Los Angeles Clippers VS Denver Nuggets
Where: Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA
When: Friday, October 31st, 2008 @ 7:30 PM (PST)
TV: FSNPT
Radio: 710 ESPN
Clippers Starting 5
PG: Baron Davis
SG: Cuttino Mobley
SF: Al Thornton
PF: Tim Thomas
C: Chris Kaman
The Reserves
PG: Jason Hart
SG: Eric Gordon
SF: Ricky Davis
PF: Paul Davis
C: Brian Skinner
Nuggets Starting 5
Carter - Iverson - Kleiza - Martin - Nene
Reserves
Smith - Jones - Balkman - Howard - Andersen
Injury Report:
Los Angeles Clippers - Marcus Camby (right heel) is out.
Denver Nuggets - Nene (sprained finger) is probable.
Chucky Atkins (right knee), Sonny Weems (left groin strain), Steven Hunter (right knee inflammation) & Carmelo Anthony (DUI Supsension) are out.
The Clippers look to rebound from their opening night loss on Wednesday night. Baron Davis called for an immediate team meeting following the loss where they put it all on the table. The questions ranged from what is our purpose? Who do we want to be as a team? What kind of direction do we want to go toward? Baron was certainly fired up after the disappointing return back home on a large national stage. Tonight, he gets one more chance to make it right. 2nd year player, Al Thornton, went home and watched the game a few more times to find out what exactly went wrong. The next day Dunleavy made the team watch a lot of footage from their first game before leading them off into a spirited practice. They may not have formed their identity yet, and they may not know who each other is yet, but one thing that they do know is that they all have the same goal; to win.
The Clippers will host the Denver Nuggets who are without their franchise player, Carmelo Anthony, who is serving the 2nd game of his 2-game suspension. Marcus Camby had hopes of returning to play his former team, but will likely not play until Monday as he continues to heal from his heel injury. It's time to get serious, the first game of the season was an eye opener. The team knows that the first game performance won't get it done. They will have the opportunity to be able to exploit the loss of Carmelo, but will still have their hands full with the likes of Allen Iverson, JR Smith and co. We need to rebound the ball (Andersen dominated the boards and rejected a lot of our shots in preseason), step up on defense, and make smarter decisions with the ball.
Since it is Halloween and I don't think there's too many pictures on the internet with these guys wearing costumes, I decided to switch it up and throw some pop culture references in with the players names/nicknames.
Baron Davis: That's a clip of the video "Cars with the Boom" by L'Trimm. That's Lady Tigra and Bunny D and they like the Boom.
Cuttino Mobley: Snagglepuss, one of many famous cartoon cats/felines.
Al Thornton: A clip of Paul Simon with the help of a lip-synching Chevy Chase in Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al"
Tim Thomas: That's Timmy from South Park.
Chris Kaman: Captain Caveman from the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Jason Hart: I read that the PA announcer made a mistake accidentally said Corey Hart before he corrected himself. We'll have to find out if Jason also wears his sunglasses as night.
Eric Gordon: Jelani McCoy got the team to start calling Gordon "The Hobbit" during training camp/preseason. Although McCoy is gone, the nickname has stuck in the locker room. Gordon is not a fan of the name.
Ricky Davis: That's Slick Rick, Ricky D, Rick the Ruler. Enough said.
Paul Davis: At first I was going to go with P. Diddy, but saw this guy with the same name. He was a country and soul singer with a couple top 10 hits throughout his career
Brian Skinner: Practically everybody has seen the Simpsons at some point, so this was an obvious choice, although I could have went with the guy from the Ying Yang Twins since they have the same taste in facial hair.
With all that said, Let's Go Clippers!
*Team Logos at the top of page were created by RealGM poster Rare
, so I'm hoping he bounces back too. I'm anxious to see how we respond to the loss, and the Baron Davis chew out session.