December 6-11
Back home and after a 2 and a half-day layoff, the Clips could take care of the Wolves. Another 2 and a half days later John Wall and the Wizards come to town. In the midst of a 5 game, mostly western swing for the Wiz, the Clips should be too much at home assuming the lethal Washington backcourt doesn’t catch fire.
Also on a west coast trip, the Raptors meet the Clippers on the second night of a back-to-back. The Clippers win.
December 13-18
Road trip
The Clips then head down to Florida to meet the lowly Magic and recent Clipper free agent Marreese Speights, where a W should be expected. In Washington for a return matchup, the Clippers will likely drop a game against one of the few competitive teams in the Eastern Conference.
The next night the Clips head to Miami. If last year was any indication, Coach Spoelstra will likely have a competitive squad. Last season on away back-to-backs, the Clippers won both games 3 times, split the games 3 times and lost both games twice. While this means very little in the grand scheme of things this year, we predict a losing back-to-back.
Rounding out the road trip in San Antonio, nobody would blame the squad for dropping a game to Kawhi and the Spurs, particularly early in the season when Coach Popovich shouldn’t have a reason/excuse to rest players. Here we may again see issues with wing defending as the Clippers match up against two-way stud Leonard.