Clifford on Lance: "We Played Better Without Him"

[rscott94]

I've always hated the "x deserves minutes but we are stacked at the position" excuse coaches use.  If a guy deserves the minutes, you find a way to put him in there.  What he is really saying is, "I prefer vets, and Hendo wouldn't do well with losing minutes to a rookie." 

 

Hendo needs to be moved.

 

BTW, what is Lance's injury?  The ankle from opening night?

Groin injury 

[rscott94]

I'm not rooting for him to keep riding the pine. I am rooting for him to get to the point where he is good enough to not ride the pine.

I love PJ. I want him to succeed. I just don't think he is the savior that is suddenly gonna drop 20 points in a quarter and change everything

I don't think he'll be that right now either but why not let Lance rest and heal and start Neal or Hendo and have Hairston be the backup?

[Proudiddy]

Groin injury 

Oh it's from the preseason, right?

[Wolfcop]

I know Lance is not playing great right now, but we are 0-2 if he is not on this team. He made a bunch of nice plays in game 1, including drawing a charge near the end of regulation that likely saved our butts. That being said, he needs to follow the game plan or Clifford will keep him on the bench. 

[rscott94]

Oh it's from the preseason, right?

Yeah that's the injury I'm thinking of. Don't know if that's still what's bothering him I missed the first three quarters of opening night so I don't know what happened. 

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

I would like to say that Henderson played his role well tonight.

4/7 (57%) for 8 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, and only 1 turnover.

Roberts also looked good tonight going 2/4 (50%) for 5 points, 3 assists, 2 steals and only 1 turnover.

And of course Al and MKG both played well but in order to win I feel like at least two of our big three have to be playing well and tonight it was just Big Al.

[SOJA]

two games could be either  a good and bad sign

 

 

two games is fine, because we have 80 left to figure it out

 

two games is bad, because if you're coach is already throwing your big free agent signing under the bus there might be an issue there 

[Proudiddy]

The thing that concerns me is what I had feared in regards to signing Lance in the first place...  Lance and Kemba both need the ball in their hands to play their game to their max potential.  To further complicate things, Big Al also needs the ball in his hands to play to the best of his potential.  So, we have three guys that need the ball for a good chunk of the shot clock to play their game on any given possession...  I think that's the problem we're seeing right now. 

 

Ideally, Kemba and Lance will get a bulk of their points in transition and we'll run things through Al most half-court possessions and play from the inside-out.  Problem is, we keep getting caught in the half-court and Kemba and Lance can't decide who is going to do what, and Al isn't getting a lot of touches until late as a result as well. 

 

That is troubling, but I hope we're able to work through it and the guys learn to play off of each other.

[Rise of The Hive]

He looked still hurt to me, he just didn't have it with his moves.

[MedellinHeel]

guys he isnt hurt (not enough to be causing this mess)

 

he is simply still trying to gel with the new team, system, and role. 

 

hopefully he can get poo figured out. 

 

we need him to be what we brought him in to be. 

 

[chubs2496]

Man that ain't good. This could go downhill quick

[Eazy-E]

Jesus everyone is over reacting. Game one we came back as a team for a huge win. This game both teams played like utter garbage. Should Memphis be freaking the hell out as well? Look at the damn score. That doesn't happen very often in the NBA. Lance still looks hurt. Was not getting his legs under his shot and he looked stiff when he had the ball in his hands. Everyone just take a deep breath and realize we scored 69 point and manage to only lose by 2.

[pantherfan49]

So glad to see the PJ needs more burn stuff already starting. Especially after a game where the two reserves in front of him played reasonably well.

Charlotte played like poo. Nobody seems willing to look at the box score to figure out why.

[Jakob]

When you have this many new players in a team it takes time for chemistry to build. On top of that Lance is clearly playing with an injury. We held a really good Memphis team to 71 points and nearly won.