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The Clippers lead over the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference is down to two games. It's two and half over the Golden State Warriors and three over the Denver Nuggets. And in the loss column the margins are even thinner (in fact they are tied with the Grizzlies in the loss column). All of which means that while the Clippers have been no worse than third for a couple of months and looked solidly in that top group while they were healthy, they are in serious jeopardy of dropping to fourth, fifth or even sixth in the conference if Chris Paul and/or Blake Griffin continue to miss games. The Grizzlies, Warriors and Nuggets are all in action tonight.
Atlanta at Indiana, 4:00 PM
LA Lakers at Brooklyn, 4:30 PM, NBA-TV, Time Warner Sports
Phoenix at Memphis, 5:00 PM
Golden State at Houston, 5:00 PM
Milwaukee at Denver, 6:00 PM
The Gay-less (as opposed to less Gay) Grizzlies host the Suns in Memphis which shouldn't be much of a challenge for them. The Warriors are on the road in Houston in what figures to be a shootout between two teams that like to shoot the ball. The Warriors are close to full strength at this point with Andrew Bogut in the starting lineup and rounding into shape. If things fit together for that team, watch out. Denver faces a pretty good Milwaukee team, but the Nuggets are 20-3 at home, so it's probably to much to ask the Bucks to come up with a win.
The Lakers are playing also, and that's the game you'll get if you're in L.A. or if you're watching NBA-TV rather than League Pass. The Lakers face the Nets in Brooklyn, where L.A. will be without the injured Dwight Howard and the suspended Metta World Peace. By the way, that Metta suspension seemed like a reputation thing more than anything else. I didn't see anything suspension worthy in that play for any player other than the former Ron-Ron.