Game Preview: LA Clippers vs LA Lakers

The LA Clippers look to continue their dominance against their struggling arena-mates the LA Lakers.

The LA Clippers (46-31) are playoff bound for the sixth straight season and the LA Lakers (21-54) are going to miss the post season for the fourth consecutive time in recent history. The Clippers are trying to figure out who they are going into the playoffs while the Lakers are trying to figure out who they are going to move forward with after the regular season ends.

The birth of “Lob City” in LA have pushed both teams in very different paths. The Lakers snapped an 11-game win streak earlier this year, on Christmas of all days, and look to split the series 2-2 when are the “away” team Sunday afternoon.

https://twitter.com/LAClippers/status/844661879184142337

The Clippers are trying to find their way and they are trying to close in on the fourth seed in a stacked Western Conference. They will need some help from other teams to make that happen but they could finish anywhere from 4-7, with the more likely being 4-5 when the season wraps up in the next week and a half.

The Clippers when playing at full force can play with anyone in the league and it looks they are finding their stride late in the season, and have made strides in the last week with quality wins against Washington and Utah. It will take more than just showing up against a rebuilding team with players playing for more than just playing time, for future contracts. Expect a fast paced game that could get out of hand from the get go.

Keys to the Game

• Bigs. The Lakers’ Bigs did not do so well on the boards, but they shot the lights out 56% on 41 shots from: Julius Randle, Brandon Ingram, Ivica Zubac. Even Thomas Robinson was 7-8 from the field the last time both teams matched up. DeAndre Jordan, Blake Griffin, and Luc Mbah a Moute will try to make them earn their shots, but need to continue to crash the boards and out rebound said bigs. The Clippers won the rebound battle last game and will need everyone to crash and run when possible. No one runs the floor better than Griffin and Jordan so expect some easy dunks and some nifty assists for dunks.
• Effort. The Clippers have played more inspired ball as of recently and when they play with effort they get those second chance shots and those 50/50 balls. The two games they did lose was by a total of three points and if it were not for a couple of bad turnovers, the outcome might have been different.
• Run Often. The Clippers have always been a team that plays its best when they are getting out in transitions. The Clippers defense produced many easy shots against the Lakers a couple of weeks ago. If they can find a way to slow down Ingram it would not be out of the realm of winning by 40.

The Clippers are winning because of their offense running probably the best it has run since their core came back form injury. A win is a win and they need as many as they can get to secure home court in the first round.