The last seven days had been rough for the Los Angeles Clippers and the fans in Clipper Nation. January had been such a promising month and there were some among us who even dared to dream of a possible playoff run, before a terrifying 11-game road trip reared its ugly head.
As good as the Clippers had been with Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan and Baron Davis leading the way, their paltry three road wins loomed large and reality hit hard when the team lost the first three games of the road trip and four overall.
Suddenly 19-28 became 19-32 and sad faces returned.
Blowing a late fourth-quarter lead against the Atlanta Hawks in a last second 101-100 loss really hurt, and then the same late game collapses happened in losses to Orlando and Miami. The team looked dejected and the offense was seriously out of order.
The next opponent was the New York Knicks, which held some positive memories behind it even if their last meeting in November was a loss for LA. See, ever since Blake put up 44 points, 15 rebounds and 7 assists that night, his own fortune and the team’s skyrocketed.
The Clippers jumped to an early lead tonight and even extended it to as much as 20 points in the third quarter, but failed to keep the door closed on the Knicks and almost blew another one. Thankfully the team showed some maturity and resiliency by overcoming their mistakes and securing an impressive 116-108 win.
DeAndre and Randy Foye came up huge, along with the now regularly expected steady contributions of Blake and Baron. For fun, here’s some nice highlights from DeAndre.
I’m hoping it can have that same great effect it did last time and propel the Clippers to a winning streak. A look at the upcoming schedule shows the next four games are against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota Timberwolves.
If there were ever a perfect moment to start a streak, it’s now. All I’m asking for is that they please, please, please don’t be the team to end the Cavaliers NBA record 26-game losing streak.
-Will.
Will R. is a journalist/writer who covers sports, news and music for several websites. He’s a longtime Clippers fan and his “Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published every Wednesday of the NBA season. His music work can be found on www.WestCoastRydaz.com
