"After an impressive outing against the Cleveland Cavaliers last night, the Los Angeles Clippers look to win a second consecutive game as the Orlando Magic come to town."
The race in the West for playoff position only gets more intriguing as the Los Angeles Clippers won a pivotal game against LeBron James and the Cavs last night. By beating Cleveland, the Clips remained in sole possession of the 8th seed as they hold the tie-breaker over Denver.
Meanwhile, the Orlando Magic come in losers of 3 straight on their current 5 game road trip. The Magic were defeated yesterday by the Sacramento Kings 94-88. Orlando will be without young power forward, Aaron Gordon (concussion) as the team looks to bounce back tonight.
In their last meeting with the Magic on December 13th, the Clips were victorious as Lou Wiliams dropped 31 points and 8 assists off the bench and won by the final score of 106-95. The high point man for the Magic was Jonathon Simmons who provided 20 points and 8 assists as well.
Entering Today’s Matchup
The Clippers (35-29) will look to finish off their 6 game homestand with a victory over the Magic (20-46) before heading out on the road, as they are still jockeying for playoff seeding. With a win tonight, the Clips will remain a hold of the 8th seed and be a 0.5 game behind the 7th seed and 1 game behind the 6th seed. This game will be very crucial as the Magic look to play spoiler against the Clips playoff hopes.
The Magic, like the Clippers, have dealt with their fair share of injuries throughout the course of the season as well. Though Orlando is currently the 14th seed in the East, they cannot be disregarded as this team has still shown effort and fight on both ends.
This indeed has the looks of a trap game as the Clips on the year are (2-8) on the second night of a back to back. LAC has also allowed opponents to average 114 points per game in their last 10 games. Should the Clippers win the battle on the boards and take advantage of getting 2nd chance pts (Clips ranked 8th, Magic ranked 26th) then they should prevail.