Baron Davis played awesome in the season opener against the Lakers, but only in the first half. BD was dishin', playing solid defense and running his new team's offense nicely. The problem was he couldn't compete with Kobe Bryant and company for the full 48 minutes.
When the Clippers were firing on all cylinders in the first quarter, they looked good, very good. However, the Lakers were just the better team as they were able to beat up the Clippers with their solid team defense and almost flawless offensive execution all night long. After the first half it was just no contest for the Western conference as they improve to 2-0 this season, the final score tells the story 117-79.
It was a tough break for the Clippers in Baron Davis' debut, they really couldn't have played a better basketball team right out of the gate, but at least BD and company have some good game tape to really break down what they need to improve on.
Like I said earlier, Davis played great in the first quarter, but once the Lakers defense starting playing their much improved defense the Clippers were at their mercy. BD finished the game with 11 points, 7 assists and 3 steals. Not terrible stats, but he definitely has to improve on his shooting after only hitting 4 out of 13 from the floor.
The one positive for the Clipps was the performance of small forward Al Thorton who scored a team high 16 points. Thorton looked pretty comfortable in the starting role and will benefit a lot from Baron Davis' pass first mentality. Rookie Eric Gordon also got in on the action, but went 0 for 4 from the field finishing with only 2 points from the line.
Although there are never many positives that come from a 38 point loss, the Clipps have potential to be a very good team do the road. Maybe not this season, but definitely in the near future.
NEXT MATCH UP: Denver Nuggets @ Los Angeles Clippers Halloween Night 7:30pm PST
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