Philadelphia, PA — This NBA season has been odd to say the least. Not just because of the moves that were made in the offseason, such as LeBron James ditching his hometown Cavaliers to dawn a Lakers uniform, a move many didn’t believe would happen, but the expectations after the moves hasn’t played out to basketball fans expectations.
Coming into this season many picked the Golden State Warriors to run away with the west top seed easily, but instead a team who many expected to miss the Playoffs sit atop the mighty west, the Los Angeles Clippers. Lob City isn’t exactly lob city anymore. The nickname that was once given to the Clippers may have to be changed to grindout city; as such players as Avery Bradley, Montrezl Harrell, and Patrick Beverly has helped change the flashy scoring reputation of the Clippers into a defensive team.
The Clippers have forced 11 turnovers this season, which ranks 3rd in the NBA, and are 75 percent this season in defensive rebounds. With the additions of Montrezl Harrell and Marcin Gortat, that is to be expected.
After losing Chris Paul, Deandre Jordan, and Blake Griffin, the Clippers were expected by many NBA fans to take a step back, but with solid additions in Danilo Gallinari, who’s averaging 18 points per game this season, a Montrezl Harrell who is averaging 15 points per game and 7 rebounds, and the NBA Player of the week Tobias Harris, who tied his career-high of 34 points in a win over the Portland Trailblazers last night, gives this Clippers team a solid ball club, which reminds you of some of the old school, grind it out teams of the 90s.
” When you come to play the Clippers you’re going to be exhausted, you’re going to be fatigued, you’re going to be emotionally drained.” Montrezl Harrell told reporters.
The Clippers ditched the old Lob-city outlook and exchanged it for tough-nosed, gritty basketball, and it has been effective. The Clippers have won 8 of their last 10 games, and own wins over two of the best in the league right now, one of those wins being an overtime win over the Golden State Warriors, who currently trail the Clippers by a half-game for first place in the west.
It’s still early in the season, but the Clippers are surprising many because after losing Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, and Deandre Jordan, instead of sinking to the bottom, the Clippers seem to have re-identified themselves. and appear to once again be a threat in the western conference.
