Boston at L.A. Clippers
Time: 9:30 PM (CT), ESPN
Spread: LAC -1
Total: 217
Odds c/o 5dimes
The Boston Celtics have dropped four straight contests and now maintain just a 1.5 game lead on the Toronto Raptors for the Eastern Conference No. 1 spot. Boston will remain in Los Angeles after facing the Lakers last night to face the Clippers tonight. The Clips are 1-point favorites in the game with an over/under set at 217 points according to NBA oddsmakers at 5dimes.
Boston has dropped games to the New Orleans Pelicans, Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic and the Lakers over this streak. The most recent defeat was a 108-107 loss to the Lakers last night, which saw Lakers swingman Kyle Kuzma get hot and torch the Cs for 28 points on 10 of 16 shooting. All-Star forward Al Horford had a big game with 33 points on 13 of 24 shooting, but Kuzma seemed intent on making a statement against fellow rookie Jayson Tatum, who was limited to four points on 1 of 6 shooting. Kyrie Irving had 33 points on 13 of 24 shooting and four assists, but the Lakers also got 22 points from Jordan Clarkson and edged out Boston after entering the final quarter tied.
Boston is still 16-6 on the road this season, but it will need a better closing effort against Blake Griffin and the Clippers.
The Clippers (23-23) are now a team built around Blake Griffin. It is a .500 team, for better or worse, L.A. had to say goodbye to the staple of its franchise.
Having already lost star point guard Chris Paul over the offseason, Los Angeles more or less handed the reigns of the team off to Griffin, who led it in assists at 4.9 per game prior to suffering the leg injury. Griffin is still out up to two months with what is being termed a sprained MCL, and the Clippers really have no offensive creators to step up in his stead.
To be sure, Austin Rivers (15.8 points per game) and Lou Williams (23.1 points per game) are both good bucket-getters, but neither offers much along the way of getting teammates involved, and Patrick Beverley is not known for that a lot either (2.9 assists per game), as the team’s floor general.
Really, the point-forward experiment with Griffin was all the Clippers had to muster a chance against more talented teams in the West, and for all that Danilo Gallinari spoke of the team having the league’s best frontcourt, it is almost devoid of playmakers to get those big men baskets.
Center DeAndre Jordan has suffered sans Paul, and Gallinari is finding it more difficult to get offense as a Clipper than he did during his tenure in Denver either. Between the two, they combine to average just 25.2 points per game, which makes Griffin’s 23.1 per game still not enough. The Clippers put up 107 points per game as a team, which is respectable in today’s NBA, but the team is being obliterated defensively and surrendering just as many (106.8) per game.
Even with a premier rim protector like Jordan and a disruptor in the backcourt like Beverley, the Clippers have not found a way to form a coherent team defense, with missing rotations and lazy swings accounting for teams continually hurting L.A. from the perimeter.
The Clippers may trail No. 8 Denver by just half a game at this juncture, but all of the teams ahead of Los Angeles (perhaps save cross-town rival Lakers) are better teams on the defensive end. Between not having a real formula for offensive success, but just a glut of talent and the team’s glaring defensive inadequacies make it difficult to envision much more than a first-round sweep at the hands of Houston or Golden State.
That actually sounds like just what a purist would expect, and only Griffin’s own fans expected him to be able to carry the offensive load for an NBA team for a full season without serious injuries. He is an injury prone star, and the Clippers are now a strange collection of talents without his game-changing abilities on the court. It is not difficult to see why the team is six games below .500 with those woes clearly laid out before the reader.
