An interview from Baron Davis about playing for Kim Hughes, how he feels about Dunleavy not being coach, and if he wants Hughes to be the permanent coach.

Great interview by Baron Davis.. I really enjoyed watching this one. Baron made a lot of sense. He did everything… From defending Dunleavy the most that he could, all the way to talking about the sacrifices the team made. (Keep reading for my full opinion on this interview)

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Chris Kaman’s thoughts and opinions on the coaching change, and how he feels about Kim Hughes becoming head coach.

I always like hearing Chris Kaman being interviewed, because he likes to speak his mind and isn’t afraid of being too upfront and revealing about his true feelings. What we can gather from Kaman’s interview is that he is legitimately happy for Kim Hughes being coach. At one point you think he’s going to say that he feels sorry for Dunleavy- but instead he says that he’s very excited to see how this is going to unfold. Other things I noticed… (keep reading)

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I guess consecutive losses to the worst team in the East and the worst team in the West was enough for Donald Sterling to fire Mike Dunleavy.

Listening to AM 710, I knew this happened before any of the big sources released it. J.A Adande was brought on the radio to confirm it, as a credible source… Mike Dunleavy will remain GM of the Clippers but the coach will now be Kim Hughes. Will he be the permanent coach or the interim coach? Most probably the interim coach. My guess is that the Clippers will be looking to find a better coach such as Byron Scott, but might save that for the offseason.

Update: Kim Hughes WILL be coach for the rest of the season. Like I said, they’ll be looking for a new coach this summer.

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One would think just losing to the Nets, breaking their 11 game losing streak, would instantly make you say that it’s the lowest point in the season. No team in the league wanted to lose to the Nets, much less lose to them by a double digit margin.

So what do the Clippers do after embarrassing themselves in front of the Nets, the worst team in the East? They embarrass themselves in front of the Timberwolves, the worst team in the West.

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A rare clip of an unbelievable dunk in high school. It’s only fitting that I put up a video like this since All-Star weekend is coming up, and Eric Gordon is our representative for the dunk-in.

Thanks to ballislife.com for the clip:

After doing some research on the 24 year old prospect, I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s a scoring point guard, or a combo guard. Although he averaged about 40 points, 6 assists, and 7 rebounds in high school, he didn’t live up to the full hype in college. He wasn’t bad though- on the court. Off the court he had 8 run ins with the police, and surprisingly enough even after all that trouble he still ended up going to the NBA in the 2nd round to the Bulls.

Soon thereafter the Bulls sent him to the Iowa Energy (D-League team) and then he went to the Springfield Armor (another D-League team). He averaged about 20 points per game, along with 7.5 assists in the D-League. 7.5 assists is nice, but he and his teammate Morris Almond (who averages 28 points per game) pretty much ran a two man show.

He’s about average on defense, he’s a decent on-ball defender but needs work.

Might have gone a little LeBron happy, over 70% of my shots are of him – however I did manage to get some shots of the legendary Shaq and our boy DJ. Congrats to Sul for his ridiculous shooting night, too bad we couldn’t come home with a W. Applied a different style of editing, let me know what you think.

[View with PicLens]

After our embarrassing loss to the Lakers, Id like to add some pictures I took of our previous, more fortunate event.

[View with PicLens]

Here’s the story, from their greatest stretch of the season until arguably their worst:

We start this “story” from when the Clippers had a 4 game winning streak, with wins over teams including the Lakers, the Celtics, and other good opponents. Should have been a 6 game winning streak, but after beating Boston, Clips gave a game away to a very injured Portland team who even lost Aldridge to injury 10 minutes into the game.

17-18, one game away from .500.

BIG confidence tester on the way, with two very hot teams (Memphis, winners of 8 or their last 10, who reached .500 recently- and New Orleans with CP3 back, who just had a 6 game winning streak). Next two games after that? Back to back games, vs the Lakers and Cavs. Ouch.. But with the way Clippers had been playing, their outlook was BRING IT ON.

Chris Kaman was looking like an All-Star, with 7 straight games of 20+ points.

Blake Griffin was 1 week away from coming back to the team.

THEN, all of a sudden..

Their first chance to get back to .500 in a long time, the Clippers were playing the Grizzlies. Chris Kaman injured his back during warmups, but the team was fine without him- or so it seemed. With an amazing first half and great start to the 2nd half, Baron Davis got ready to shoot his second free throw with the Clippers having a 12 point lead. Suddenly the jumbotron told EVERYONE in the whole arena to evacuate, and that there is some kind of danger. Prime Ticket goes on to the next show and leaves Clipper fans staring at their TV’s wondering what happened.

Clippers and Grizzlies resume play on the court 36 minutes later. While Dunleavy said this was no excuse for losing, a team who was red hot and in the mood to play has to have some kind of different outlook after 36 minutes of waiting to resume play. Camby left the game with a stomach virus and was unable to help the Clippers potentially finish off the Grizzlies, also leaving Craig Smith and Deandre Jordan as the only Clipper big men left in this game. Grizzlies came back wanting the game more, took over and won the game.

