There is only so much a young team can do to claw back into a game where the opposition is getting a majority of the foul calls. Blake Griffin is truly an amazing basketball player and lives up to his billing as "must see," but it got rather old rather quickly to see Trevor Booker and Yi Jianlian get whistled for blowing gently in Blake's ear.  If you aren't allowed to body up Griffin and he is allowed to push off at will, then there is no scheme on earth that is going to stop him.

So what was to like in this game?  Let's divide this into happy notes and sad notes. Happy notes go first.

Happy Notes -

1. Well, John Wall for one didn't quit, dragging the Wizards dead carcasses back within three before the lack of any other offensive presence ground the scoring to a halt. He was rather myopic at times, but it can be forgiven since he had a pulse.

2. Trevor Booker played some solid defense on Griffin and stayed active despite foul trouble.

3. I actually thought JaVale had a solid game despite the usual foibles. His offensive game was played more or less within the system.

Sad Notes -

1. Jordan Crawford continues to astound me with his poor shot selection and high usage rate.

2. Nick Young is back to dribbling too much and looks like a shell of his pre-flu self. This is something that has been getting worse over the course of the past few weeks and bears some closer scrutiny.

3. The absence of Andray Blatche is more noticeable every time he doesn't take the court.