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Jordan Heimer joins D.J. Foster, Nick Flynt and Mark Shore live from press row at the Staples Center to break down Thursday night’s win over the Grizzlies and the gang compares Hollywood night life to Alabama’s.

Twitter: @ClipperBlogLive, @clipperheimer, @fosterdj, @ClipperBlogNick, @markshore12

Against the Lakers, the Clippers won the possession battle (offensive rebounding rate, turnover rate), but lost the war due to bad spot-up defense and a large number of fouls against post players.

Tonight? The Clippers got killed on the boards, turned the ball over too much, but dominated in terms of shooting from the field while keeping foul rates manageable. Chris Paul struggled from the field despite getting good looks off pick-and-roll switches, but drew fouls and came up with some clutch defensive plays late. Mo Williams was big throughout, but especially around the early part of the 4th quarter. Mo has been better as a pick-and-roll ball handler (according to Synergy Sports Technology) than Chris Paul so far this season, and you can see why. He’s deadly when teams go under the pick, and the threat of Blake getting free for a drive in a trap situation means the Grizzlies were giving him that shot.

Caron Butler played well offensively (I feel like he keeps doing all of his damage in the 1st half, but that’ll work), and although he struggled at some points against Rudy Gay, the team as a whole did a good job forcing Gay into turnovers (6 overall, including a big one late). Marc Gasol had a really good game in terms of his own offense, although I didn’t see DJ doing a horrible job (he got some work in against Solomon Jones, as well) , but the team especially did a bad job contesting cuts from Gay and Tony Allen when the Grizzlies pulled DJ out of the paint and used Gasol as a distributor. Fortunately, as the Grizz went away from that, the Clippers defense improved enough to get the win.

I went longer on this than I meant to, but the Clippers did a good job eliminating turnovers in the 2nd half and cutting down on the amount of transition layups surrendered due to that. Couple that with some better offense down the stretch tonight for the Clippers, and you get a win against a decent Memphis team.

Join D.J. Foster, Nick Flynt, Jordan Heimer and Mark Shore as they discuss Grizzlies v. Clippers on ClipperBlog Live. To submit questions, use the Twitter hashtag #clipperbloglive or send a direct message to our Twitter account @ClipperBlogLive.

Joe Murphy/NBAE/Getty Images

Memphis Grizzlies at Los Angeles Clippers

7:30 p.m.

Fox Sports Prime Ticket

KFWB 980 AM

ClipperBlog’s Charlie Widdoes, Jovan Buha and Breene Murphy preview the matchup with the red-hot Grizzlies.

1. Who would you rather have for this Clippers team: Chauncey Billups or Tony Allen?

Charlie Widdoes, ClipperBlog: Tony Allen, and it’s not even close.  Chauncey was brought in to play off the ball and knock down shots, but is shooting only 33% from the floor with questionable shot selection and a declining 3-point stroke that once upon a time made up for his offensive weaknesses.  Oh yeah, and he’s even more of a defensive liability than he’s ever been (110 points allowed per possession), whereas Allen locks down the best of the best (98 defensive rating).

Jovan Buha, ClipperBlog: Besides Caron Butler, the Clippers have no length on the perimeter. More importantly, they lack a defensive stopper and are susceptible to scoring outbursts by elite scorers. You know the story. Allen fits both needs. While Billups has added leadership, experience and in-game decision-making to the roster, he’s not the best fit with Paul. Allen can’t shoot, but he’s an underrated offensive contributor. Plus, I’d love to ask him about his tweets.

Breene Murphy, ClipperBlog: Definitely Tony Allen. One of the biggest flaws of this Clipper team is that they don’t have a single player that can consistently lock down the opposing team’s best wing. Tony Allen is up there in that Andre Iguodala/LeBron James/Luol Deng category of elite wing defenders.

2. Over or Under: The Clippers turn the ball over 15 times against the Grizzlies.

Charlie Widdoes, ClipperBlog: I’ll take the under.  For all their other issues, I don’t see them coughing it up more than their season average of about 14 a game, especially if Chris Paul is able to play more minutes in his second game back. 

Jovan Buha, ClipperBlog: Over, but barely. The Grizzlies have the 11th best defense and lead the league in steals and opponent turnovers. Meanwhile, the Clippers turn the ball over the third-least amount of times per game and are second in opponent steals (how many steals their opponents get). Something’s got to give. I say the Grizzlies (force 18 TOs) and Clippers (average 14 TOs) met somewhere in the middle — 16.

Breene Murphy, ClipperBlog: Over. There’s not just Tony Allen, but Mike Conley to pester the Clippers into turning the ball over. And with the Clippers playing on the second night of a back to back, I’d guess they’d be slightly tired and given to sloppier play.

3. Fact or Fiction: The Clippers get a double dose of Gasol and lose to the Grizzlies tonight.

Charlie Widdoes, ClipperBlog: Fact.  Paul was unable or unwilling to put the type of pressure on the Lakers defense that the Clippers need from him, and if that’s the case again, the Clippers should struggle.  Considering it’s the second part of a back-to-back and hamstrings tend to linger, I’m leaning toward the Griz, who come in having won 7 of 8.

Jovan Buha, ClipperBlog: Fiction. Some may overreact to the Lakers’ loss, but the Clippers were ahead almost the entire game and were a couple possessions away from being 10-5. The Grizzlies have won seven of their last eight, but besides defeating the Bulls without Derrick Rose, they’ve yet to have an impressive victory in the streak. I expect Paul to bounce back from a lackluster performance and the Clippers to silence the noise from the growing doubters.

Breene Murphy, ClipperBlog: Fiction. If Blake were required to guard Gasol, I would say fact, but that’s not the case. Blake will probably see most of his minutes on Marreese Speights, who doesn’t exactly frighten me. Nor should Speights be an obstacle when Blake’s on offense. The bigger concern is whether Chris Paul plays as tentative as he did last night coming off a hamstring injury.
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Twitter: @charliewiddoes, @jovanbuha, @breenemurphy

According to the Clippers official website, Eric Bledsoe will join the Bakersfield Jam for a two-game rehab assignment. Bledsoe is in the final steps of recovering from a torn lateral meniscus suffered during the offseason.

Here’s more from the press release on Bledsoe’s recovery and the plan going forward:

“Eric has reached the point in his rehab where playing in a game setting is the final step in satisfying his return to play criteria,” stated Vice President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey. “If he performs as expected for Joe Resendez, our Assistant Trainer and Howard Eisley, our Player Development Assistant, who will both accompany him on his assignment for the Jam’s next two games, we anticipate him rejoining our team for our trip to Denver this Saturday.”