Tuesday, November 26th – @ Dallas
After clearly being the best rookie in the NBA and winning the 2019 Rookie of the Year award, Luka starts his second NBA season with a new star teammate, Kristaps Porzingis. Porzingis hasn’t played a game since tearing his ACL in early February 2018. NBA fans are now hopeful that the 24-year-old can get back to where he was before the injury, averaging nearly 23 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists per game.
A player with the size and abilities of Kristaps Porzingis is hard to guard, so it will take a team effort from the Clippers to stop him from scoring, inside and outside. LA’s roster is deeper and has more natural scorers than the Mavericks, something that Dallas has struggled with for a few seasons now.
This is a home game, which adds to the advantages that the Clippers will have for this one. The Mavericks are going to have a tough time competing with the rest of the West, especially the Clippers, so I have LA getting the win here.
Wednesday, November 27th – @ Memphis
After 12 seasons with Mike Conley, the Grizzlies are finally entering a season without the well-rounded guard. Ja Morant is now in Conley’s former position, as the Grizzlies continue to restructure their franchise around faces such as Dwight Howard, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Jonas Valanciunas.
Two clear advantages that the Clippers have in this matchup are their experience and scoring ability. The Grizzlies may have lost and gained several key players in the past few seasons but they still have some scrappy players. It seems as if they are looking to stay as gritty as they have been but the Clippers have just as many defensive-minded players as Memphis.
Like the Mavericks, the Grizzlies will likely struggle to keep up with the West’s top teams. The Clippers will have to pay close attention to bigs Jonas Valanciunas and Jaren Jackson Jr. but should get past this second away game in the last back-to-back series of the month.