Los Angeles Clippers VS Chicago Bulls
Where: The Griffin Observatory in Los Angeles, CA
When: Wednesday, January 2nd, 2011 @ 7:30 PM
TV:
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Radio: KFWB News Talk 980
Last meeting between the two teams on 12/18/10
Clippers win over Bulls 100-99 in Chicago
Game Thread
PG: #5 - Baron Davis SG: #4 - Randy Foye
SF: #15 - Ryan Gomes PF: #32 - Blake Griffin
C: #9 - DeAndre Jordan
Key Reserves
Eric Bledsoe - Al-Farouq Aminu - Brian Cook - Ike Diogu
PG: #1- Derrick Rose SG: #6 - Keith Bogans
SF: #9 - Luol Deng PF: #5 - Carlos Boozer
C: #40 - Kurt Thomas
Key Reserves
CJ Watson - Ashton Kutcher - Ronnie Brewer - Taj Gibson
Inactive List:
Eric Gordon (Sore Right Wrist) is day-to-day.
Chris Kaman (Bone Bruise/Sprained Left Ankle) and Craig Smith (Herniated Disc) are out.
Chicago Bulls
Taj Gibson (Right Ankle) is questionable.
Joakim Noah (Thumb Ligament) is out.
Team Leaders
Eric Gordon - 24.1ppg (8th)
Blake Griffin - 12.7rpg (4th)
Baron Davis - 6.8apg & 1.2spg
DeAndre Jordan - 1.7 bpg
Derrick Rose - 24.4ppg (7th) & 8.1apg (8th)
Joakim Noah - 11.7rpg (6th) Ronnie Brewer - 1.4spg Taj Gibson - 1.7bpgMeshing TogetherWhen it comes to winning, it’s tough to overstate the necessity of having a defensive anchor. A potent offense is great and all, but stopping your opponent from scoring is just as crucial. It’s vexing, then, that defensive standouts are largely underappreciated.
This is certainly the case with the Clippers, who have garnered plenty of national attention with Blake Griffin’s nightly thrills. Less known, though, is DeAndre Jordan’s defensive impact. But there’s a more interesting story to be told behind Jordan’s defensive prowess. How does one go about summarizing Jordan and Griffin’s coexistence as a frontcourt defensive tandem?
The short answer is that it’s not always a balanced effort; typically, Jordan shoulders more of the defensive load than Griffin. That’s no knock on Griffin’s defense, though, as his focus on offense and rebounding can account for his decreased influence on D, and it’s not a lack of effort. For a more in-depth analysis of this imbalance, let’s go to the numbers. Telling defensive statistics are few and far between, so the analysis is based largely on the per-possession defensive numbers accumulated by Synergy Sports.Jordan allows .797 points per possession, ranking him 30th among all defensive players with 200 or more defensive plays on the season, according to Synergy Sports Technology. More specifically, he is sublime defending spot-up shooters, allowing just .8 points per possession. The truly illuminating number, that is great evidence for his prolific post defense, is his .66 PPP on non-post-up shots around the basket. That’s fourth in the league among bigs with 40 such plays.
Danny Savitzky, Clippers.com
The very early stages of Blake Griffin (along with older brother, Taylor) training to become the dunking phenom that we know him as today. Click the image to see full-sized pic.
Both Blake Griffin and Eric Bledsoe have had their moments going through the customary rookie hazing, now they get to showcase their basketball talents in front of the world along with 16 other rookie and sophomore players at this year's NBA All-Star Weekend Rookie Challenge.
Congratulations to them both
Also, don't forget to vote for Baron Davis to make the Skills Competition.
