By: Amil Delic
Maybe you haven’t heard but the Los Angeles Clippers have been on a tear lately. I know, who would have thought!! The curse that they have carried for so many years might have been cured. The Clipper boys have won the last 9 of 11 games and they’ve been playing basketball that would scare the poorly tailored pants off of Freddy Krueger.
The Clippers went head to head last night with the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Staple Centre and were up almost the entire game by a fair margin. Comfortable enough to sit Blake Griffin for most of the 4th quarter and rest him up for tonight’s game in Portland. Not the smartest move by Vinny D if you ask me when you consider Griffin’s streak of 28th straight double-double games coming to an end last night. What caught me off guard was Blake’s (29pts, 8reb and 6 assists) great reaction to his streak coming to an end by saying “it gives me a chance to start another streak”.
You can already tell that this guy will be a professional for many years to come. He isn’t bragging about how many points he scored or how many triple-doubles (double-doubles) he racked up during his rookie season..cough cough Brandon Jennings and Lebron James. You don’t catch Griffin talking about his personal achievement or any of his teammates singling themselves out because this team is playing as a unit and playing off one another. They only one thing on their minds and that is to make the playoffs. Last time the Clippers made the playoffs was just over 5 years ago and that was with a young Elton Brand and the very handsome Sam Cassell. Before that it was in 1997 with slam dunk champion Brent Barry and 300lbs centre Stanley Roberts. The Clippers might have made a flurry of terrible draft picks throughout the years but I think they might have hit the jackpot this time around.
The 2010-2011 LA Clippers are a very different team with Blake Griffin (Mr. Double-double), Eric Gordon (Dunk Contest?), Baron Davis (Overweight Assists Man) and Deandre Jordan (Go DJ!!) leading this franchise to a potential .500+ season and maybe a playoff berth.
This hot streak will most likely keep going as they play Blazers, Warriors, Mavericks and Rockets the next 4 games. This team is only getting better month to month and I am tuning in to every 10:30 Clippers game. Their points per game are improving every month to go along with their rebounds and assists Turnovers are down and the fouls are up due to this team’s tough play and low post physicality. This toughness has been shown against many teams in the league especially the Lakers. The chart below shows the Clippers month to month improvements:Los Angeles Clippers 2010-2011 Month Splits
Month | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | TPG | FPG | A/TO | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
Oct. | 87.3 | 43 | 17.7 | 7.3 | 4 | 16.3 | 19.7 | 1.1 | .377 | .246 | .688 |
Nov. | 99.7 | 41.2 | 20.9 | 6.47 | 4.2 | 16.8 | 22.6 | 1.2 | .469 | .340 | .708 |
Dec. | 96.3 | 44.7 | 23.5 | 7.33 | 5.07 | 16.5 | 21.1 | 1.4 | .460 | .347 | .660 |
Jan. | 108.9 | 46 | 25.4 | 7.25 | 5.88 | 15.6 | 21.9 | 1.6 | .473 | .367 | .697 |
The people of Los Angeles will have a hard time picking a team. The Clips are back and Snoop Dogg probably looks better in red, blue and white anyway. Plus, Blake Griffin needs crazy fans like this one to vote him in as a starter to the All-Star game in LA February 20th.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNBsg43cdTc
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