You know what they say—another day, another shot at the Clippers getting one step closer to .500! Coming off of a rough outing against the Knicks, the Clippers look to right the ship against the waning Wizards.
Clippers vs. Wizards Game Information
Where: Capital One Arena, Washington, DC
When: 4 p.m. PT
How to Tune in: Bally Sports SoCal, AM 570
Projected Starting Lineups:
Clippers: Reggie Jackson — Amir Coffey — Marcus Morris Sr. — Nicolas Batum — Ivica Zubac
Wizards: Spencer Dinwiddie — Bradley Beal — Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — Kyle Kuzma — Daniel Gafford
Injuries:
Clippers: Paul George – OUT (Right Elbow UCL Tear), Keon Johnson – OUT (G League – On Assignment), Kawhi Leonard – OUT (Right Knee; ACL – Injury Recovery), Jason Preston – OUT (Right Foot – Injury Recovery)
Wizards: None!
The Big Picture
As the Clippers trek along their longest road trip of the season, the voices in the back are shouting, “Are we there yet?!” The unfortunate answer? NOPE.
The Clippers are at the halfway point of their longest road trip of the season, and every single win matters. Sitting one loss ahead of the Blazers and one loss behind the Lakers, the ninth seeded Clippers can’t take their foot off the gas pedal, no matter how depleted their tank may seem. LAC is coming off of a hard-fought, but rough loss to the New York Knicks that brought them another step away from .500. The somewhat good news is that outside of the usual (All Star) suspects of PG and Kawhi, the team will have all of their players available to play.
The other good news is that they are playing a struggling Washington Wizards team who are on a 3 game skid, including most recently, a 29 point loss to the Boston Celtics. Nevertheless, the Wizards are a talented team with offensive firepower at just about every position, so don’t be surprised if the Wizards put some big numbers up against the Clippers.
The Antagonist
The Wizards continue their journey of being a fringe playoff team after trading away their All Star guard Russell Westbrook during the offseason for a package centered around Montrezl Harrell, Kentavius Caldwell Pope, and Kyle Kuzma. If a lineup starring Trez, Kuzma, and Beal didn’t already pack enough offensive punch, they proceeded to retool by adding Spencer Dinwiddie to their roster. While the Wizards started out the season scorching hot with a 10-3 record, they have since gone 13-21, landing them in the 10th seed and in a similar play-in range as the Clippers. Both the Knicks and Hawks are hot on their tail with only one more loss than them, so the Wizards need every single win they can scrap together. While the Clippers are trying to stay at .500 during their road trip with this win, the Wizards are on the opposite side of the coin, trying to get to a 4-4 record in their 8-game homestead.
Clippers vs. Wizards Game Notes
- Big Sparks off the Bench: Former Clipper Montrezl Harrell continues to be a great spark plug off the bench for his team. He is averaging 14/7/2 on the best efficiency of his entire career. While his energy and scoring are often times missed by this current Clippers team, Isaiah Hartenstein has been fantastic in his role as a 2nd unit big. It will be a high energy matchup to watch, as both players are some of the premier backup bigs in the game.
- Big Government meets DC: Though the Clippers are a slightly disappointing 1-2 to start off their 8 game road trip, Reggie Jackson has looked fantastic in most of the games so far. He’ll likely need another herculean effort to help propel the Clippers to another win, as the Wizards will certainly be bringing the firepower for a high scoring affair.
- Zu’s Excellence: Another bright spot for the Clippers during this road trip has been Ivica Zubac, who has been playing some of the best basketball of his life. Two of their past three games have featured the best centers in the game in Jokic and Embiid, and the other center he matched up against was defensive specialist Mitchell Robinson. While he definitely did not outperform the two MVP candidates by any means, he was instrumental in their competitiveness in all of their recent games. It will be interesting to see how he fares against one of the weaker starting centers in the league in Daniel Gafford.