After a trial by fire in the first couple weeks of the season, here’s why the LA Clippers should be feeling good about their upcoming games.
Coming into the season, we knew that the first few games were going to be a trial by fire for the LA Clippers. Lakers, Nuggets, Mavs, Blazers and Jazz as five of the first six games was a tough start, and the Clips have to be happy to be 4-2 at this point.
Our guys have a tough game tonight against the Phoenix Suns, but after this, they should be breathing a sigh of relief going into the next week. They’re looking at a back to back in which they’ll play the Spurs and Warriors, then they’ll play the Warriors again before seeing the Bulls on Sunday.
That’s exactly 0 teams who are currently a top 8 seed in their conference, after facing playoff teams (and both WCF teams) in 5 of their first 6 games.
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As of this writing, the teams LA has faced between the start of the season and today (counting the Suns), are a combined 18-13 (.58 win percentage) in their non-Clippers games. The teams they’ll play next week are a combined 6-10 (.375).
The good guys are going into an easy week, and they’ve got to feel good about their chances to bolster their record moving forward.
If the Clippers can beat the Phoenix Suns tonight (which is far from a given, as the Suns sit atop the West early in this season), then they could be looking at 9-2 after the Chicago game next week, if they can avoid slipping up against a team they should beat.
I’m looking for a big week from the Clippers, and I’d like to see more of the same from Paul George, who has been showing us that he was serious when he talked about returning to MVP-caliber form this year.
The Clippers have shown that they can hang with the teams that are likely to be around deep in the playoffs, but that’s only half of the equation when it comes to securing a high playoff seed. You’ve also got to routinely beat the teams you are supposed to beat. This week, the Clippers will have the chance to show that they can do that as well.