The season is still early but the early returns looked familiar for the Clippers and Lakers. This season the teams looked like the same teams as last year. The Clippers are a good team but not a great team although they appear to be better than they were last year. The Lakers are still two or three super stars away from being a good or great team.
Last Monday the Clippers gave up 74 points to the Warriors at halftime. The Clippers scored 57 points but when you give up that many points in the first half that means the team has problems on defense even with the addition of Patrick Beverly, one of the leagues' best defensive players.
The final score last Monday against Golden State was 141-113. Although one game does not define a season giving up that many points can mean several positive and negative things. On the positive side the Clippers may have just had a bad game.
The Warriors came into to Monday's game with a record of 4-3 and the Clippers were 4-1 so hopefully Los Angeles can learn from that lopsided loss. That's the positive side. The negative side is this Clipper team is still at the crossroads of being an above average team but not an elite team.
Even without Chris Paul, who plays for the Houston Rockets, the Clippers still have Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. As long as they stay healthy the Clippers can remain in contention for a middle of the pack playoff berth.
The Lakers are currently 2-4 and look like the same below average team as last year but that can change. Even without superstar talent the Lakers have enough ability to win more than 30 games but that won't be enough to make the playoffs in the super competitive Western Conference. If the Lakers make the playoffs that would be considered a great season for this young team.
If highly regarded point guard Lonzo Ball and another rookie, Kyle Kuzma can continue to get better in the NBA the Lakers will be better than last year. The biggest problem with the Lakers is their other young players like Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. are not consistent.
The next Clipper home games will be Saturday against a red hot first place Memphis team at 12:30 p.m. and they play Miami at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
The next Laker home games are Friday against Brooklyn at 7:30 p.m. and Memphis on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.
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