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January 1st, 2013
The LA Clippers defeat the Utah Jazz to finish the year with the best possible way and record their 17th consecutive win
Caron Butler with 29 points and 6/6 from beyond the arc lifted the Los Angeles Clippers over the Utah Jazz, 107-96. It was the second straight win in 3 days against Utah for LA, who have now won 17 in a row and finished the whole December unbeaten. Despite the difficulties they faced in the previous close game against the Jazz, this time the Clippers had no problem to smash their opponents. They now enter the New Year with the best momentum that any team has in the league and can finally praise themselves for their achievement.
Only two other teams in the entire NBA history have managed to stay unbeaten for an entire month, them being the 1995-96 San Antonio Spurs, which included Del Negro, and 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers. Commenting on the run, All-Star guard Chris Paul commented “I am amazed because I haven’t done it since I’ve been in the league” while Head Coach Vinnie Del Negro stated “I want to do this every year. This has got to be a staple of how we go about doing our business. We’re thinking bigger than the streak.” It’s clear that despite of all the enthusiasm and the fireworks around the streak, the Coach tries to keep things under control so his team does not rest on it and keep pushing forward for the first games in 2013.
Butler, who led his team in scoring, had 17 points in the first 12 minutes going 5 from 5 beyond the 3 point-line. Paul finished with 19 points and 9 assists and Jamal Crawford had 19 off the bench. The Clippers managed to get a double digit win and score over 100 points even with Blake Griffin staying cold, just 7 points for him and 5 shooting attempts. DeAndre Jordan had an impressive performance with 14 points and 3 blocks, including one highlight spike stop to a layup attempt from Jamal Tinsley. He also had a couple of nice alley-hoop dunks plus he makes them look so easy, because with his long wingspan he can catch the ball literally from anywhere it’s thrown.
For the Utah Jazz it was Al Jefferson who led his team with 30 points and 8 rebounds, but this wasn’t enough for them to escape with a win. Gordon Hayward finished with 16 off the bench and Derrick Favors added 11.
The Clippers are now 25-6, 15-3 at home and they enter 2013 with the greatest expectations for more. They surely are one of the most enjoyable teams to watch, not only for the team’s fans, but for any basketball and sports fan.
This first week in the New Year the Clippers will have a tough schedule. They host the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday and then the Golden State Warriors. On Friday night they play as the away team against the Los Angeles Lakers and on Saturday they face the Warriors once again.
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Chris Cabrera
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December 25th, 2012
After a long period of difficulties the Lakers got back in the victories this last week. Finally resurrection time may have come for LA, who last Thursday was at a tough position with a 9-14 record. 10 days and four wins after, the team has finally broken out of the slump and is happy to welcome Steve Nash back.
Nash, who missed 24 games with a broken leg returned in the starting lineup at Saturday’s match against the surprising Warriors. It has been a really long wait for the two-time MPV but his impact on the team’s playing style was obvious right from the start. He finished with 12 points to go along with many assists. But the truth is that the numbers don’t tell the whole story. The whole style changes on offense with Nash on the floor who does what he knows best, creating plays for his teammates and the Lakers in fact do have some of the greatest finishers in the league in Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard.
The victories started even before Nash’s return. The Lakers survived in late game situations in most of their last wins. First one against the Wizards last Friday when they won 102-96 holding off a 27 point fourth quarter from their opponents. Lakers scored only 19 during the last 12 minutes. Next stop was Philadelphia against the Sixers, when LA broke out and won easily 111-98. Bryant finished had another high scoring game with 34 and Metta World Piece had a career high 16 rebounds to go along with 19 points, quite a performance for him. Then it was a comeback in the last quarter that saved the day for the Lakers, who took 101-100 the Bobcats at a game with a dramatic finale. The Bobcats had the chance to win the game but missed on 3 consecutive tries in the last 10 seconds thus throwing the victory to their opponents. Last game of the week came on Saturday night for the Lakers. It came down to the overtime but the Lakers escaped with a 118-115 win against the Warriors. It was another good game from Kobe Bryant who led all scorers with 34 points and of course noticeable for the night, Steve Nash’s return to the team.
