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Los Angeles Clippers at Denver – Game Preview

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The first meeting of the season. The teams split four games last season, with each winning on their home court.

 

  • November 5th, 2010 in Denver – Denver 111 – Clippers 94
  • December 3rd, 2010 in Denver – Denver 109 – Clippers 104
  • January 5th, 2011 in Los Angeles – Clippers 106 – Denver 93
  • March 5th, 2011 in Los Angeles – Clippers 100 – Denver 94

 

Summary:

The Clippers are 10-6 on the season. But of those 16 games, only five of them have been on the road (and one of those was in Los Angeles against the Lakers). Five road games is the fewest of any team in the NBA, and more importantly, the 28 they have yet to play is the most. So there’s that. The fact that the team is 1-4 in those five games is not good, but it’s not a huge concern, given the quality of the opponents in those losses. Unfortunately, that logic doesn’t bode well for tonight, against the 14-5 Nuggets, who are 7-2 in the mile-high altitude. There is some good news though. The Clippers should be well rested for this game, coming off two days of rest. There is also reason to believe that the team will be hitting peak form at some point shortly — they looked great in wins over the Heat and Lakers two weeks ago, before Chris was injured his hamstring. In the two games since his return, Paul has not shot well. Hopefully, after a couple of games and two more days of practice, he’s getting the rust off, and the team will start firing on all cylinders again. They looked great for a quarter against Memphis on Thursday, but even that was more about hot shooting than super shard execution. So the team’s best basketball is still ahead of them, but hopefully not too far away.

 

 

The Antagonist:

A year ago, the Nuggets starters featured Kenyon Martin, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups, and J.R. Smith was the sixth man. Now Anthony is in New York with the New York Knicks, Billups is with the Clippers, Smith is in China, and Martin is waiting until February 15th to be a free agent after signing with and then leaving a Chinese team. The Nuggets were built around Anthony for years, and while the made the playoffs in each of the seven seasons he was in Denver, they also lost in the first round in six of those seasons.

Losing streak in Denver. The Clippers haven’t won in Denver in five full seasons. The last time they won a regular season game, there was in January of 2006. They also won a playoff game a few months later. But it’s been one empty trip to the Mile High City after another since then.

Hot team. In their last game, the Clippers played a Grizzlies team that had won seven of eight coming in. The Nuggets have won six straight and eight of nine. The Clippers can’t get a break regarding opponents. Oh, and their next three games after this are against Oklahoma City, at Utah and against these Nuggets again. Sheesh.

Twice in a week. The Clippers and Nuggets face each other twice this week, tonight and then again on Thursday. The Clippers have two games in the interim, the Nuggets just one.

Balance. About that balance: the Denver Nuggets have six players averaging double figures, with the highest being Gallinari at less than 18 a game. In fact, they have 8 players averaging between 8 and 18. Philadelphia has eight players between 9 and 16. Hat tip to citizen d2s4ui1 for catching my mistake there.

Lawson hurting. Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson, their second-leading scorer, missed Friday’s win against Toronto with a sprained left ankle. Lawson told Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post that he plans to play tonight.

Billups in Denver. Chauncey Billups will be playing in Denver tonight for the first time since being traded away as part of the Carmelo Anthony deal. Billups is a Colorado native, who played his college ball in Boulder and had wanted to retire as a Nugget. He’ll no doubt receive a hot welcome upon his return to Denver, where he played four seasons in two different stints. Billups was part of the Denver team that went to the Western Conference finals; they’re deepest playoff run since the mid-80s.

One thought on “Los Angeles Clippers at Denver – Game Preview

  1. Clippers Vs Denver is a great game right now, 2 min left and Clippers up 102/99. Both Griffin and Jordan have 13 rebounds…

    Now 102 to 101…come on clippers…

    Cant wait to see them both in LA At Staples Center…

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