Los Angeles Clippers (1) @ Houston Rockets (0)

[mttwlsn16]

Round 2 Game 2: Wednesday, May 6 at 6:30 west, 9:30 east on TNT

Clippers Starting 5


Chris Paul (22.7/4.6/7.9)


JJ Redick (14.1/2.3/1.4)


Matt Barnes (9.1/5.0/1.1)


Blake Griffin (24.4/13.3/8.1)


DeAndre Jordan (12.3/13.3/1.1)

Clippers Bench
Jamal Crawford
Glen Davis
Jordan Hamilton
Spencer Hawes
Lester Hudson
Dahntay Jones
Austin Rivers
Hedo Turkoglu
Ekpe Udoh
CJ Wilcox

Rockets Starting 5


Jason Terry (8.2/1.7/2.0)


James Harden (27.0/4.0/8.5)


Trevor Ariza (9.7/6.3/3.2)


Terrence Jones (11.3/5.8/1.3)


Dwight Howard (17.5/13.2/1.2)

Rockets Bench
Patrick Beverly (injured)
Corey Brewer
Clint Capela
Joey Dorsey
Nick Johnson
KJ McDaniels
Donatas Motiejunas (injured)
Kostas Papanikolaou
Pablo Prigioni
Josh Smith


Ayyyy let's go up 2-0!!!!!

[Neddy]

hell I can see us taking this one too. and good work, matt! we just may go 11 straight with you making all the game threads.

[mttwlsn16]

hell I can see us taking this one too. and good work, matt! we just may go 11 straight with you making all the game threads.

That's the plan. Every time I make a thread, the game is followed by a POTG thread. I rule!

[mkwest]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/LAClippers/status/595731995658821632[/tweet]

[Dynamix]

Thought the Rockets would come out crazy motivated in Game 1, was not expecting them to implode like they did in the second half. No way they have another similar performance, but we weren't very sharp either for most of that game.
I hope we rest CP and take our chances. Going up 2-0 would be amazing, but it's not worth jeopardizing the rest of the playoffs.

Whatever happens tonight, let's just stay focused and take care of business on our homecourt. I don't want a repeat of the OKC series last season. I gave the team a pass for the two painful home losses against the Spurs, but we really need to do better in front of our own crowd. With only 3 games in LA, there is almost no room for error.

[Neddy]

Thought the Rockets would come out crazy motivated in Game 1, was not expecting them to implode like they did in the second half. No way they have another similar performance, but we weren't very sharp either for most of that game.
I hope we rest CP and take our chances. Going up 2-0 would be amazing, but it's not worth jeopardizing the rest of the playoffs.

Whatever happens tonight, let's just stay focused and take care of business on our homecourt. I don't want a repeat of the OKC series last season. I gave the team a pass for the two painful home losses against the Spurs, but we really need to do better in front of our own crowd. With only 3 games in LA, there is almost no room for error.

call me crazy, but I think we can go 2-0 without Paul, and even win the series in 6 games without paul playing at all.

not because CP isn't important, because he is.

not because the Rockets suck, because they obviously don't.

but because how we match up against them.

their biggest strength are, SG and C. DJ can match Howard in terms of power and size, and we all know Harden's defense isn't at the level of his offense. their defensive strength is at SF and was at PG, but Beverly is hurt, and Ariza and Brewer can guard Barnes and Hedo all they want, it won't make a great impact whatsoever. they have a deep bench, but despite Harden's MVP runner up status, Griffin is the best player on the court in this series that is lacking CP so far, which means we have the top two players of this series.

Memphis is about to take the game 2, and what a boost it will be for us to knock out the Rockets with CP on the bench, and still keep our HCA going into the western championships.

[Dynamix]

Feels just wrong/greedy to hope for 2-0 with CP sitting. If it does happen, then absolutely sit him again. I do think he'll need at least a game before the conference finals to get into rhythm.

But I really doubt Houston will let us run away with this. Game 1 might have been a wake up call.

[nickhx2]

i don't think you're crazy. in the general boards i said 4-0 sweep for the clippers as kind of a troll, but in reality watching the game i realized they literally have no answer for blake. and it's not just blake griffin, it's blake griffin 3.0. i don't think they have what it takes to win structurally and they're definitely in a different league mentally after what the team went through with the spurs.

i think we might drop a game, two at most. but a sweep seems pretty fair.

[LACtdom]

hell I can see us taking this one too. and good work, matt! we just may go 11 straight with you making all the game threads.

That's the plan. Every time I make a thread, the game is followed by a POTG thread. I rule!

Mate, I don't see why you aren't one of the voting options!

[mttwlsn16]

hell I can see us taking this one too. and good work, matt! we just may go 11 straight with you making all the game threads.

That's the plan. Every time I make a thread, the game is followed by a POTG thread. I rule!

Mate, I don't see why you aren't one of the voting options!

Tell this to MK, #2, and OG

[truth18]

hell I can see us taking this one too. and good work, matt! we just may go 11 straight with you making all the game threads.

That's the plan. Every time I make a thread, the game is followed by a POTG thread. I rule!

Mate, I don't see why you aren't one of the voting options!

Add me too while you're at it. Been bringing that shamrock luck to you guys every game

On the real though, Chris being out of this game is pretty big. Hopefully Blake can own them again.

Hoping for the win for you guys but a loss wouldn't suprise me. They might get some home cooking too. I still think this will be a longer series (that you guys will win).

Pumped for the game!

[ChargerMan]

Even without CP3 I feel we have a good shot to beat Houston, they have no real PG without Beverly.

[kylem4711]

it would be so crazy if we won. Everyone is going to have to play so great.

Houston is going to be really motivated too. Can't wait for this game

[nickhx2]

meh, if they win they win.

but like i've been saying they have no way to contain blake. and if they try to throw doubles at him and stuff it's gonna get DJ/barnes/JJ so free we'll think it's a regular season game.

houston can't gameplan him without getting boned and doc will outcoach mchale. i don't think anyone should be surprised if we start off 2-0.

[Quake Griffin]

glad Paul isn't playing….or likely will sit out.

Healthy Paul > winning this game.

[nickhx2]

yup.

the more i hear about how cp3 is feeling, the more i think doc was just doing some coach speak. i doubt he was ever seriously considering letting cp3 play in game two.

unfortunately my guess is it'll be at least game 4ish before cp3 is able to move without pain, given how he was limping around a couple days ago in houston. and a pain-free strain does NOT mean the worries are over either. but everyone seems to have faith in our training staff so if he ends up playing sooner rather than later i'm not gonna be terribly concerned.

[Ranma]

[DLaren]

CP3 is done, hamstrings don't heal in a week or two, especially when you're 30.

The team needs to get over it and go get Game-2; Chris won't be there to rescue us from the Rockets, Blake Griffin is going to have to drag this team across the finish-line by himself.

[Quake Griffin]

Any word on what jerseys we're wearing?

If we're not wearing our road blues, we're doomed.

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DanWoikeSports/status/596102246196121600[/tweet]