2011/2012 NBA Regular Season
	vs.
15-8		18-8
Wells Fargo Center
February 10th, 2012, 4:00 PM
FS West, KFWB 980 AM
Probable starters:
Chris Paul	PG	Jrue Holiday
Randy Foye	SG	Jodie Meeks
Caron Butler	SF	Andre Iguodala
Blake Griffin	PF	Elton Brand
DeAndre Jordan	C	Nikola Vucevic

The Back Story:

First meeting of the season. The Sixers dominated the Clippers twice last season.

• December 15th, 2010 in Philadelphia - Philadelphia 105, Clippers 91 - Recap Box Score
• December 15th, 2010 in Philadelphia - Philadelphia 104, Clippers 94 - Recap Box Score

The Big Picture:

The Clippers suffered their worst defeat of the season on Wednesday night in Cleveland. Sure, losses at San Antonio and Utah and at home against the Nuggets were by a wider margin, but they were also to good teams. Cleveland is a non-playoff team in the East, and were playing without their leading scorer not to mention two other key members of their team. It was the first game the Clippers played without Chauncey Billups after learning that he was lost for the season with a torn Achilles tendon, so that may have contributed to the poor performance -- but they need to get over that. If it was on their minds in Cleveland, so be it, but the season's too short to allow that injury to affect their performance for long. Philadelphia is a much tougher opponent than Cleveland, and a team that shut down Blake Griffin in two games last season. The Clippers haven't lost back to back games since games 2 and 3 of the season -- they've been coming back strong after losses for a while now. I expect them to be focused and sharp in this one. I don't think Chris Paul will allow them to be anything less. But will it be enough against a very deep Sixers team?

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I might just leave early to watch the entire game...Early starts - another reason to hate Grammy Trips!

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The All Star Reserves are going to be announced in about an hour, so I guess this is my last chance to get on record with a final prediction. I've touched on the subject a couple of times this year, but what is the final verdict?

Given the mindset of the coaches who pick the reserves, the first place I look in order to research the most likely reserve choices isn't the scoring leaders, nor is it the PER leaders -- it's the NBA standings. Because the coaches who pick the reserves have always shown a preference first and foremost to reward players on winning teams.

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I read Steve's game recap early this morning titled "No Excuses", his later post on the loss of Chauncey Billups, and Andrew Sharp's feature about "Why the Clips Just Got Lucky". Now, these are two writers I really enjoy and generally agree with, but I am baffled by these assertions that the Clippers didn't lose much or might have enough ancillary pieces to fill the void left by the season-ending injury to Chauncey Billups. I'm doubly baffled by the notion that the Clippers didn't have an excuse in their loss to Cleveland last night or that the Cavaliers (temporary) loss of Kyrie Irving compares at all to the Clipper's loss of Chauncey Billups. Frankly, I would have been shocked if the Clippers won last night, especially in a close game with the score tied in the last few minutes. To my mind, the guy the Clippers needed more than anyone in that game not named Chris Paul was Chauncey Billups... even if he wasn't on the floor, even if he didn't take a shot.

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Short and quick CD today...Bad loss yesterday!...let's hope BG gets the best of EB...

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Andrew Sharp of SBNation has an interesting take on the Chauncey Billups injury. Sharp feels like the injury may help the Clippers in a way, in that Chauncey was continuing to take shots as if he were a superstar, while making them at a decidedly sub-superstar level. While I wouldn't come out and say it quite as bluntly, there is definitely some truth to this idea.

Guard is the one position in which the Clippers are deep. Really deep. When Eric Bledsoe is fully healthy again, he'll need some minutes, and with Chris Paul and Mo Williams among the most productive guards in the entire league, there weren't a lot of minutes beyond a healthy Chauncey. Obviously, an injury to Paul would free up minutes as well but would be devastating to the Clippers. The simple fact is that Billups has been a terrific part of the first third of the season, but there's not much he was doing that is irreplaceable.

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So far this season, the Los Angeles Clippers have had an available excuse for almost every loss. Not that they've made excuses mind you, but Clipper apologists like myself would willingly make excuses for them. Losses to San Antonio and Chicago in games 2 and 3 came against good teams before the newly formed Clippers had had a chance to jell. Two losses came while Chris Paul was out of the lineup with a strained hamstring, and a third came in his first game back in which he shot 2 for 8. The most recent loss at home against Denver was 'schedule' loss, as the Clippers slogged through their fourth game in five nights.

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Use this thread for comments during the second half of Clips-Cavs.