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Los Angeles Clippers vs. Houston Rockets – Game 7 (Series tied 3-3)
Game Time, TV: Sunday, May 17th – 3:30 PM ET on ABC
Projected Starting Lineups:
Los Angeles Clippers: PG: Chris Paul, SG: JJ Redick, SF: Matt Barnes, PF: Blake Griffin, C: DeAndre Jordan
Houston Rockets: PG: Jason Terry, SG: James Harden, SF: Trevor Ariza, PF: Terrence Jones, C: Dwight Howard
In a strange turn of events, the Houston Rockets are now poised to potentially upset the Los Angeles Clippers in front of their home crowd Sunday afternoon in what is sure to be an epic Game 7.
The Clippers were up in this series 3-1, and looked as though they would close the series out in five games after handing out a beat-down in Game 4 where the Rockets appeared to self-combust. But the Clippers have not played lately, and the Rockets have looked like the more confident and seasoned team in the last two games.
As always, the load of the Clippers’ offense will fall on Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, but they will need role players like JJ Redick and Matt Barnes to contribute with their perimeter shooting, something the Rockets’ spark-plugs have done very well recently against them. The Rockets on the other hand still run a very simplistic offense geared on James Harden’s ability to be a playmaker in terms of creating his own shot and finding his teammates off of penetration. Dwight Howard will need to have another strong game if the Rockets want to advance.
The key matchup for this game will be Harden vs. Redick. Harden will put up a ton of points with Redick playing excellent defense, but Redick also needs to make Harden work on defense by making his open shots from the outside. Redick is the key to the Clippers advancing, very much like he was in their Game 7 win over the San Antonio Spurs a little over two weeks ago.
This is a tough call, but I am going with the Clippers. They fell asleep a little during the last couple of games but if they are going to a win championship this year, it starts with winning a Game 7 on the road, and this will happen tonight.
Prediction: Clippers 111, Rockets 106
Dan Schultz is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @dschultz89. “Like” him on Facebook and add him on Google.
