Feb 26, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers power forward Trey Thompkins (9), center DeAndre Jordan (6), small forward Caron Butler (5), power forward Blake Griffin (32), point guard Eric Bledsoe (12) and point guard Chris Paul (3) on the bench near the end of the game against the Charlotte Bobcats at the Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Los Angeles Clippers fans rejoice! School is starting back this week in many places. What does that mean? It means summer is over.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love summer. I love baseball, swimming pools, cooking out on the grill, wearing shorts and flip-flops and not having to get the kids out of bed at the crack of dawn and yell at them to get ready for school. But there is nothing like the fall.
When school starts back and the NFL preseason is upon us, I get pumped up. Because this means that not only is football starting, but basketball cannot be too far behind.
There is no better month for a sports fan than October. Baseball is in the postseason and college football is getting to the rivalry games. The NFL is approaching mid-season and the NBA is getting cranked up. Normally, the NBA starts up right around Halloween with a preview of the pay-per-view NBA package. For a week, you can watch any NBA game you want.
Of course, all of us can watch the Clippers opener anyway because it will be on national TV. They open up with the Los Angeles Lakers on October 29th on TNT. Then two night’s later, while you are answering the door for the trick-or-treaters (make sure your wife knows it’s her turn to take your kids around the neighborhood), you can turn on TNT again to watch the Clippers take on the Golden State Warriors. How far have the Clippers come that their first two games are on national TV?
Then as the calendar flips to November, the Clippers face the Sacramento Kings on the road on Friday, the first. then on Monday, they will host Dwight Howard and his new team, the Houston Rockets. We might even see some Lakers fans in the building that night rooting the Clippers on. How weird is that? That game will be nationally televised on the NBATV network.
If all goes well, many Clippers fans will be celebrating a Los Angeles Dodgers World Series championship right around the time all these great basketball games are taking place. Will there be a better time to be an L. A. sports fan?
Clippers fans will be hoping to see wins obviously in these first few games. But what would really make them ecstatic would be to see Blake Griffin dominate them. Chris Paul has called out Griffin in the off-season, saying he needs to take over. This will be Blake’s fifth season in the league, so now it is time for him to show why he is one of the NBA’s best players. I also am hoping to see newcomers J. J. Redick and Jared Dudley perform well in a Clippers uniform. Redick can be a deadly three-point shooter when he is on. I am also hoping to see DeAndre Jordan’s offensive game has gotten a bit better.
The fifth and sixth games of the season are the ones I am really looking forward to, because I live in Florida. The Clippers will take on the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat on the 6th and 7th of November. I am shopping online for tickets right now!
Just think how great it will be if the Clippers can get off to a 6-0 start with Blake getting double doubles in all six games. I just love the fall. Come on October!!