Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers Show Full Potential vs. Houston Rockets

By Martin Mihaly
Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Clippers are one of the best teams in the NBA‘s Western Conference. On Wednesday night, they hosted the Houston Rockets, also one of the best teams in the West. In what was a close game between two evenly matched teams, the Clippers prevailed, 101-93, as everyone contributed.

Blake Griffin continues to play the best basketball of his young career. Chris Paul is still the best point guard in the NBA, and DeAndre Jordan seems to be getting better by the day. Now the Clippers could get even better once Glen Davis gets acclimated with his new teammates.

If J.J. Redick can come back from his injury and play like he was before he went down, add him with Darren Collison, Jamal Crawford, Matt Barnes and Jared Dudley. Crawford did suffer a calf injury against the Rockets.

Doc Rivers now could have one of the deepest rosters in the NBA. If the Clippers can get the contributions that they did Wednesday night on a consistent basis, this will be a very difficult team to beat when they have everyone healthy.

Facing a potential playoff foe, the Clippers’ defense stepped up and shut down the Rockets’ top perimeter players in James Harden and Chandler Parsons. Neither player could get much of anything going offensively. Dwight Howard was the Rockets’ best player on the night, both offensively and defensively.

The two teams now have nearly identical records with the Rockets at 39-19 and the Clippers at 40-20. Each team is also just four games back of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the top seed in the Western Conference.

Expect these two opponents to remain close in the standings all the way until the last day of the regular season.

Martin Mihaly is a Houston Rockets writer for www.RantSports.com.  Follow him on Twitter @MartinMihaly, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

Share On FacebookShare StumbleUpon

You May Also Like