Jan 26 2009
Preview: Los Angeles Clippers
This team must absolutely despise the Arizona Cardinals. They’re everything the Clippers wish they could be.
Look at the Cardinals, they were the perennial losers, with their most famous moment being the off-field meltdown by Dennis Green after losing to the Bears on Monday Night Football. Even worse, the last four years were always crowned by the national media as “the year”, the one where they would finally ascend the worst conference in football and make the playoffs. Like always, they failed, lagging behind the Seahawks and whatever mediocre iteration the Rams trotted out that year.
You can see a bit of that in the Clippers. Like the Cardinals, they’re historically bad and picked for something far greater than their talent. During a couple of brief moments, the Clippers looked like their potential was going to outshine the rest of the league. There was the early 2000s with Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson shaping up to be an incredible 1-2 punch. Then there was that playoff run in 2006, and they retooled for a deeper one in 07, but instead failed miserably. Since then, it’s the same old story. The Clippers are the doormat of the Western Conference. They’re always picked for greater success, but they have that toxic combination of injuries, bad luck, and Mike Dunleavy.
Still, they must hate the Cardinals. It must be tough seeing a compatriot leave that cellar and go on to something big. It must be even worst to know that the day when they get better is a long ways away. There is no parity in the NBA. The club of major league teams that have never been to a championship just got a little smaller.
On to the game. This is the opposite of a trap game. This team is coming off a back to back losing to the Golden State Warriors. They are missing Chris Kaman, Baron Davis, and Zach Randolph. Right now their starting point guard is Fred Jones (you know, that guy who could barely crack the Blazers rotation back when they were bad). They’ve won 2 of their last 17 games. No amount of horrid free throw shooting is going to lose this game tonight.
