As far as getting any type of national coverage from the mainstream media, the Clippers have a couple of things working against them. One, they play in the same town as one of the best and most glamorous franchises in all of sports -- the Lakers. And two, they're just not very good. But when their best player (no offense, Baron) goes down with an injury on a questionable play, it should have gotten a little more run than it has.
In the fourth quarter of last Monday's loss to Toronto, after the Clippers had fought back to cut the lead to six, Zach Randolph hit the floor hard, and banged his knee which forced him to leave the game for good. As he departed, so did the Clippers' chances of winning, and a detailed breakdown of the play by Clips Nation reveals that a shove from the Raptors' Jake Voskuhl might have been responsible for Randolph's hard fall.
They have video of the play in question, and it does appear that Voskuhl made contact with Randolph, which caused him to fall awkwardly. More importantly though is the fact that the league hasn't reviewed the play or taken any disciplinary action, which, given the circumstances, seems a little bit odd. Clips Nation explains:
... the implications of a play like that should, in my opinion, be making David Stern and the league office more than a little uneasy. Jake Voskuhl, a career 4.3 point per game scorer who had played 6 minutes this season, sends Zach Randolph, a career 17 point per game scorer averaging 22 this season, to the locker room a little more than 100 seconds after entering the game. Am I suggesting that it was pre-meditated? Not in the sense that Jay Triano sent him into the game to take Randolph out. But in the context of the preceding play, it sure looks like Voskuhl was happy to give Randolph a good hard shove. More importantly, the whole thing has the APPEARANCE of impropriety.
Now, NBA coaches aren't in the habit of sending seldom-used players in to injure the opposing team's stars -- not since the Bad Boys era of the Detroit Pistons in the late 80s, anyway. But yeah, someone like Voskuhl checking in and injuring the other team's best player with an intentional shove definitely doesn't look good, and is obviously something that can't be condoned by the league.
The fact that the Clippers are paid little attention from the national media has more than a little to do with this; if this had happened to Kobe Bryant, you would have seen the replay on an endless loop on ESPN for at least the next 48 hours. But the league office should be monitoring every game equally, whether it involves the lowly Clips or the NBA champion Celtics. In this case, it appears that the league has definitely let one slip through the cracks.
