The Clippers are aiming for a 4-0 season sweep of the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday as they take the Moda Center court for the second time in three nights. Will LA’s dominance carry over from Wednesday’s victory to tonight’s contest? Or will Chauncey Billups construct an improved game plan to make Friday’s rematch more competitive? Continue reading for our Clippers-Trail Blazers preview.

Game Information

Where: Moda Center, Portland, Oregon

When: 7:00 p.m. PT

How to Tune in: Bally Sports SoCal, ClipperVision, AM 570

Tickets: For great deals on Clippers tickets, check out Barry’s Tickets!

Projected Starting Lineups

Clippers: James Harden – Terance Mann – Paul George – Kawhi Leonard – Ivica Zubac

Trail Blazers: Scoot Henderson – Anfernee Simons – Kris Murray – Toumani Camara – Deandre Ayton

Injury Report

Clippers: Russell Westbrook OUT, Norman Powell GTD, Terance Mann GTD, Moussa Diabate GTD

Trail Blazers: Malcolm Brogdon OUT, Robert Williams III OUT, Shaedon Sharpe OUT, Jerami Grant GTD, Anfernne Simons GTD, Matisse Thybulle GTD

The Big Picture

The Clippers have a chance to piece together back-to-back wins for the first time since March 3rd, when they entered Minneapolis and departed with their most gritty win of the season. Tonight’s challenger, whom LA overwhelmed less than 48 hours prior, likely won’t command the same level of respect from the Clippers as the earlier-in-the-month Timberwolves did. Still, that mindset shouldn’t creep into the Clippers locker room ahead of tonight’s game. From here on out, every game will be important regarding playoff seeding. The Clippers can’t afford to throw away these “gimme” games — not if they want to stay in the race for that No. 3 seed out west, and certainly not if they want to stay clear of the looming New Orleans Pelicans, who are a bad week of Clippers basketball away from usurping them for a Top 4 seed. 

How does LA stay the course? Urgency and effort.

Wednesday’s game wasn’t truly broken open until the second half, and all it took was one dominant third-quarter stretch to take LA’s lead from eight to 24 points, creating a deficit much too great for an undermanned Blazers roster to overcome. Carried-over assertiveness from the Clippers Big 3 should be enough to impose their will earlier in this game than the last. Hopefully.

The Antagonist

As banged up as the Blazers are, they hung around with the Clippers for a while two nights ago, mostly because they were knocking down shots from the perimeter. They made 15 of 34 from three despite getting only two makes (and 14 total points) from their best offensive weapon, Anfernee Simons. Sustained three-point shooting and a more typical performance from Simons, who possesses the youth, athleticism, and ability as a pull-up three-point shooter out of pick-and-roll (things that bother the Clippers) would go a long way in making this a game — that and literally anything from Deandre Ayton. Without it, Portland would practically need their “others” to out-produce some of the NBA’s elite on the opposite sideline, which is unlikely.

The Bottom Line

For some reason, this just doesn’t feel like it’ll be as easy of a game for the Clippers as it was on Wednesday. But style points don’t really matter at this time of the year. If the Clippers can come out of this one with a win and no new injuries…mission accomplished.

Clippers vs. Trail Blazers Preview
Cole Huff

The Clippers preview their 2024 campaign with a home game against the youthful Portland Trailblazers.

Game Information

Where: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles, CA

When: 7:30 PM PT

How to Watch: Clippervision, Bally Sports SoCal

Projected Starting Lineups

Clippers: Russell Westbrook – Paul George – Kawhi Leonard – Nic Batum – Ivica Zubac

Blazers: Scoot Henderson – Anfernee Simons – Shaedon Sharpe – Jerami Grant – Deandre Ayton

Injuries

Clippers: Terance Mann out (ankle), Bones Hyland questionable (ankle), Brandon Boston Out (calf)

Blazers: None

The Big Picture

The Los Angeles Clippers get set to open the 2023-24 regular season at home in a season where there’s probably the least amount of expectations in the Kawhi Leonard/Paul George era. Since the duo was formed ahead of the 2019-20 season, the Clippers have been one of the favorites among media and fans alike as a contender for the NBA championship.

Four years later, injuries have stymied any championship hopes to this point, and this year’s version of the Clippers is more like a wait and see approach. Speaking of injuries, the Clippers did suffer a major blow this week when it was announced that Terance Mann would miss opening night against the Portland Trail Blazers. Mann suffered an ankle injury during practice. He had just won out as the fifth starter and was primed for a big season. Clipper Nation will certainly await any updates moving forward.

Despite that, the vibes and mood from training camp has been nothing but good. There seems to be more of sense of urgency to get off to a good start to the season. Leonard is healthy and ready to play and the Clippers got a full training camp with Russell Westbrook.

