Chris Paul and Blake Griffin played Denver's B team tonight and won in their last game before the All Star break, avoiding a three game losing streak and running their record to a division leading 20-11. Four of the Nuggets regulars were injured but their omission was countered by at least four of the Clipper's own regulars who didn't show up either. Fortunately for the LA team, the two guys who did show up are, by far, their best players. Chris Paul had 36 points and 0 assists, Griffin was 27-12 with 5 assists. The rest of the Clipper team? Not so much.

Here's the boxscore. Here's the gameflow. Here's the play-by-play.

Continue reading this post »

NOTE: If you are a regular person, and you don't care about the gif thread and want to move straight into analysis, check out Raffo's recap/thread above this post.

Great win tonight against a depleted Nuggets squad.

Raffo will have your recap tonight.

Here is the Nuggets vs Clippers boxscore

And, the GameThread ROLLCALL!!

And the winner is...

Continue reading this post »

Use this thread for comments during the second half of Clippers-Nuggets.

2011/2012 NBA Regular Season
	vs.
19-11		14-7
STAPLES Center
February 22nd, 2012, 7:30 PM
Prime Ticket, KFWB 980 AM
Probable starters:
Chris Paul	PG	Andre Miller
Randy Foye	SG	Arron Afflalo
Ryan Gomes	SF	Corey Brewer
Blake Griffin	PF	Kenneth Faried
DeAndre Jordan	C	Timofey Mozgov

The Back Story:

• January 29th, 2012 in Denver - Clippers 109 - Denver 105 - Box Score Recap
• February 2nd, 2012 in Los Angeles - Denver 112 - Clippers 91 - Box Score Recap

Second half thread will publish at 8:45.

Chatting with the enemy: Denver Stiffs.

Enjoy some links after the jump!

Continue reading this post »

In case you missed it, last night, on NBA TV, the San Antonio Spurs, on an eleven game win streak, faced off against the Portland Trail Blazers in the Rose garden and were completely destroyed, losing by forty points. It was a humiliating beat-down of a storied franchise by a struggling but talented young team. Only it wasn't. Because Gregg Popovich, the man many believe is a genius and the best coach in the NBA, threw the game...

Continue reading this post »

2011/2012 NBA Regular Season
	vs.
19-11		18-15
STAPLES Center
February 22nd, 2012, 7:30 PM
Prime Ticket, KFWB 980 AM
Probable starters:
Chris Paul	PG	Andre Miller
Randy Foye	SG	Arron Afflalo
Ryan Gomes Caron Butler	SF	Corey Brewer
Blake Griffin	PF	Kenneth Faried
DeAndre Jordan	C	Timofey Mozgov

The Back Story:

• January 29th, 2012 in Denver - Clippers 109 - Denver 105 - Box Score Recap
• February 2nd, 2012 in Los Angeles - Denver 112 - Clippers 91 - Box Score Recap

The Big Picture:

The Clippers have a lot of reasons to want to win this game. They want to end a two game losing streak. They want to avenge an earlier loss to the Nuggets, their worst home loss of the season. They want to maintain their Pacific Division lead over the Lakers, who are suddenly only a game back. And they want to head into the All Star break on a winning note -- they certainly don't want to head into the break on their longest losing streak of the season. What's strange is that although they've lost two straight, it's not like the team has played badly. They've played well enough to win the last two games, but gave the game away against San Antonio, and then failed to execute down the stretch against Golden State. Hopefully the team can put together four solid quarters of basketball, and avoid major lapses, and put away a depleted and struggling Nuggets team.

Continue reading this post »

As I try to do before most games, I sent some email questions over to Nate Timmons from the SBNation Denver Nuggets blog Denver Stiffs. Sadly, this one ended up being a one-sided Q&A, as Nate was able to answer my questions, but we ran out of time for him to ask questions of me. I definitely want to thank Nate for taking the time, even though I stiffed him, as it were, on the reciprocation. I owe you one buddy. Next time we're in Vegas together, I'll buy you a drink.

Enjoy, after the jump.

Continue reading this post »