Game 33 Preview: Looking up to the wounded Blazers
January 4th, 2010 | by clipshow817 |LA CLIPPERS (14-18) vs PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS (22-13)
Where: Staples Center, Los Angeles CA
When: Monday, January 4 @ 7:30 pm
TV: Prime Ticket / Radio: KFWB980AM and 1330AM in Spanish
Clippers: 1-game win streak, 3rd Pacific Division, 12th Western Conference
Blazers: 2-game win streak, 1st Northwest Division, 3rd Western Conference
* My apologies for not blogging the past 2 weeks as I was on a mini-vacation for the holidays
The last time these two teams met it was in Portland and although the Blazers blew a big lead they held on to defeat the Clippers 99-103. The Clippers can no longer use excuses such as injuries to key players or a team curse as the Blazers are proof that if a team plays hard they can suceed. Having already lost Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla, Rudy Fernandez, Travis Outlaw and Nicholas Batum; they have also had recent injuries to Steve Blake and LaMarcus Aldridge. Yet here they are sitting atop the Northwest Division and ahead of the Nuggets, Spurs and Suns in the conference. The Blazers have always been tough to beat on their homecourt but they are also one of only four teams in the west with a winning road record (Lakers, Mavericks, Blazers and Thunder).
This proud bunch of hard working players is lead by Brandon Roy (23.3 PPG and 5.0 APG). Since all the “bigs” are out too Roy also leads the team in rebounds. He is the heart and soul of this young team and has them playing with passion…
Now if the Clippers, who have shown they can play with the better teams of the NBA, can figure out how to be more consistent and maybe even play a little harder they would be a much better squad. Too many times they start to play too loose or wild and the entire team follows suit. Yes they have injuries to deal with but when the bench is consistently getting out-played there is cause for concern.
The Clippers are led by Chris Kaman’s 20.3 PPG, Baron Davis’s 7.8 APG and Marcus Camby’s 11.4 RPG. Eric Gordon, Al Thorton and Rasual Butler also have to play big to get the victory tonight. The Blazers don’t try to play out-of-control so once they build any sort of lead it is hard to play catch up when they have Roy to close the game strong.
The Clippers are on a stretch of only playing 3 games the next 8 days.
Tags: Al Thorton, Baron Davis, Brandon Roy, Chris Kaman, Eric Gordon, Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla, Marcus Camby, Nicholas Batum, Rasual Butler, Rudy Fernandez, Travis Outlaw
