation, and angle for the perfect playoff seed, right? Wrong. Fourteen games in twenty-five days including FOUR MORE back-to-backs. March and April are a gauntlet, a hatchet war, humans versus hordes of robot zombies... you get the picture.
I think rather than concentrating on winning games in March and April the Clipper's coaching staff should be carefully monitoring minutes, abandoning certain games in the third quarter, preserving easy wins against soft opponents, and quitting on tough games in back-to-backs. The Clips have a few important players with significant injury history (Griffin, Paul, Butler), and those guys HAVE to rest if the Clips hope to make any noise in the playoffs... assuming they make it to the playoffs... if the schedule-makers have their way, they won't.
That 65 percent winning percentage? That's probably not happening. Tweaking the rotation? Angling for a good seed? Survival will be the name of the game.
0 recs | 72 comments
relax
most teams will be in the same situation. A top 4 seed and being healthy should be the aim.
BelgianClipper - February 14, 2012
Actually, based on a cursory non-empirical look at the schedule, I think the strength of opponents in March and April is weaker (on average) than what we have faced to date (on average). I think that will override any scheduling difficulty.
Another son of Mike Smith - February 14, 2012
this
boltsfan21 - February 15, 2012
Yes - plus we will have had the benefit of playing together longer
Jax - February 15, 2012
This is how CP3 is dealing with the stress.
Follow the bouncing “balls” for great entertainment.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/video-chris-paul-bar-refaeli-trampoline-reason-170719283.html
PV Mike - February 14, 2012
Very nice... +1
lovinglosangeles - February 14, 2012
Careful CP3 you a married man
bestclipfan - February 14, 2012
+1
that’s what I was thinking too, bet his wife really enjoyed that video shoot footage..
HVYDRT007 - February 14, 2012
The only person allowed to touch his head.
Besides his wife, maybe?
Chris McD - February 14, 2012
When you are attractive you can get away with a lot
bestclipfan - February 14, 2012
Yes. I do.
Chris McD - February 14, 2012
Ha!
Made me lol. Don’t know why.
2-ScoopIceCream - February 14, 2012
Everyone in Poetland is considered equally attractive.
No prejudices.
PV Mike - February 14, 2012
except me
I’m the attractivest
LJ Hann - February 14, 2012
Most people at Poetland
prefer their meat to be aged a little more than you.
PV Mike - February 14, 2012
wait... like eating meat?
you told me i would get my left arm back!!!
LJ Hann - February 14, 2012
it calls CP3 a "highflying athlete"
lol
LJ Hann - February 14, 2012
It should have called him
a husband who better buy an expensive Valentines Gift for his wife. Maybe he can get a discount from Vanessa Bryant on the big-ass ring Kobe got her for Colorado.
PV Mike - February 14, 2012
A bit Negative to say the Least, remind me How you got to put your Nonsense on the Front page again?
One game at a time and try as hard as we can to get the W, that is what the coaching staff should Preach.
HVYDRT007 - February 14, 2012
It's that sarcasm ??
How is that nonsense, its a pretty good analysis, it is going to be about surviving injuries, we are going to play a lot of games in very short period of time. Coaching staff has to think ahead, we as fans can think one game at a time, but the smart team sacrifice some wins to rest players and avoid injuries for when it really matters, the playoffs.
XXDC2XX - February 14, 2012
front page
He’s on the front page because I want him on the front page.
You got a problem with that?
Steve Perrin - February 14, 2012
OK, good enough for me
HVYDRT007 - February 15, 2012
Seriously?
You’re going to bag on Swami for being “negative.” Do I need to post all your quotes from the night of the trade again? Or all the crap you were talking about CP3 and Chauncey after every loss the first couple of weeks? At one of the greatest moment in team history, your negativity was 1,000,000 times worse than this. Seriously, STFU.
boltsfan21 - February 15, 2012
Congrats - you've found another opportunity to attack someone on this website
Jax - February 15, 2012
As did you
Since all you ever do when you see my posts is the exact same thing I’m doing here.
Go away crazy stalker.
boltsfan21 - February 15, 2012
No, just those who take the opportunity to gratuitously bully others
Which is really only you.
Jax - February 15, 2012
And you
Still waiting for you to contribute anything of note here. Anything at all. Sure, I may be harsh sometimes. But I also bring insight, intelligent analysis, facts, links, and other things that Citizens might find useful. The only things I see from you are a) attempts to pick fights with either me or CC; or b) hagiographic posts backing anything you think supports your simplistic opinions of Dunleavy and Olshey. Totally weak.
Now go away crazy stalker.
boltsfan21 - February 15, 2012
I gotta admit to googling hagiographic.
PV Mike - February 15, 2012
I'm quite certain it means: "unbelievably intellectually stimulating . . ."
