East Meets West as Celtics Play Clips in LA Tonight

Rondo's Celtics head west to play the hot Clippers tonight.

As is typical of most Wednesdays or Thursdays in the National Basketball Association, there are only a couple of games on the docket for this evening and just one involves a team from the Eastern Conference. I’ll take a look at Boston’s trip to Los Angeles where the Clippers await shortly but I want to recap last night’s action first.

Knicks 99 Suns 97 – J.R. Smith knocked down a 21-footer at the buzzer to defeat Phoenix. The Knicks were playing without Carmelo Anthony and Raymond Felton who were nursing injuries from the their Christmas day game. Jared Dudley pumped in a career-high 36 points for the Suns. Smith had knocked in a 15-footer to tie the game about 11 seconds prior to hitting the game-winner.

Bucks 108 Nets 93 – Milwaukee got solid performances from Monta Ellis (25 pts) and Brandon Jennings (20 pts) as they knocked off visiting Brooklyn last night. The Nets were playing without Deron Williams who had a sore wrist from the their Christmas Day loss to Boston. Nets’ CEO Brett Yormak actually tweeted out his displeasure after the game saying “Nets’ fans deserve better.” Ouch

Heat 105 Bobcats 92 – LeBron James had 27 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists as the Heat sent Charlotte to their 16th-straight loss. Dwayne Wade tossed in 29 points and 8 boards as well.

Hawks 126 Pistons 119 2OT – Josh Smith had 31 points and Al Horford added 22 in the marathon win. The Hawks blew a 22-point 4th quarter lead before finally pulling out the win. Will Bynum led Detroit with 31 points.

Irving and the Cavs have won two straight.

Cavs 87 Wizards 84 – Cleveland won their second-straight game as Kyrie Irving dropped in 26 points in the win over Washington. Emaka Okafor went for 17 and 10 for the Wizards who dropped their eighth-straight game and fell to 3-23 overall.

News Around the Eastern Conference… San Antonio brought the Toronto Raptors back to Earth with a 100-80 win. The Raptors had won five in a row… The Knicks lead the Atlantic Division by 6 games which is the biggest lead of the three Eastern Conference divisions… Indiana, Milwaukee and Chicago are separated by a 1/2 game in the Central… If the playoffs began today, Miami would host Brooklyn and New York would host Boston… Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao leads the league in rebounding with 14.4 per game… Boston’s Rajon Rondo leads the NBA in assists per game with 11.9.

Boston at LA Clippers – The only other game in the Association tonight is Dallas at Oklahoma City so those two along with the Celts and Clips will get plenty of air-time on TNT. Boston currently resides in second place in the Atlantic but trails New York by six games.  The Celtics continue to go as does Rajon Rondo. His penetration ability will be challenged by Chris Paul and a very improved Clippers’ defense.

Paul Pierce is averaging around 20 points per game right now and Kevin Garnett leads the Celtics in rebounding and blocked shots. Boston’s biggest problem right now is rebounding where they rank dead-last in the league. While the Clippers are in the middle of the pack when it comes to rebounding, their defense has gotten better as the season has progressed.

The Clippers are getting great seasons from Chris Paul who leads the team in assists and steals and Blake Griffin who leads the team in scoring at 18.1 per game. The other area where the Clippers are thriving is off the bench. Matt Barnes and Jamal Crawford came off the bench to combine for 42 points against Denver earlier this week. When you’re getting that kind of support off the pine that makes a huge difference in terms of rest for starters and being able to keep a solid rotation game in and game out.

LAC has won 14 straight games and at some point streaks do come to an end, but I don’t see it here. I think the balance of the Clippers will be too much for the Celtics tonight.