The encouraging fact for Lakers fans is that things may actually get better for the team. Now, with Nash and also Gasol back from injuries, the team may show its real capabilities. Now it’s time for them to prove that the expectations during the off-season, when all the stars met in LA, were not too high. They are just one win behind the psychological border of 0.500 that could trigger a burst of momentum for the Lakers. They will surely need that going in 2013 and as playoff time is approaching. Of course there is a lot of work ahead and the road will not be easy for them.
Next up for the Lakers they play on Christmas day against the New York Knicks at home and then travel to Denver to face the Nuggets. Last game of the year is Friday night in front of the Staples Center crowd against the Portland Trailblazers.
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April 19th, 2012
 Los Angeles Clippers Offical Partner Barrys Ticket Service The second-longest active postseason drought is over. The Clippers are officially in the NBA playoffs this year. They had more than just making the NBA playoffs on their minds after defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder Monday night,
Monday night’s heavyweight Western Conference bout ending in a surprising manner, as the LA Clippers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 92-77. The game locked up Lob City’s postseason bid, marking the first time the Clippers have made the playoffs since 2006.
Los Angeles was lead by Blake Griffin who had 17 points and 11 rebounds, but got some serious support from Nick Young off the bench who went for 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting and 3-of-4 from downtown.
The real turning point in the game came in the 3rd quarter where L.A. topped Oklahoma 23 to 14. Durant mustered 24 points, but James Hardin only had 12 while Russell Westbrook only managed nine points to go along with five turnovers.
The L.A. faithful were in attendance to celebrate their playoff qualifying night as the franchise enjoyed their 32nd consecutive sellout crowd.
There was a time, for example, the bulk of the team’s existence that simply making the NBA playoffs would have been the most a Clippers fan would dare to expect from a team that has finished with a record above .
The Clippers’ 2005-06 playoff appearance represents the only time they’ve won a playoff series while playing in Los Angeles, and even then they didn’t get beyond the second round.
The playoff berth was actually sealed in the first half when the Houston Rockets lost to the Denver Nuggets, but give the Clippers some style points for the win over the Thunder.
The Clippers rank first in the league in points per possession (PPP) on shots the ballhandler takes in the pick-and-roll, while Paul ranks sixth among all players. Point being, if Paul gets a favorable switch or the space to operate coming off a screen, he’s one of the best point producers in the league.
To properly blow up a pick-and-roll, you need to have mobile, intelligent big men. The Lakers are a perfect example of this. Pau Gasol is one of the best in the business at showing hard on a screen, then recovering properly. He’s a big reason the Lakers rank 9th in pick-and-roll ballhandler defense, even with the molasses-like duo of Derek Fisher and Steve Blake covering the ball most of the year.
Although they probably won’t meet in the first round, offensively the Clippers would love a matchup against the San Antonio Spurs, who rank as the league’s worst defensive team in PPP allowed to ballhandlers in the pick-and-roll. The Spurs have immobile bigs and lack the ability to switch their bigs on to guards — a huge reason why the previous meetings between these two teams have been so high scoring.
The Denver Nuggets would be another favorable matchup, as they check in as the 20th best team in spot-up PPP, and 23rd in 3-point percentage. However, both the Grizzlies and Nuggets pale in comparison to one of the best matchups for the Clippers and one of the worst shooting teams in the league — the Utah Jazz. The Jazz are 28th in the league in spot-up opportunities and 29th in 3-point shooting at a woeful 30.7 percent, which is almost ten percentage points lower than the first place Spurs. The Jazz are on the outside looking in at this point, but the Clippers would love to somehow see them in the first round.
The NBA playoffs begin April 28. The Clippers will play four of their remaining five games on the road, including visits to Denver, Phoenix and Atlanta before closing out the regular season April 25 in New York.
Barrys Ticket is an offical partner of the Los Angeles Clippers. We stock all Clippers Playoff Tickets for both home and away games and have the largest inventory on the web of Clippers Tickets. Barrys Tickets offers great prices as well as great service.
You can purchase your Clippers Playoff Tickets on the web twenty four hours a day, or visit one of our three Los Angeles Locations including one right next to the Staples Center.
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Chris Cabrera
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January 30th, 2012
Clippers Vs Nuggets at the Pepsi Center Sun Jan 29th Wrap Up
The postgame L.A. Clippers locker room had an old Nuggets feel to it. The Los Angeles Clippers face a tough test Sunday night as they hit the road to face the red-hot Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center. The Nuggets have won six straight games and own the second best record in the Western Conference at 14-5. The Clippers, meanwhile, have lost nine straight games in Denver.
