Clippers Bounce Rockets, Take Off For Florida
The Los Angeles Clippers turned in their third straight impressive performance with a rather easy win over the Houston Rockets on Monday, 137-118. The Clippers up-tempo style is reminding fans around the country of how basketball was played back in the glory days of the 1970s and 1980s before basketball became more like a rugby scrum. For fans who have grown tired of scores in the 80s or even 70s, the Clippers are for you.
In all four of their games thus far they have scored and allowed over 100 points. In Monday’s game, Lob City raced out to a 78-66 halftime lead with a 42 point first quarter. They were led by Chris Paul who dished out 17 assists while scoring 23 points. J. J. Redick was hot with a team high 26 points and Blake Griffin added 18. Jamal Crawford came off the bench to add another 21 for the 3-1 Clippers.
The loss was Houston’s first of the season as they fell to 3-1. They were led by Omri Casspi with 19 points and James Harden with 15 points. Dwight Howard picked up three quick fouls in his firs game back at Stapes Center since leaving the Los Angeles Lakers for the Rockets in the off-season’s biggest free agent signing. Although the arena was paced mostly with Clippers fans, Howard still heard plenty of boos when he was introduced during the pregame.
The Clippers now head for Florida for games on Wednesday against the Orlando Magic, who is on a two game win streak, both at home. On Thursday, they will head south to take on two-time defending champion Miami Heat. After that they will be in Houston to take on the Rockets again on Saturday night. That is a tough three game road trip for the Clippers who have yet to leave California this season. If they continue to impress in these three games, they could emerge as one of the Western Conference favorites.
Betonline has odds on Wednesday’s game against the Magic:
The Magic is +7.7 -115 and the Clippers are -7.5 -105. O/U is 208.5 with both over and under -110. The Magic has really been good at home with two lopsided wins over the New Orleans Pelicans and Brooklyn Nets. Rookie Victor Oladipo has been really impressive in his first four NBA games and has the fans of the Magic excited again.
We are going to go with Orlando +7.5. A long road trip plus the fact the Heat are the next night might make this game a bit of a “trap game” for the Clippers. We still like L.A. to win the game but we think the Magic will cover the spread.
