The LA Clippers have lost the last two games and are now 4-4. Tonight, they look to beat the Orlando Magic at Amway Center.
The last two LA Clippers games have had opposite third quarters. Against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, the Clippers watched their foes go on a 20-0 scoring run in the third quarter. On Thursday against the Philadelphia 76ers, the Clippers cut Philly’s 22 point lead down to four heading into the fourth quarter, but to no avail.
Tonight, the Clippers will look to hopefully do neither and instead be a dominant team against the 2-5 Orlando Magic.
What to Watch For: LA Clippers
The last two losses have come from teams with star duos. Russell Westbrook and Paul George combined for 64 points on Tuesday, and on Thursday, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons accumulated 55 points, 41 of which came from Embiid.
All four of those guys are All-Star locks, and if they are feeling it, they won’t be stopped. Luckily the Orlando Magic are lacking a star, let alone one of All-Star caliber. Hopefully this will let the Clippers have some breathing room.
For point guards, Patrick Beverley is in a skid at the moment. Beverley has only four points in each of the last two games. Also, the team has given up over 20 points on each of the last two teams.
Beverley needs to take charge as the defensive leader of the team to make sure they get more stops.
We shouldn’t read too much into how Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is doing. The front office knew going in the SGA was going to need some development. Just eight games into his career, SGA has made the Clippers fans hopeful and at other times has look lost.
The wings were exceptionally great last night. LAC will need that tonight. Against the Sixers, Danilo Gallinari and Tobias Harris had 25 and 24 points respectivley, but were led in scoring by Lou Williams, who looked to finally be in good form and had 26. Gallinari has been fantastic for the team, scoring a combined 52 points in the last two outings.
The bigs have been struggling. Marcin Gortat is showing his age this year. He isn’t contributing the same kind of production that he did the last few seasons on the Washington Wizards. LAC surely knew not to expect the same from Gortat as from former defensive anchor, DeAndre Jordan.
Overall, Montrezl Harrell has been very good for the Clippers this season. He is averaging 12.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game and it will be interesting to see if those numbers will be consistent tonight against Orlando’s defensive front-court.
Lastly is Boban Marjanovic, who has been inconsistent. He never receives many minutes. Sometimes he has been stellar on the offensive end and sometimes he goes unnoticed. Hopefully it’ll be the former tonight.
What to Watch For: Orlando Magic
The Magic are very similar to how they were last season, minus the great start. Their two wins this season have been by a combined six points, showing the the young Magicians (or whatever you call a Magic player) still have some developing to do.
Their point guard situation is awful. D.J. Augustin is serviceable, but would be better suited with a bench role. Aside from Augustin, they have Jerian Grant (nephew of Horace Grant who was on the Magic from 1994-1999 and won three championships with Michael Jordan and one with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal) and Isaiah Briscoe.
There wing situation is a bit better than that of their point guards. Evan Fournier has been good for 17 points per game the last few season, but has struggled in their last two games. Jonathon Simmons and Terrence Ross have been the same players they were last year for the most part.
All three of these wings have shown an ability in the past to go off for huge scoring outbursts, so the Clippers back-court will have to focus on closoing these guys down.
The Magic bigs have all been different. Mohamed Bamba and Jonathan Isaac have both shown that they aren’t yet fully developed yet.
Isaac had a career game with 18 points and 12 rebounds in a win over the Celtics. Other than that, both Bamba and Isaac have been relatively quiet to start the season, and I wouldn’t bet on either of them punishing the Clippers too much.
On the other hand, Nikola Vucevic has been outstanding. Scoring 18.6 points and grabbing 10.9 rebounds per game has made him their best player this far into the season. I’d watch for him to have a big game tonight, especially since the Clippers don’t have a ton in the form of post defense.
Lastly, the future of the Magic, Aaron Gordon. Projected by some to win Most Improved Player of the Year, Gordon is off to a fairly average start to the season by his standards. He is currently averaging 15.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. However, Aaron Gordon historically has had some big games against the Clippers. Don’t be surprised if he does it again tonight.
You can watch this game on NBA League Pass, Fox Sports Florida, and Fox Sports Prime Ticket at 7 P.M. EST/ 4 P.M. PST.