Clippers are Blown Out by San Antonio Spurs

The Los Angeles Clippers experienced a huge high on Valentine’s Day when they beat the Los Angeles Lakers 125-101. The very next game, exactly a week later, they experienced a crashing low, losing to the San Antonio Spurs 116-90. The Spurs, if you’ll remember, virtually dismantled the Clippers in the playoffs last year, and they showed once again on Thursday night why they’re the best team in the Western Conference right now, and just how far the Clippers have to go before they can be considered a member of the elite club.

The Clippers were 3.5-point favorites heading into the game, and why not? They were one of the league’s hottest teams, and were at home to boot. Here were a few of the betting trends for both teams heading into the match, thanks to OddsShark.com:

San Antonio Spurs Trends:
When playing on Thursday are 7-3
Before playing Golden State are 6-4
After playing Sacramento are 7-3
After a win are 9-1

Los Angeles Clippers Trends:
When playing on Thursday are 1-9
Before playing Utah are 7-3
After playing LA Lakers are 6-4
After a win are 7-3

A few Spurs at Clippers Trends:
San Antonio is 15-1 SU in its last 16 games
San Antonio is 8-1 SU in its last 9 games on the road
San Antonio is 12-2 SU in their last 14 games when playing on the road against LA Clippers
San Antonio is 21-4 SU in their last 25 games when playing LA Clippers
LA Clippers are 16-2 SU in their last 18 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 21 of the LA Clippers last 25 games when playing at home against San Antonio
LA Clippers are 5-1 SU in their last 6 games
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of the LA Clippers last 5 games when playing San Antonio

However, despite being favored, the Clips were absolutely demolished. Tony Parker scored 31 points, and the entire Spurs team shot 58.9 percent from the floor.

“They just beat us, beat us bad,” Chris Paul said. “Luckily, it wasn’t a Game 7 or our last game of the season. They came out and executed. Tony was in a rocking chair all night. We just let him go wherever he wanted to, and we never really could get going offensively. It’s a very humbling loss.”

While the Clippers have an abundance of talent and are the leaders in an admittedly weak Pacific Division, their performance against the Spurs has to be troubling, especially given the way the Spurs took them apart last year in the playoffs. The Clippers are a very, very good team; the Spurs showed them on Thursday what a great team looks like. However, as long as the Clips have Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Jamal Crawford and the rest, they stand a good chance of making a real run at the Western Conference championship.

“We’ve been together since Day 1,” Del Negro said. “Last year was a lockout season. Chris and Blake weren’t nearly 100 percent and they battled through it, but I think our team is better. I think we’re deeper, I think we’re more experienced and we have a better basketball IQ overall. Last year I didn’t think we did a very good job from a physical series in Memphis to more of an experienced, open spacing type of game against San Antonio. I think we’re built better to handle that adjustment, and that was one of the reasons we built the team the way we did. Hopefully that will be an advantage for us if by chance we face San Antonio.”