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Wouldn’t you know it, the Clippers’ first game action this season comes against the purple and gold.
No, not that purple and gold — the Kings. And, no, not those Kings.
They’ll face the Sydney Kings, though that matters little. The main purpose of Sunday’s game at the University of Hawaii, which is the first of five exhibitions entering the 2018-19 season, will be self-reflection, an opportunity for the Clippers to step back and evaluate the Clippers.
“It’s a work in progress obviously,” Coach Doc Rivers told reporters after practice Friday. “Overall, I’ve liked the way we played. I love our energy; we just need more game minutes.
“Today we scrimmaged a lot, and you can see they need to play a lot more basketball just to get the timing, to get the timing of each other. Games get competitive, and your execution breaks down a little bit, but overall I like what I see.”
Forward Danilo Gallinari said by phone Friday that he was eager to see how a week of practices translated when the Clippers team up and try to execute against another opponent.
“We have a lot of work to do,” said Gallinari, who said he’s healthy after missing all but 21 games last season with hand and glute injuries. “And we’ve been doing a great job in practice. I’m really looking forward to seeing the results, and the improvement we’ve been making, in the first game.”
As promised, defense has been a focus in training camp for the Clippers. They’re also working to implement a “read-react” type of offense while integrating their young talents with their established veterans (several of whom, such as Gallinari, hardly played last season on account of injuries).
Whatever that looks like on the court Sunday, Gallinari expects the Honolulu crowd to be behind the Clippers, who are holding training camp in Hawaii for the second consecutive year.
“Oh yeah, we have a huge fan base here, so we know that the gym is going to be packed for us,” said Gallinari, who was proud to report that he and rookie Jerome Robinson were the winners of the Clippers’ outrigger canoe-race Thursday, one of the team bonding activities the team has enjoyed. “So we want to give them a good show.”
GALLO POWERS UP
Gallinari is expected to start at power forward this season, with Tobias Harris playing small forward, the 6-foot-10 Italian confirmed.
Although he’s spent most of his NBA career playing small forward, Gallinari said he’s fine with filling the 4 spot.
“I’ve been playing 3 my whole career, but with the team we’ve got, we’re gonna need for me to play the 4 and I’m OK with that,” he said, adding that he thinks he and Harris will prove effective together. “We have very good chemistry going on already, we talk a lot on the court, we know what we want and where we want to be on the court, so I like to play with him.”
KINGS OF SYDNEY
The Kings are led by 7-footer Andrew Bogut, a former No. 1 draft pick who signed with the Kings in April, opting to finish his professional career in his homeland. American basketball fans will remember that Bogut was a key cog on the Golden State Warriors during their breakthrough championship season in 2015.
The Kings are one of five teams representing Australia and New Zealand’s National Basketball League that will play seven preseason games against NBA teams this year.
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