After suffering their worst loss of the season to the Washington Wizards, the LA Clippers will look to bounce back today against the Memphis Grizzlies.
There’s no disguising the fact that the LA Clippers were flat-out embarrassed on Tuesday night against the Washington Wizards. After leading by as much as 24 points in the first half, the Clippers fell apart in the second en route to a 125-118 loss.
Normally, this would be worrisome, but the loss hasn’t been something that I’ve concerned myself with all that much. After all, it was LA’s third game in four days, and the previous two games were both hard-fought victories. Eventually, you’re going to run out of gas and lose your lift. And in the second half of Tuesday’s game, that’s what appeared to happen.
It’s a tough loss to swallow, but this team has been nothing but resilient this season — which is why I believe the Clippers will come out today and make a statement against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies are having an equally impressive season as the Clippers, and are currently sitting atop the Western Conference standings with a 12-5 record. However, four of those five losses have come on the road, and three of those have come against teams that currently have a winning record.
Much like the Memphis teams of years past, this Grizzlies squad is winning games with defense. They’re allowing the fewest points per game of any team in the NBA, but they’re also scoring less than any other team. The usual duo of Marc Gasol and Mike Conley are performing well on both sides of the ball, and rookie big Jaren Jackson Jr. is making a significant impact as well.
In order for LA to earn a win at home against the grit and grind, they’ll need to do it on offense. The Clippers own the league’s third-best offense, scoring roughly 118 points per game — 15 more points a night than the Grizzlies score.
There’s also the Clipper bench, which completely outmatches that of Memphis (and every other bench in the NBA, really). LA gets over 56 points per game from their second and third units, while the Grizzlies put up just under 37. The Clippers should be able to limit that total even more than usual too, since they have the league’s best bench defensive efficiency. It’s so high, in fact, that their rating doubles that of the league’s second-best unit, which belongs to the Boston Celtics.
LA will host Memphis today at 12:30 PM PST. With a win, the Clippers would move back into first place in the Western Conference.