Let’s breakdown the Clippers schedule for the upcoming season, starting with the first ten games.
The First Ten Games:
- @LAL, vs Phoenix, @Utah, vs Dallas, vs Minnesota, @Golden State, vs Memphis, vs New Orleans, vs Oklahoma City, vs Toronto
For a team that struggles with sustaining effort and confidence, building positive momentum from the get go is absolutely crucial. Starting the season off 1-9 like the Clippers did last year would lead many members of the team to develop a Shane Falco-esque “quicksand” mentality that would be hard to bounce back from. All the “it’s the Clippers, we’re cursed” hoopla needs to be put away right off the bat, and starting the season off well would go a long ways to accomplishing that.
In that regard, the team got very lucky with their draw in the first ten games. Getting to play 8 of the first 10 at Staples is a nice break, but getting 5 teams that were well below .500 last year to start the season is a great one. Away games against the Lakers and Utah are the toughies, but every other game on the slate is winnable. I can’t overstate the importance of a good start over this ten game stretch; it could very well set the tone for the entire year.
The Toughest Road Trip:
- Starting January 21st: @Denver, @Washington, @Boston, @New Jersey, @Minnesota, @Cleveland, @Chicago, @Atlanta
That’s 8 straight road games in 13 days, which is the longest stretch away from home for the season. To make matters worse, 5 of the 8 games are against playoff teams last year. Late January is right in the heart of the middle of the season, and will pose a formidable test for the Clippers. It will be interesting to see how the young guys, Griffin in particular, handle such a lengthy road trip in the middle of a long season. It’s something they don’t get in high school, AAU, or college ball, and around this time of year the rookie wall becomes very real.
The Easiest Home Stand
- Starting February 17th, vs Atlanta, vs Sacramento, vs Charlotte, vs Detroit
The 4 game home stand starts off against Atlanta, who was horrible on the road last season, going 16-25 on the road, compared to 31-10 at home. Sacramento was the only team worse than the Clippers in terms of overall record last year, and Detroit appears to be in a rebuilding stage. Charlotte should be improved under Larry Brown, but they too were bad away from home, going 12-29 on the road last year. The Clippers have a good shot at sweeping this home stand.
The Toughest Month
- January- 9 Road Games vs 6 Home Games
The Clippers get the Lakers twice and the Cavs twice, and play Boston, Portland, Miami, New Orleans, Chicago and Denver once. That leaves only one game against a non-playoff team at home in January; a tilt on the 18th against New Jersey. That totals up to 14 of 15 games either on the road or against a playoff team. Yikes.
The Easiest Month
- November – 8 home games vs 6 away games
The home/away splits are pretty even, but the level of competition in the month of November looks to be light. Out of the 14 total games in November, only 4 are against playoff teams from last year. The former playoff teams don’t look to be too tough either; The Clippers draw New Orleans twice and Detroit once. The only real formidable game is against Denver, but that contest will be in the Staples Center. It’s also promising that the Clippers play only one set of back to back road games in the entire month. If the team struggles through November, the season is in trouble.
Interesting Tidbits:
- The Clippers play on National Television 8 times over the course of the year, which is a surprising amount for the second worst team in the league last year.
- Out of the last 7 games of the season, 5 are at home and one is away against Sacramento. Time will only tell if these games matter.
- The Clippers play January 24th against Washington at 10am pacific time. The player most likely to hit the snooze button on his alarm? Ricky Davis, by a long shot.
- If you’re not already worn out by morning festivities or too much eggnog, you’ll be able to catch the Clippers play on Christmas Day at 5pm.
- The Clippers play 22 back to back games, a relatively high amount.
If there is any interest, I think it would be really neat to pick out a game for all of us to meet up at. We can drink some overpriced beer, take in a game, and talk Clippers basketball. Any suggestions or ideas are always welcome in the comments section.
21 Responses
the opening game is in LA the Miami thing is a scheduling SNAFU it happened to us last year too. So we have 8 games in the first part of the season will be at Staples.
D.J. Foster Reply:
August 4th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Just saw they changed that and updated the post accordingly-thanks for the heads up.
Posted on August 4th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Don’t worry about that long January road trip and how it will affect our Most Valuable Rookie; he’s a Clipper now, which means he is bound to go down with an injury by the 3rd week of December. Call it the Clipper Jinx, the Kaman Factor, whatever; history has not been kind to Clipper fans.
Posted on August 4th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Didn’t anyone have anything better to do that day?
Posted on August 4th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
The only valuables I got at last year’s season opener ; An espn towel for sinking in 2 jumpshots outside of staples, A metro pc picture w/ GF , some cheap video footage of BD sayn this year will different and a day full of shit talking by co-workers the next day because the Lakers murdered the Clippers…..
Im on the phone right now trying to get tix for this year’s season opener..Doh!
Posted on August 4th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Hey, lets save the money on tickets and all meet at my place? I’ve got a sweet remodeled Spanish Villa in the valley and we can use the cash we save on tickets to buy beer and Oxycontin. OK, make it beer and chronic. I already have one monkey on my back that I can’t shake…thanks for nothing Donald T. If your ‘in’ just send your info to P.O. Box “YougottabecrazyifI’mlettin’youfoolsanywherenearmycrib”.
laknights Reply:
August 4th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
LOL 57, my doctor just offered me Oxy (post surgery, legit), but I declined. I may need heavy drugs if I have to sit through ANOTHER bad season.
laknights Reply:
August 4th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
PS to the Donald: If you sign AI, I’m calling my surgeon about those Oxys, I’ll need something to watch him crash and burn.
Posted on August 4th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
AI was not a factor in the first half of last season’s home game against the Clippers. Eric G had a strong game , LA was leading at some point. Iverson came to life in the second half and willed his team to a win.
Posted on August 4th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
i’d be down for the meet up.
seems like i’ll be living in the area this whole season so…
looking foward to some games!
Posted on August 4th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
actually its 13 “national” games because of NBATV although theres not nearly as many people have NBATV compared to espn or tnt.
Posted on August 4th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
I’m down for meeting up at a game. We could possibly get group discount tickets, no? Also, we could meet up across the street at either the ESPN Zone or The Yard House before the game.
I’m in, sounds like fun!
Posted on August 4th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
I’d be down to in on group discount tickets for a game or two, although I wouldn’t want to get any seats further than the 200 section.
neiljphx Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
yes. not into the 300′s.
Posted on August 4th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Just an FYI, the 10am Pacific Time game against the Wizards is on January 24th, not Christmas Eve.
Posted on August 4th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Clinton was able to free the two asians from north Korea. He is a true player/ Pimp . Some one contact him to come free the Clippers from Either Dunleavy or Mr.Tokovitz.
Posted on August 4th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Totally up for that talk.
I’m a season ticket holder. Let’s meet up at a game.
Posted on August 5th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Vince Thomas wrote a very positive article about the Clippers and Wizards. Check it out: http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/vince_thomas/08/05/wizclips/index.html
Asin Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Great write-up, thanks for the link, Derrick.
Posted on August 5th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Hope blake sees that faker banner go up and gets us a couple in the future. Not to mention a win that night
GO CLIPS!!
Posted on August 6th, 2009 at 11:37 am
I’m all in for the meet.
Let us know.
Posted on August 6th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
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