Kevin Love and Blake Griffin this past weekend were teammates during the all star game and both helped the western conference get a win. Today they play against each other in what I expect to be a good game. Ricky Rubio impressed last Friday at the rising stars competition with his flashy passes and scoring. Kevin love in his last 10 is averaging 24.8 PPG, 15.1 RPG, and 2.4 APG. Ricky Rubio is averaging 11.2 PPG, 7.1 APG, and 3.9 RPG in his last 10. In the Wolves' last 5 they are 4-1 with notable wins over Utah, Philadelphia and Houston, all 3 teams which are good competitors in their conferences. It would be lengthy to list all of the statistics of each relevant player on the Clippers. The thing that impresses me most about the Clippers is that they are team based. Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, Caron Butler, DeAndre Jordan and Mo Williams all play off each other and that is the basis of their success. The Clippers are 3-2 in their last 5 with wins over the Wizards, Trailblazers and Denver and their losses coming from the Spurs and the Warriors. Coming back from the all star break and the LA Clippers sitting in 3rd in the west behind OKC and San Antonio, I expect them to start the second half of the season strong. It's a long shot, but this match up tonight could be a potential playoff match up if not this year then in the future. Chris Paul and Blake Griffin go head to head with Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love and it all comes down to who produces outside of the two prominent stars of each respective team. I think the Clippers take the game tonight in a high scoring game and Chris Paul and Blake Griffin set the tone for the Clippers for the second half of the season.
Result: What a game. The Clippers started the game off strong going up by 9 in the first quarter. Chris Paul had a good game shooting 11/17 scoring 27 points, with 6 assists. Blake Griffin also had a good game coming off the all star break scoring 30 points and grabbing 14 boards, with 4 blocks. At half, the score was 54-51 in favor of the Clippers and it seemed they had the game under control. This Minnesota Timberwolves team is not a bad team by any means. They have all the pieces to become a contending team in this league, and tonight they showed that. The bench for the Wolves scored 72 points combined led by Derrick Williams who went 9/10 from the field scoring 27 off the bench as well as Michael Beasley who also scored 27 off the bench going 11/15 from the field. In the 4th quarter alone the Wolves only missed 3 shots at the end of the quarter to end the game with a final score of 109 to 97.
5-3
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