The Clippers have been saying all the right things during camp and preseason, now it’s up to them to go out there on the court and back it up. They have a good chance to start the season on the right foot against the visiting Portland Trail Blazers on opening night.

The Antagonist

The Portland Trail Blazers come into the season looking radically different. This is a brand new era for the team, having traded franchise cornerstone Damian Lillard in the offseason. They will now focus on rebuilding around a talent young nucleus that includes No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson, Anfernee Simons, Shaedon Sharpe, and Deandre Ayton.

This is a team that’s going to come out playing loose, free, and with nothing to lose. They’re young, they’re athletic and they’re going to be looking to run. The Clippers have struggled with defending in transition although the team has talked about playing with a quicker pace this year.

The key to this matchup will be how the Clippers are able to contain the Blazers’ youthful guards as well as Ivica Zubac limiting Deandre Ayton’s effectiveness. Limit the Blazers transition opportunities and take away the middle. If the Clippers can force the Blazers to beat them in the halfcourt, that bodes well for an opening night win.

Clippers vs. Trailblazers Preview: Season Begins
David Yapkowitz

The Clippers didn’t play great, but “not bad” was enough for an easy win against an awful Trailblazers team missing Jerami Grant.

Summary

The Clippers got off to a quick starter on offense, moving the ball well against a hapless Trailblazers defense and not settling for jumpers. On defense, the Clippers did a good job of shutting down Damian Lillard, but was at the expense of letting Jusuf Nurkic get going inside, as the Blazers’ big had 13 points in the firs six minutes or so. Nonetheless, a Kawhi-led run got the Clippers out to a 30-15 advantage with about 3:30 to go. The Blazers went on an 8-0 run, the Clippers answered with two threes from Kawhi and Gordon, and then the Blazers came right back with another 7-0 run, getting the score to 36-30 after one.

Paul George, who only played four minutes in the first quarter due to foul trouble, started the 2^nd with the bench unit, but the Clippers’ continued to let the Blazers push. The Clippers’ offense moved the ball well at various points, but now it was their defense that was suffering, and the Blazers got it to 44-42 with 7:45 to go, forcing acting Clippers’ head coach Dan Craig (Ty Lue was out sick) to bring all the starters back. There followed a couple minutes of extremely sloppy play on both sides, during which the Clippers were better enough to get a 52-46 lead. At that point, both teams started to score with a bit more ease, and the Clippers’ lead was 59-55 at halftime.

An early run by the Clippers pushed the lead up to 11, as they once again attacked the basket against the soft Portland defense. The Blazers pushed back, cutting the lead to two, but the Clippers then restored order after a couple minutes of wild up-and-down action, pushing the lead back to 10. The rest of the quarter went in a state of stasis, as the lead hung right around 10 points the rest of the period until it ended, with the Clippers leading 93-83.

Ultimately, I don’t have much to say about the 4^th quarter, as the outcome was never in question. The Trailblazers got the lead down to six at one point early, but the Clippers quickly pushed it back to 10, and it remained in double digits the rest of the game. The Clippers didn’t really do much great, but got just enough shots to fall to pull ahead of the frigid Blazers and secure the easy 117-102 victory.

Notes

Standings Watch: It was a low-key affair today in the NBA with not a ton of games, but the Thunder did beat the Suns, and the Lakers triumphed over the Magic. The Clippers are just a single loss back of the Suns for 4^th, but remain just about totally out of reach of the 2 or 3 seeds. The difference is that they’re finally starting to get some breathing room below them. The Clips are two losses ahead of the play-in, and three ahead of the bottom of the play-in. If they can win seven of their last 10 games against an easy schedule, they should be able to hold onto a playoff spot. Even six victories and 44 wins total might do the trick in a weak Western Conference.


Closers Watch: The Clippers closed the game with their starting unit, but Eric Gordon (28 minutes) over Marcus Morris (24 minutes). Russell Westbrook did not play well (don’t let the near triple-double fool you) yet still earned the close (and 34 minutes) over Terance Mann and Nic Batum (16 apiece). Nico and Terance seem to be fading in the rotation even with Norm Powell still out, while Gordon is on the ascendant. It will be interesting to see how Norm’s return shakes up the rotations.

