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Tonight's Sixers-Clippers game marks the first of a three game road trip out west. These are the last three road games the Sixers play before the NBA trade deadline on February 20th. Including tonight's contest, only 4 games and 11 days separate the Sixers from that highly anticipated date.
The Sixers are coming off a loss to the lesser Los Angeles team: the Lakers. I'm still not sure how they managed to lose that game. The Lakers are downright terrible and were missing half of their roster due to injuries. The Clippers don't share this same problem. In fact, Clippers star point guard is returning from a shoulder injury that caused him to miss 18 games over the course of five weeks. The Clips went 12-6 without CP3, so briefly losing him clearly wasn't the end of the world. Now, they will only be that much harder to beat now that he's back. That's good news for The Tank, especially considering that there's tough stretch of games against bad/mediocre teams on the horizon. Piling up the losses in these next two games will be essential heading into this murderous stretch:
@ Clippers (tonight)
@ Warriors (tomorrow)
@ Jazz
vs. Cavaliers
***NBA Trade Deadline***
vs. Mavericks
vs. Bucks
vs. Magic
vs. Wizards
@ Magic
The Clippers shouldn't have much trouble beating the Sixers on Sunday night. LAC owns the league's 7th best winning percentage and they have only lost 4 games at home all year. The Clips are also 25-6 in games against teams below .500. Meanwhile, the Sixers are 2-8 in their last 10 and losers of 5 straight games. Remember, the tank continues to be strong with me. In Sixers games that I've recapped, the team is 0-3 (and 0-4 in games where I posted the immediate reaction thread). I'm confident in a Sixers loss tonight.
[Update by Brandon Lee Gowton, 02/09/14 2:14 PM EST] - Well, look at this!
Arnett Moultrie will rejoin the #Sixers and play tonight against the #Clippers.
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) February 9, 2014
Media Musings
Liberty Ballers bloglord Michael Levin will be attending this game as a credentialed media member. On a scale of 1-10, how awkward will the tensions be?
The Enemy
Prediction
Sixers lose, 114-99.
Game Info
Late game tonight: tip is at 9:30 PM EST. GameThread will be up at 9:00 - don't forget to join us. You can catch the game on CSN. You can listen live on the radio: 97.5 The Fanatic.
