Clippers Take Down Nuggets in the 1st Preseason Games

The high-flying Clippers started the NBA preseason with some style. We saw some great previews of some players and it was an entertaining game to watch.

Lob City

We saw some amazing dunks, and it is clear that the Clippers are more athletic then they have ever been. Of course, DeAndre and Blake are still dunking as usual, but with new additions of high-flying, Wesley Johnson, and former dunk contest winner, Josh Smith, the Clippers put on a show last night.

Rebounds

Despite DeAndre Jordan grabbing 12 boards, the Nuggets killed the Clippers on the boards. The Nuggets controlled the board by 57-39, and it is obvious the Nuggets have got rebounding down. The Clippers are a great rebounding team. They have DeAndre Jordan who lead the league in rebounds last year, and they also have a great rebounder in Blake Griffin. And for the Nuggets to beat the Clippers in rebounding by 18 rebounds, that is pretty impressive.

Lance looks the Same

Lance Stephenson shot 2-10 from the field and 0-2 from the three point line. He really isn't looking good and he needs to improve. Doc Rivers is going to have to limit this man until he can prove that he can shoot, or else he will end up like he did in Charlotte.

Who is Joffrey Lauvergne?

Well, if you haven't heard about this man, it's because he has really done much, until last night. This man is the leading scorer in the NBA right now. So congratulations to Joffrey! Last night he scored 16 points and along with that he had 11 rebounds. He is looking great. Other players on the Nuggets also made their mark. Emmanuel Mudiay had 14 points and had a great shooting night after starting off a little rough. Will Barton had 12 points and 13 rebounds. Jameer Nelson had 10 points and 7 assists. However, one guy that was really disappointing was Kenneth Faried who had 0 points and 4 turnovers. Also Mudiay had 8 turnovers, which is really concerning for the starting point guard. Other than that, the Nuggets are looking really impressive.

Clippers are Thankfully Looking Better Than Their New Logo

The Clippers new logo isn't an upgrade, I will tell you that. I didn't see what was wrong with their old one. It looked great. Thankfully, the Clippers themselves looked better. Chris Paul had a great night finding people for dunks all night as he had 9 assists to go along with his 12 points. Blake Griffin had a pretty good night and played some good defense as he ended the night with 1 steal, 1 block, and 11 points. New addition Josh Smith looked great and will be a key to the Clippers success this season. He finished with 13 points and 8 rebounds. The Clippers are obviously improved with a lot more bench depth. I expect them to do even better than last year.

Rockets VS Clippers (game 1)

Final Score: Clippers win 117-101



Clippers lead 1-0

Rockets looked like they had it. Then the Clippers woke up. The Rockets lost it. Then the Clippers won. Let's take a look at what the Rockets did wrong.

Dwight Howard did his job. He dominated over DeAndre Jordan. This was the worst game in terms of turnovers this year though. James Harden had 9 turnovers in the game. That can't happen. Josh Smith should not be putting up 5 threes. Corey Brewer can't put up 5 threes and miss all of them either. They both shot horrible from the floor. That needs to change. If you look at the Points off turnovers for the Clippers, it was bad. The Clippers had 34 points off of the Rockets turnovers. That needs to stop. One great thing was that the Clippers only had 40 points in the paint. They did give them 13-31 threes though. Obviously, there are a lot of problems for this Rockets team to fix.

Austin Rivers played great as he replaced Chris Paul. He had a good 17 points. Like the Rockets, the Clippers had way too many turnovers. Also, Glen Davis needs to pick it up on the defensive end. He had a defensive rating of 144.7. That's rough. One positive thing to look at was that they had more personal fouls drawn than the Rockets. Blake Griffin had a triple-double but he did have 5 turnovers. However, this Clippers team looks like they're in good shape. I think that if they keep it up, they will be looking into the conference finals.

Rockets VS Mavericks (game 2)

Final Score: Rockets Win 111-99



Rockets lead series 2-0

Lets start this game off with the Mavericks.

The Mavs will not have Parsons for the rest of the playoffs. Rondo will be benched. Coach Nick told you why in the video. He is not helping the team. He only played 9:55 minutes in the game. What do the Mavs do. Let's take a look at the good. The bench played great, especially Barea and Felton as they played wonderful together. I was actually how great these two smaller guard player alongside each other. But them again, Felton was a decent player, and Barea is just a really physical guard. They are going to be crucial in games to come. The thing they need to cut down is threes. They only hit about 27% of them and shot a total of 20. Houston only shot 20 threes. It's not a good sign if you shoot more than them.

The Rockets are doing great. Dwight Howard really got into this game. Not to mention that Corey Brewer and Josh Smith are doing really great off the bench. They are staying aggressive and they have to if they are to win their next two games. The other thing I was impressed with was Dwight Howard at the line. He got to the line, and he shot well from the free throw line, shooting 8-11 from free throw. It was just a good overall team game. I they can have their next two games like this one, they will move on to the next round.