Medals: I went into depth on the medals on The Lob The Jam The Pod, but I gave Ivica Zubac the Gold for 14 points, 10 rebounds, exceptional defense, and a team-leading +26. Paul George took home the silver behind a stellar second half, scoring 29 points on 22 shots and chipping in nine boards, four dimes, four steals, and just two turnovers. Finally, Eric Gordon placed 3^rd with 20 points on 7-9 shooting and some key buckets in the second half. Kawhi Leonard, for the first time in seemingly forever, was just “fine” in this one – yet still had 24 points on 20 shots in a game-high 40 minute

Clippers Beat Out Miserable Blazers 117-102
Robert Flom

The LA Clippers stayed undefeated in Seattle, defeating the Portland Trail Blazers, 102-97, Monday night. Marcus Morris Sr., Terance Mann, Jason Preston and (eventually) Luke Kennard were unavailable for LAC tonight, opening up even more room for certain guys to showcase their current statuses. Although the game was heavily skewed towards the Clippers when both sides’ starters were in, Portland did stage a comeback once most of LA’s main names got the night off either at halftime or by the end of the third. With the game’s final result up in the air for either team’s young guns to go out and secure in the closing minutes, Amir Coffey and Moussa Diabaté led the way to bring home the “W.” Read on for our full Clippers-Trail Blazers preseason game recap.

Clippers vs. Trail Blazers Game Notes

• KL2 Takeoff: With 11 points (3-8 FG, 1-1 3PT, 4-4 FT), four rebounds, two assists and two steals, Kawhi showed just about everything that the Clipper-faithful could ask for in his return. In 16 first-half minutes, Leonard used his strong frame that’s been wowing social media audiences, as well as the high IQ that he’s displayed since he first suited up for LAC, to quickly establish his presence out there. Especially sans Gary Payton II, the Blazers’ tiny starting backcourt was terrorized by both Kawhi and Paul George, with Reggie Jackson and Nicolas Batum setting them up with mismatches perfectly via on-ball screens. Kawhi’s jumper and footwork looked great as usual, but what really stood out was him showing zero hesitation whatsoever to either make a quick cut inside off the ball or drive hard to the rim to set up looks for others. Welcome back, Kawhi!

• Wall (Finding His) Way: John Wall looked about as advertised, consistently setting guys up for quality looks with his instincts and natural ability to penetrate the paint. It is a shame that he only collected three assists, but that’s the nature of the game. Wall certainly didn’t put up enough shots to catch the attention of NBA highlight YouTube channels, but had a good mix of facilitating and scoring aggression. Fittingly enough, considering the amount of work he seemingly put into his 3-point shooting this summer, Wall’s first bucket in a LAC jersey was a “FU” 2-for-1 triple from deep a few moments after he didn’t get the call on a drive. It’s definitely going to be interesting to see him on the floor more with the 213-duo when he starts the next game.

• The Boys Are Back: Of course, tonight also gave us the first looks at PG, Ivica Zubac, Batum, Jackson and Norman Powell. Paul George was easily the sharpest player on the floor tonight, knocking down some loud shots from deep and in the mid-post, as well as hitting wide-open teammates when prompted. Perhaps the best sign of his current status was his seven boards in that 16-minute span. George’s chemistry with Zubac did not miss a beat at all, with both connecting to shut down several Jerami Grant drives with ease. It appears the ankle issue concerns for Zubac were put to rest tonight for the most part, as he looked just fine on both ends. Nicolas Batum looked like the same guy who, rightfully, has had a battalion of fans in his corner in recent years. The man just knows where to be at all times on both ends of the floor and certainly gave Dame fits while he was matched up on him to start the game. It was a lukewarm shooting night for Reggie Jackson (2-7 FG, 2-5 3PT, 1-2 FT) and a classic preseason stinker for Norm Powell (1-11 FG, 0-5 3PT, 1-1 FT). There’s no real concern for either guy from tonight as they each took a lot of shots that they usually do, but simply didn’t get the results we’re used to seeing.

• Tinkering Ty: Throwing out a Jackson-Wall combo for most of the second quarter, as well as uber-small lineups whenever Jusuf Nurkić sat, Tyronn Lue did not hold back in what appears to be just the start of what should be a fun year for him. Unfortunately, considering the number of guys that did sit out tonight, there still wasn’t much to take away from tonight in terms of where the Clipper braintrust’s thinking is right now in terms of rotations, but it’s clear LAC has plenty of options to experiment with right now.
• Coffey on the Come Up: With Mann, Mook and Luke out, Coffey got some extra run in the second half against the Trail Blazers’ young’uns and did not disappoint once again. As showcased time and time again throughout last season, Amir Coffey could truly help out a ton of teams right now. With the added weight he’s put on this offseason, it seems he’s able to play even more at his own pace with the ball in his hands. It again makes you wonder how the Clips managed to get him to agree on the deal that he signed this summer as he’s just a fun player to watch.
• C3 Watch: Early on, neither Moses Brown or Moussa Diabaté had a game to look back on, but that quickly changed once the competition level evened out towards the end. As alluded to by the guys on 213Hoops podcast network, Brown does seem like an odd fit to be the Clippers’ regular season emergency big considering he’s still super raw on both ends. Admittedly, this is still preseason and a tiny sample size, but Moses’ early returns in the league defensively have also suggested that someone like a Hassan Whiteside would perhaps address the team’s needs much better. Meanwhile, Moussa Diabaté simply came alive to close this one. The rook brought the energy once again on both ends, vacuuming rebounds and switching 1-5 repeatedly. Diabaté’s passing especially stood out in this one as he found Coffey wide open on the arc several times. Of course, perhaps the stuff we don’t see in training camp and practice could weigh quite a bit into this, but judging just by this game, it appears Diabaté has put some distance between himself and Moses.

