FULLY LOADED CLIPS

Tonight the Clippers play the 2nd game of the annual 6 game Grammy awards road trip. Orlando is a talented team, with many inconsistencies and a fractured locker room. Dwight Howard is far and away the best center in the league and he could explode for a 20 and 20 night at any time. Yet, I’m not thinking about the Magic. I’m not thinking about Dwight Howard. I’m not even thinking about the Washington Massacre the other night (Clips 107 Wiz 81). I’m thinking about the playoffs. My best friend, a Lakers fan, used to torture me year after year talking about potential playoff match ups, and potential seeding results, while I just shook my head and wondered if anyone talented was entering the draft. That changed yesterday when I picked up the Sunday Times and scoured the back sports page for the current standings. My complete attitude has changed and I hope that’s what’s happened to the current Clippers roster. The arrival of Kenyon Martin may be nothing more than addition by addition, and the blowout in Washington is an expected evisceration of a bad team. But, good teams sign solid free agents, my savvy trades, and win the game they are supposed to win. My Laker fan associates have always talked about needing to go 4-2 on the road or steal one to go 5-1 while Clippers brethren have prayed to go 3-3 or even just avoided a disastrous 0-6. Here’s a scary thought, I’m starting to trust the Clippers (keep in mind it’s still the regular season; I reserve the right to panic in May).

So, the Clippers meet up with their new teammate K-Mart in Orlando to see if they can get a little bit of a road winning streak going, and ultimately it doesn’t much matter. The Clippers’ road trip has little to do with who they are now, and much more to do with where they are going. Games at Cleveland and Charlotte should keep the Clippers out of trouble, while giving them a precious couple of games to develop chemistry with their newly acquired teammate. 

All Clippers fans know about losing. Losing IS a virus. Losing breeds losing. Losing spreads like while fires and snowballs its way through the schedule until the team is left punch drunk wondering what happened. This year we’re learning about winning. Winning might be a virus. Winning breeds confidence. Confidence breeds more winning. The most impressive part of the “changing of the culture” Clippers could be the change not from the lottery to the playoffs, but from “aww shucks, nice story Clips” to real contenders. Mike Smith said on “Clippers Live” on Saturday, that this team is going to terrify whomever they get matched up with on the playoffs. He’s absolutely right, but not because they Clippers could get hot and test a good team. The Clippers are hot and they are the good team. I promise you, my dear readers, if you asked LeBron if he wanted to match up against CP3, Chauncey, Blake, K-Mart, Mo Williams, and Caron Butler in the Finals, he’d say HELL NO. The only scarlet letter left to shed from this current roster is the shit smell that comes from the Clippers past. But good news friends, the history books don’t play the games, CP3 and Blake do.