The Los Angeles Clippers have the best record in the NBA right now, winning eight of their nine games. (Photo : Getty Images/Juan Ocampo)
The Los Angeles Clippers have the best record in the NBA right now with a franchise-best start of eight wins in nine games and they are not just winning, the Clippers have been finishing games in blowout fashion.
Los Angeles is winning by a point differential of 15.2 games, the best in the NBA. But it is not just about the Clippers' offense that should be credited for their series of blowout wins but also their defense, the best in the league as well. Los Angeles is allowing only 90.4 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA Stats.
The Clippers have not only dominated their home games, going four-for-five at the Staples Arena, but also showed brilliance in their road games. The Clippers manhandled fellow Western Conference contenders San Antonio Spurs by 24 points and the Portland Trailblazers by 31 at their own home courts in the past week.
Also, the Clippers are ranked in the top 15 in points (105.7), rebounds (46.3), steals (10.0) and field goal percentage (44.6 percent). The Clippers have also been careful with the ball, committing only 11.8 turnovers per game, the fourth-best in the NBA.
For a team that has won 50 and more games in the past four years and which has barged in the postseason for four straight years on a loaded Western Conference, their core players are relatively young. Chris Paul, the player who has been with the Clippers the longest, is only 31 and the other two that make the Clippers' Big Three, Blake Griffin and Deandre Jordan, are only 27 and 28, respectively.
But for "Lob City," as fans and NBA enthusiasts alike fondly call the Clippers, it is still the daunting task of entering the conference finals for the first time in franchise history they have not done. Since the 1970 season, the year the Clippers first played in the NBA, the team has only reached the Western Conference semifinals. Last year, a young Trailblazers squad ousted them out of the first round in six games.
With Griffin becoming a free agent next summer, the Clippers need to maximize their best start and hope to translate it in the playoffs.