Jax - February 15, 2012
Clearly, you have a dizzying intellect
Jax - February 15, 2012
Quick - without googling - what great movie is that line from?
(Change “Clearly” to “Truly”)
Jax - February 15, 2012
what ??
seems to me like he is actually defending another citizen
XXDC2XX - February 15, 2012
he's in the right here Jax
did you read HVDRTVODADSFDS’s post?
LJ Hann - February 15, 2012
I read the post
Steve can take care of himself. I like the fact that Bolts apparently likes the Chargers – which is a team close to my heart – but I don’t like the fact that he seems to have been waiting for another opportunity to viciously attack this particular citizen.
This is a board about the Clippers. It is not a place for people to aggressively and needlessly attack others. That’s always been my beef with Bolts and it will continue to be my beef with Bolts.
So no, he’s not in the right. The ends do not justify the means.
Jax - February 15, 2012
Thanx Jax, Unity is the foundation of Peace.
HVYDRT007 - February 15, 2012
Hey - I'm by no means endorsing your post
What was posted wasn’t nonsense.
My objection to the Bolts post is that he went way overboard in his criticism of you because of his obsession with other posts that you apparently made in the past.
Jax - February 15, 2012
No Worries,
I am trying a more positive perspective as of late.
HVYDRT007 - February 15, 2012
Good to hear
Bolts, see how easy it is?
Jax - February 15, 2012
Dude Get over yourself by now boltsfan21, there is something called Life. Get One.
HVYDRT007 - February 15, 2012
There's also something called a brain
Unfortunately, can’t tell you to get one, since that will always be out of your reach.
boltsfan21 - February 15, 2012
I do not like eating Brains, I roll with Rick Grimes and Shane Walsh
HVYDRT007 - February 15, 2012
on the bright side...
we get to watch the clippers more regularly than ever before… and all the back-to-backs will make a playoff schedule seem like a cake walk…
SchmidttyMcFunstuff - February 14, 2012
Strength of Schedule
In terms of strength of schedule, I think our schedule gets easier. In our first 26 games, we’ve played Portland, the Lakers, Dallas, Denver and Utah twice each, and we’re also already done with Miami, Philadelphia, Orlando, and Chicago. We still have another matchup with the Wizards, the Bobcats…
We’ve played every team in the West(some multiple times) except for the 3 teams sitting at the bottom. Think about that. We’ve played all the tough teams in the west and haven’t played the Hornets, Kings or Suns once, and we’re still doing well. The schedule may get more condensed, but we’ll have some easier games thrown in there. I agree that we should watch players’ minutes/monitor health, but the schedule isn’t necessarily “harder”, since
kamonster - February 14, 2012
forgot to finish that sentence...
….the schedule isn’t necessarily “harder,” since we’ve already gotten so many tough games out of the way early on.
kamonster - February 14, 2012
Yep.. this..
the article is not accounting for the easy teams we play during this stretch.. we shouldnt be throwing away any games..
we need to wait until our roster is complete, and the deadline has passed to start resting our starters.. we obviously have more moves to make which will allow us to rely on our bench more..
Griffin is 14th and Paul is 20th in minutes played. Love, Bryant, Howard, Durant, Deng, Ellis, M Gasol, Gay, Aldridge, Williams, P Gasol and James are all playing more minutes than Griffin.. It’s not as if we’re playing them both the whole game.
isaacthegrreat - February 14, 2012
You're right, I didn't account for quality of teams at all...
But that’s not the point, the point is how many times you have to play, regardless of who you’re playing. It’s my opinion that number of games makes a difference. Too many games is too many games.
John Raffo - February 15, 2012
OT- anyone else having problems accessing Steve's post on free throws?
lovinglosangeles - February 14, 2012
I think it is locked
HVYDRT007 - February 14, 2012
read it going through his twitter link..basically said he sucked at FTs when he was a kid and Blake is his own worst enemy
SchmidttyMcFunstuff - February 14, 2012
Ok. Thanks.
lovinglosangeles - February 14, 2012
Try it again...
I think I fixed it.
John Raffo - February 14, 2012
How did you even get there?
I screwed up…. I didn’t check the schedule, and I posted 5 minutes after John posted. So I ‘hid’ it to give this post a little time in the sun… but I forgot about the Tweet that links directly to it. So basically just a mess. My bad.
Steve Perrin - February 14, 2012
Similar to my "40-26 and getting there" post
If you look at the eastern conference, 8 playoff teams are pretty much set right now on Feb 14th. They teams may change seeds amongst themselves but its set. As for the western conference, its a lot tougher with the current 8 seeds plus Memphis (soon to get ZBo back), Utah (though I imagine them to take a step back—but never know), and Minnesota (a SG away from competing). I think a 40-26 guarantees a playoff seed in the top 4 or 5.