Instead of being .500 with a 5 game winning streak, Clippers become 17-19 with a 1 game losing streak and red-hot Hornets the next day, and Lakers and Cavs on a back to back that same weekend. Also without Chris Kaman, and with Camby questionable for the next few games.

Kaman’s injury was more serious than expected, and he missed the next few games as well. Things could not have gotten worse for the Clippers for this tough stretch.

On top of all this? Instead of Blake Griffin coming back sometime this week or next week, we get SUDDEN AND UNEXPECTED NEWS that Griffin will undergo surgery and miss the entire rest of the season.

So let’s recap all this…

17-18, about to become 18-18
4 game winning streak
Kaman looking like an All-Star
Up 12 on the Grizzlies, with 5th win in their sights
Expecting to have Camby and Kaman next game, as usual
Expecting to have Blake Griffin back sometime that week/ next week

All that, became this:

17-21, playing the Cavs tomorrow on a back to back after playing Lakers tonight
3 game losing streak, with Cavs looming on tomorrow
Kaman STILL INJURED
Losing to the Grizz after Camby becoming injured and a mandatory emergency evacuation delaying the game
Camby not in great condition to play, Kaman refused to play against the Lakers because his back still hurt
Blake Griffin out for the entire season.

…What a big swing. You guys also have to remember- seeing Blake Griffin go down was very tough on the team in the beginning of the season, and it really impacted their confidence. Also seeing a friend of theirs and a teammate not being able to play his first NBA games really put everyone on the team in shock. Imagine how they felt, AFTER WAITING FOR 8 WEEKS TO SEE GRIFFIN ON THE COURT, hear that he’s out for the whole season.

Although I believe Demar is a born dunker, don’t underestimate Eric Gordon… he has as much vert as Dwayne Wade, and although he doesn’t do crazy things in games, he’s fully capable of doing it. I think he’s just more fundamental if anything… Clipper fans have seen him dunk on people, and also seen him go up for layups instead of ferocious dunks.

I won’t knock him until I see him try.

Although I do admit I was surprised, I thought maybe Deandre Jordan was the most suited on our Clipper team but I guess this isn’t his year.

Source- NBA.com:

NEW YORK — Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan and Clippers guard Eric Gordon will compete in the All-Star Slam Dunk-In competition at halftime of the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge on Friday, Feb. 12. The winner will advance to the All-Star Saturday Night Sprite Slam Dunk event.
DeRozan and Gordon will each get two dunks in the one-round dunk-in, with the player receiving the highest percentage of fan votes via NBA.com and SMS text messaging advancing to the dunk contest on All-Star Saturday.
Taking the fourth and final spot in the event, the dunk-in winner will then compete against three other dunk contestants for the 2010 Sprite Slam Dunk title. The NBA has yet to announce the other dunkers. The Knicks’ Nate Robinson won the contest in 2009.
DeRozan is a rookie forward from USC, averaging 7.8 ppg with Toronto. He was drafted ninth in the 2009 Draft. He created a Web site, LetDeMarDunk.com, to promote his candidacy.
Gordon is in his second NBA season out of Indiana, averaging 17.1 ppg with the Clippers this season after being selected seventh overall in 2008.

All Star Dunk-In Rules

Two dunkers will compete in a one-round competition at halftime of the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge to advance to the All-Star Saturday Night “Sprite Slam Dunk” event.
• Officiating — Throughout the competition, an NBA Referee will judge whether a dunk is considered a made dunk or a missed dunk.
• Time Limit — Upon receiving the ball from the referee, players will have two minutes to complete their dunk. Attempts resulting in missed dunks are unlimited. However, once a made dunk is ruled by the referee, that dunk will be scored. There is no replacing a made dunk, even if time remains.
• Final Attempts — If a player has not begun an attempt that results in a made dunk when the clock expires, he will have two final attempts to do so. An attempt is defined as the ball leaving the player’s (or his teammate’s) hand in an effort to complete the dunk (in any motion other than dribbling). The referee is the final judge and will advise the dunker when he has used an attempt.
• Props — Use of any props (including the use of any person other than a current NBA player in uniform) to assist in any way must be approved in advance of the competition by the NBA Basketball Operations department.
• Two Dunks per player: A random draw will determine the order.
• At the beginning of the event, fan voting polls will open via SMS text messaging and on NBA.com.
• For text message voting, the letter “A” will be assigned to the dunker who goes first. B = Player 2.
• Fans can vote via SMS Text message from their wireless phone by sending in the letter “A” or “B” to the wireless short-code 38657 (DUNKS).
• Voting will be closed two minutes after the final dunk has been completed.
• The combined SMS text message and NBA.com votes will determine who advances.
• The player with a higher percentage of overall votes, rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent, will advance to participate in the Sprite Slam Dunk event on All-Star Saturday Night.
• At the discretion of the referee, instant replay may be consulted for clarification of rules compliance.
• Number of votes per user is unlimited. Voting is available to users on all major wireless carriers in the United States, plus most second-tier carriers. Voting is also available to wireless users in Canada. Standard SMS text message rates apply.