Clippers’ Blake Griffin and Deandre Jordan will not play against the Nuggets

The LA Clippers’ front court (Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan) will not play against the Nuggets today. In fact, they won’t even travel to Denver.

After the Clippers loss against the Milwaukee Bucks, Dan Woike of the LA Times reported that Doc Rivers revealed the news. Top tier teams such as the Warriors, Spurs, and the Cavaliers have rested players since the All Star break, and the Clips have now joined in their strategy.

While this increases the odds of a loss occurring today for the team, let’s examine the pros of Blake and DeAndre resting. Brandon Bass and Marreese Speights will be starting in their place. (We hope.) The Nuggets starting big men are Kenneth Faried and Nikola Jokic, so a small-ball starting lineup would not be effective against the opponents. A perk of resting players before the playoffs, besides them having recovery time, is their replacements playing meaningful minutes. Speights has received just about 16 minutes per game, while Bass has received only 11. If they are the chosen starters against the Nuggets, they will be able to work with Paul, Redick, and Luc. What they learn in this game could come in handy come NBA playoffs time.

While we hope the Clippers changed starting lineup will consist Speights and Bass, coach Doc Rivers may choose to run with a small-ball lineup. Doc is clearly not worried about taking a loss considering he is choosing to rest Blake and Deandre. The man who will do everything he can to get a win is the point god, Chris Paul. Paul has been known to be extremely competitive no matter the situation. Whether it be a playoff game or the All Star exhibition, CP3 will try his hardest to get the win.

All apologies to the Clippers fans in Denver who were excited to see Blake Griffin and Deandre Jordan throw down against the Nuggets at the game, but Doc has joined other coaches in resting key players. We hope our boys make valuable use of their time off.

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