There, in the center, was Chauncey Billups, always the man of the moment in the Mile High City. Around him were all of the familiar media faces peppering him with questions about another night, another big shot, another big victory.
Only, this time, he left his old team with all the questions while he provided answers Sunday night.
In his first game back since being traded, Billups was every bit Mr. Big Shot as he and Chris Paul took over in the fourth quarter to outlast the Nuggets 109-105 at the Pepsi Center.
The Nuggets, who had been riding high on a six-game winning streak, saw that snapped in excruciating fashion. Down the stretch they
Nuggets center Timofey Mozgov dunks in the first quarter. More photos. (John Leyba, The Denver Post) simply didn’t make enough plays to get the job done. The Denver Nuggets were outscored 15-6 to end the game.
“They made a lot of shots,” said Nuggets coach George Karl of Billups and Paul, who combined to score 19 of the Clippers’ 32 points in the fourth. “I think it was pretty good defense. I’m pretty sure the video will show that. We can’t do much more.”
The fourth quarter was a wild, back-and-forth affair, each team making one effective play after another on the offensive end.
A Nene bucket gave the Nuggets a 99-94 lead before the Clippers answered with five straight points, punctuated by a Billups 3-pointer with 3:01 left to tie it up. Billups then put the Clippers ahead 102-99 with a three-point play.
Paul rolled in a free-throw line jumper with 1:26 and L.A. led 104-101. But two Nene buckets — both dunks — got the Nuggets in front 105-104.
Two Paul free throws with 35.9 seconds left put the Clippers back on top 106-105. The Nuggets missed a layup on their ensuing possession and fouled DeAndre Jordan after the Clippers came away with the rebound. Jordan made 1-of-2 from the charity stripe with 23.4 seconds to extend L.A.’s lead to 107-105.
After a timeout, Nene was called for an offensive foul with 18.1 seconds remaining, which was the biggest blow to the Nuggets’ rally hopes. The Nuggets fouled Paul with 17.2, and he made both to push the Clippers’ lead to four. A failed Nuggets possession after that sealed the team’s fate.
“We kept it close, kept it close,” Billups said. “And Chris was big for us in the fourth quarter, made a couple of plays … and that’s how you’ve got to win on the road.”
Billups returned to Denver in style. He scored a season-high 32 points, nailing six 3-pointers in the process. The Clippers drained 14 3-pointers as a team, outscoring the Nuggets 42-18 from the arc.
They had a really good percentage from 3-point, Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari said. Chauncey ha an unbelievable game. They hit some tough shots and contested 3s.
It was a tough start in a tough stretch for the Nuggets. On Saturday afternoon, Karl gathered his team, lent perspective to their hot start and relayed a message of urgency about what they will face in the next 30 days.
You can still purchase Clippers Vs Thunder Tickets just either on the web or visit our office next to the Staples Center:
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Tags: Blake Griffin, Chauncey Billups, Chris Paul, Danilo Gallinari, DeAndre Jordan, Denver Nuggets, George Karl, Los Angeles Clippers, staples center
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Chris Cabrera
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January 29th, 2012
Recent Games:
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 in the near future — 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 just can’t get a break in terms of 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 very warm 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.
Matchups. It’s hard to figure how the matchups will go tonight. For one thing, you never quite know how George Karl will distribute minutes among the 10 or 11 guys in his rotation. Nene will begin the game defending Blake Griffin, which could give Blake trouble. Caron Butler will need to take the very talented Gallinari as seriously as he would Kobe Bryant. Afflalo is a big guard who will be a handful for Billups, But the key matchup will be Lawson versus Chris Paul. CP3 probably needs to dominate that matchup for the Clippers to win tonight.
Not counting the NBA All Star Game break, they’ll get one more such break the entire remainder of the season, and that one comes in April, between games 63 and 64. Great news for fans who don’t like to wait too long between games. Bad news for tired players and coaches who need time to prep for opponents.
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Tags: Blake Griffin, Chauncey Billups, Chris Paul, Clippers Vs Nuggets, Denver Nuggets, Kobe Bryant, los angeles, Los Angeles Lakers, nba, NBA All-Star Game, New York Knicks, Pepsi Center
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