I agree with kamonster—if you break up the season into thirds, the coming games should be the easier (in terms of strength of schedule). In the first third, Clips played 14 (out of 22 games) good to great teams (Its the usual suspects but I count memphis in this group but NOT Utah or Minnesota) and they went 15-7. In the second third of the season (Feb 8-Mar 18), Clips play 10 (out of 22 games) vs good to great teams. In the final third, the Clippers play 12 games vs good to great teams (out of 22). So the middle third is where they really have to feast upon the bad to average teams and beat a fair share of good to great teams and battle through the final third.
We know the Clips went 15-7 in the 1/3rd which means they have to go 25-19 in the remaining 2/3rds. If the Clippers can go 15-7 (or better) in middle third, they can go .500 in final third and have a damn good record.
djmccaslin - February 14, 2012
I wrote about this
here, when I covered the schedule in the fall. Brutal, brutal stretch travel-wise, but it gets easier opponent wise.
LJ Hann - February 14, 2012
Not just travel-wise, LJ...
Too many games in too few days. But evidently everyone thinks I’m being negative. Whatever.
John Raffo - February 14, 2012
You have to remember that this clipper team is able to get rest by feasting on bad teams
however the frequent games against bad teams like Phoenix and Sacramento should provide rest for the team.
bestclipfan - February 14, 2012
Assuming that....
They don’t play down to their competition…I was at the Nets and Raptors games, which should have been blow-outs but, due to poor bench play, were too close for comfort. Even the Bobcats started climbing back in it in the 4th before the reappearance of Blake and CP3. If the bench doesn’t step up (I’m looking at you Gomes) don’t count on much in game rest for the starters
SchmidttyMcFunstuff - February 14, 2012
Even with the clippers having to put Blake and CP3 back in
they still played sub 30 minutes.
bestclipfan - February 14, 2012
we are 8 deep adding JR
10 if you include Foye and Gomes,,,, other than that, keeping minutes down should keep everyone well rested and weather the storm.
big0lbad - February 14, 2012
cp3, jr, butler, blake, dj, kenyon, mo, reggie, cook... I count 9?
LJ Hann - February 14, 2012
Replace Foye with Cook, I think...
Aren’t you counting your chickens with the Smith reference? You all think that’s a done deal?
John Raffo - February 14, 2012
it is pretty difficult to assess
even more so if you add the Linsanity of it all. Schumpert looks a lot better when not handling the ball, Fields seems to be back on track and Baron might be in the picture again. Add in Smith and you have a crowded back court. Combine that with 3 high usage players in Lin, Melo and STAT i’m left wondering where JR Smith will get his touches. NY was looking toward JR because the initial disappointment with their backcourt but Lin has flipped the script in that regard.
All in all I think the only advantage NY has is that they can offer more money. Playing time, touches and starting role should be equal (on might say that JR coming of the bench would make more sense in NY than with our Clips). If a deep play-off run is high on his list the Clips are still the best bet. Even if Lin is as good as advertised can’t see NY beating out Miami or Chicago, whilst the west is quite open.
BelgianClipper - February 14, 2012
read big0lbad's comment
he referred to ‘if we get smith’, and I played along with that. Cook was a joke
LJ Hann - February 14, 2012
Yeah, I'm not intimidated.
That Indiana-OKC-NO trip is rough, though. New Orleans only because it’s the third of three, but other than that part it doesn’t look too scary. I do worry about injuries given the workload. But, as has already been pointed out, everyone’s in the same boat.
chimichanga - February 14, 2012
The good news is that the Clippers have been (for the most part) blowing out the teams they should be
There are a fair bit of games in March that are against bad teams. The Clippers for the most part win big (Charlotte and Washington) against these teams. Granted there may be some disappointments (Cleveland), but I think those will be less of the case.
UC.Clipper - February 14, 2012
Might not be blowing anyone away this week...
….at least not the one you thought! http://www.nba.com/games/20120214/WASPOR/gameinfo.html
saxmanager - February 14, 2012
oh yeah, the Wizards will be shooting 60% FG and 52% 3P again this season
plus Portland lost Aldrigde early in the game and hasn’t been playing that well lately.
BelgianClipper - February 14, 2012
good idea to limit blake and cp3's minutes?
gotta keep em healthy for the playoffs
jon y - February 14, 2012
Too early for that
you try and get them as much rest as you can but I wouldn’t look into resting them until the last few weeks of the season, with the possible exception being either the middle or last game of the back, to back, to back.
bestclipfan - February 15, 2012
We just need Bled to have a growth spurt and get to
6’6" in the next 2 wks and we’re good at the SG. I’m surprised no one’s thought of that.
But really, would Bled be so filthy at 6’6"?
Valdeezy - February 14, 2012 via mobile
*wouldn't Bled be so....
Valdeezy - February 14, 2012 via mobile
only problem is that he can't shoot and growth would just worsen that
LJ Hann - February 15, 2012
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