Game 17: LA Clippers at Washington Wizards
Tuesday, November 20 at 4:00 PM
Last season: Series split 1-1
The Washington Wizards are going to be mighty dysfunctional this season. That doesn’t mean they won’t be a solid team, though. After years and years of doing virtually the same thing, it seems the Wizards are just destined to be a solid team for as long as John Wall is there.
This summer, Washington added Dwight Howard, Jeff Green, and Austin Rivers, which is interesting to say the least. They’re all solid players, especially Rivers, but that combo just seems like this team is already set up to fail. You can count on fights.
Still, though, this team is only going to go as far as Wall and Bradley Beal can take them. That probably isn’t very far.
As far as matchups are concerned, the Clippers have this one won out. Beverley and Bradley will lock down Washington’s star backcourt, and Harris and Gallinari are upgrades over Kelly Oubre Jr. and Markieff Morris.
Being the second game of a back-to-back, the Clippers will drop this contest. The lack of rest and abundance of travel will be starting to catch up to them, and fatigue will be setting in. And in case you’re curious, this puts LA at 5-6 on the month, and 9-9 overall if you include October’s projection.