Clippers Beat Nuggets, On Pace to Go Undefeated

Justin Russo is coming through with the full recap briefly, but here's some quick bullets to tide you over till then.

— The Clippers almost gave up another 20-point lead down the stretch, but bailed themselves out thanks to shots by Austin Rivers, C.J. Wilcox, and Josh Smith.

— The starting unit looks phenomenal as always. Blake Griffin's taken his passing to another level, if that's even possible. Chris Paul and J.J. Redick look great as usual. Paul Pierce started the game tonight, but Wes Johnson came in within a few minutes. Wes looked good when he stuck to his role, not as much otherwise.

— DeAndre Jordan came out like this was a regular season game. He looks absolutely fantastic on both ends of the court, and I'm going on record now and saying he's making an All-Star game this season, as well as winning Defensive Player of the Year.

— That crazy new bench? Uhh... mixed results. There was quite a bit of chucking (Josh and Lance Stephenson were the primary culprits in that regard). There's a lot of room for improvement. When they played defense and got out in transition, they were pretty decent.

— Pablo Prigioni needs to play, he's fantastic. Luc Mbah a Moute made a good case for himself too, before leaving early after losing a tooth in a collision with Joffrey Lauvergne.

— There's some stuff to like, some stuff to dislike. But remember it's the first game of preseason, the Clippers haven't done much in the way of installing halfcourt plays, and it's just preseason.

— Welcome back, NBA.