Up Next: The Clippers will continue their four-game preseason ramp-up back at the crib against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, Oct. 9, at 7:30 p.m. PT.

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Clippers vs. Trail Blazers Preseason Game Recap
Ralston Dacanay

The Clippers hope to get back on track in a game against yet another Western Conference Rival, this time the Portland Trail Blazers. Keep reading for a full preview of the Clippers’ contest against the Trail Blazers.

Game Information

Where: Moda Center, Portland, Oregon

When: 7:00 PM PT

How to Watch: Bally Sports SoCal

Projected Starting Lineups

Clippers: Reggie Jackson – Paul George – Marcus Morris – Serge Ibaka – Ivica Zubac

Blazers: Dennis Smith Jr. – CJ McCollum – Norman Powell – Robert Covington – Jusuf Nurkic

Injuries

Clippers: Kawhi Leonard Out (Knee), Nic Batum Out (Conditioning), Jason Preston Out (Foot), Keon Johnson Out (G-League), Jay Scrubb Out (G-League)

Blazers: Damian Lillard Out (Knee), CJ McCollum Probable (Ribs), Anfernee Simons Out (Ankle), Nassir Little Questionable (Ankle)

The Big Picture

The Clippers are not quite floundering, but are certainly not playing great of late. Nic Batum is still out, as he needs to regain conditioning that he lost during his bout with COVID-19, and on the Kawhi-less Clippers, Batum’s absence results in a dearth of shooting, rebounding, defense, and small-ball versatility. Marcus Morris has had two strong games in a row, which is a great sign, but Paul George continues to struggle with his shot, and clearly lacks the burst and verve that he had to start the season. Unfortunately, the two most dependable Clippers’ role players this season are Ivica Zubac and Isaiah Hartenstein, and they not only play the same position, but they also share the same spot as the Clippers’ most respected veteran, Serge Ibaka, who the Clippers feel compelled to play. If anything, those guys should be playing more, but their playing time has been sadly squeezed in recent weeks. The Clippers desperately need forward play, leading to two-big men lineups, though those have been inconsistent. In short, the team is kind of a mess.

The Antagonist

If the Clippers are having a rough go of it, the Blazers are in far worse straits. Despite being only two games below .500, the vibes on the team are awful – new coach Chauncey Billups lambasted the Blazers, especially the starters, for a lack of effort after their most recent loss. The Blazers have a late-era Lob City feel; a team that has been together a year or two too long and feels distinctly sour about it. CJ McCollum is still a bucket, Norm Powell has had an excellent season, and Nassir Little has had a breakout third season, but the roster in general is mostly underwhelming veterans that don’t mesh well, especially on defense. There’s plenty of talent, too, but this is a team that the Clippers can beat, even on the road.

Notes

The Bledsoe-Hartenstein Combo: Over the past two games, as Eric Bledsoe has come off the bench, he’s shown a nice pick and roll chemistry with Hartenstein. Bledsoe’s no longer a great threat to finish and explode at the rim, but he’s capable of manipulating the pick and roll and finding big men via bounce passes and acrobatic mid-air dishes for easy layups and floaters. Hartenstein’s gorgeous touch on his floater and his bounciness at the rim make him a natural partner for Bledsoe, and as the two get more time together, their pairing should only grow more effective.

PG vs Portland: Paul George has averaged 24.7 points per game against the Blazers in 26 contests across his career, the second-highest against any team behind only his former Pacers squad. While Robert Covington is a helpful team defender, he’s no longer much of a point of attack stopper, and nobody else on the Blazers has the requisite size to deal with George. Therefore, after a couple weeks cold shooting, George should be primed for a big night against the Blazers. Hopefully the Clippers get him some easy looks early to get his confidence up, and use the Blazers’ probable aggressive defense against him to create open looks for teammates.

That about does it for this preview of the Clippers’ game against the Portland Trail Blazers. Comment on the game below!

Clippers vs. Trail Blazers Preview: 2 Struggling Teams
Robert Flom