NBA Matchup: Los Angeles Clippers @ Boston Celtics

Los Angeles Clippers at Boston Celtics Weds. March 9, 2011 7:30 p.m. EST

The NBA regular season is in its final stretch as teams around the league have 15 to 20 games left before heading into the postseason or watching the playoffs from home. The Los Angeles Clippers are one of the teams in the West that will be watching the postseason from the comfort of their home as they were unable to compete with the best of the best in the Western Conference this season despite the emergence of the league’s brightest young superstar Blake Griffin.

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Even with Blake Griffin quickly turning into arguably one of the best power forward in this game this season and Eric Gordon showing that he can be one of the league’s best scorers, the Clippers just haven’t been able to consistently play well and as a result have failed to compete with the two-time defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in the Pacific division.

The Clippers will be on the outside looking in on the playoffs this season, but they will have a chance to highlight their season on Wednesday night when they travel to the TD Garden in Boston to take on the number one overall seeded Celtics.

In their last meeting back on Feb. 27, the Clippers gave the Celtics a run for their money will defending their home floor in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, despite getting a big night from backup point guard Randy Foye (32 points), the Clippers ultimately fell to the Celtics 99-92. This wasn’t much of a surprise as the Boston Celtics are arguably the best team in the league, but seeing a team like the Clippers being able to compete with the Celtics was a bit surprising.

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This time around the Clippers will head to Boston to take on the defending Eastern Conference champions in what will almost certainly be a blowout. Blake Griffin may be playing at an extremely high level averaging about 22.7 points per game and 12.5 re

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bounds per game, but with leading scorer Eric Gordon out for the next seven to 10 games, the Clippers will struggle to put points on the board against arguably one of the best defenses in the league.

The one thing to watch in this matchup will be Blake Griffin against the Boston Celtics’ bigs in the paint. With the Boston Celtics recently trading arguably their best defensive big man in Kendrick Perkins to the Oklahoma City Thunder, they have been vulnerable in the paint and Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro will look to take advantage of that fact.

Even though the Celtics might have some trouble containing Rookie of the Year candidate Blake Griffin in the paint, Boston will almost certainly come out on top in this one to win their sixth straight and get one step closer to clinching the number one overall seed in the Eastern Conference.