Harden in the first half is the player this team needs. His passing is great, but we need him to be aggressive and look for his shot. He should be top 3 in FGA every single night. Kawhi’s game spoke for itself.

On the other side, Fox was awesome. He saw how Reggie Jackson had run circles around our defense in pick and roll actions, and he took full advantage of our weak points. A better game from Sabonis (and/or a worse game from Zubac) and this game could have ended up being very close.

It started under Stern, but Silver’s time as commissioner really saw the league turn into entertainment that masquerades as a competitive sport. If a decision can be made to make the game more attractive to new viewers, that decision will almost always be taken. Such decisions usually fall on the side of promoting more offense and higher scoring games.

However, if we look back 5 or 10 years , I think the league has actually improved somewhat in not rewarding foul baiters. Especially on the perimeter, we see more instances where the offensive player initiating contact is a) only rewarded with a foul on the floor or b) not given anything.

It’s more challenging in the paint, and the league still has work to do there. I’ll admit that refs have a tough job. If a tiny guard lowers his shoulder into a sturdy 7 footer to create space for a layup, it’s a tough call to make if the guard embellishes the contact while the big man appears to have stood his ground.

Patrick Williams forgot what quarter it was. Way to dribble it out and preserve your absolutely stellar 3 point shooting percentage.

He could easily remain a Clipper and get a good salary on a short term deal. Because even if this season ends on a sour note with Kawhi and/or PG ready to leave town, there is no way Ballmer is opening his new arena next year without having at least one big name on the roster.

Clippers need to figure out what to do with Plumlee out indefinitely. They were already at a disadvantage against teams with size that could crash the offensive glass, but it’s become a truly dire situation.

Either they roll the dice with a FA pickup or see what kind of return they can get from trading Norman Powell (a fairly good bench player but no longer essential with Harden on the roster). If they repeat last year’s mistake and wait too late then they’ll have to dig themselves out of a decent sized hole just to try and avoid the play-in.

Classic NBA ref mentality. We punish you for calling out our obvious mistakes.

NBA: we don’t give a fuck.

OKC will probably get more value from us than Philly did. Powell and Bones would be a tough loss to swallow, but I could see it happening.

Harden is a one year rental, another injury risk on a team that can’t stay healthy, and is at an age where his production could drop off dramatically. He’s still a good player, don’t get me wrong, but he’s a luxury piece for a team that still has Kawhi and PG.

Mann is underused on the Clippers. He’s never going to be putting up 20ppg, but you can’t just ignore how valuable it is to have a guy that can guard multiple positions while also being a jack of all trades on the offense.