Things weren’t looking too good at halftime with the Clippers trailing the Mavericks 50-43. Something happened in the locker room as the Clippers came out in the second half and out-scored the Mavericks 60-35! The Clippers played good defense all night long and held the usually good scoring Mavericks to 39% shooting from the floor. The Clippers shot well (48.2%) and out-rebounded the Mavs 48-38 to lead the way to another victory.

Cuttino Mobley was electric last night with 28 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals. Sam Cassell has another solid game with 21 points, 4 rebounds and 9 assists. Elton Brand was tough in the paint with 13 points & 12 rebounds. Corey Maggette was solid off of the bench with 12 points & 12 rebounds. The “kid” Shaun Livingston scored 10 points, dished out 3 assists, stole the ball twice and blocked two shots.

Look out for this Clippers team…..last year was not a fluke! The Clippers are a darn good basketball team that improved their record to 4-1 while sending a message to the defending Western Conference Champions!

The Clippers defended the home court with a beat-down of the Blazers. The Clippers did a good job of spreading the offense around. Corey Maggette led the team with 20 points and 9 rebounds. Cuttino Mobley had a decent game with 17 points. Sam Cassell had a good game with 16 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists. Chris Kaman had a solid game with 15 points & 9 rebounds. Quinton Ross scored 13 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Elton Brand had a rough time stopping Zach Randolph who dropped 35 points on the Clippers. Brand only scored 8 points himself, with 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 5 blocks.

Elton Brand is a great player. I’m still amazed that the Bulls traded this guy in the first place. Brand really had a good season last year, averaging 24.7 points, 10.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. Elton has been a very good and dependable player his whole career, averaging 20.3 points, 10.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 0.9 steals and 2.1 blocked shots per game. Brand is the best player the Clippers have to offer and he brings everything he’s got night in and night out.

Tim Thomas was brought in the back-up at power forward and small forward. Thomas is a good shooting big-man (37.1% career 3-pointers) and he stretches the defense when he’s in the game, opening the paint up for the other big guys on the team. Thomas has averaged 11.9 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game over his career. Thomas could play big minutes for the Clippers if the need arose.

The Clippers got a huge win on Saturday night that was propelled by the Clippers out-rebounding the Suns 54-41. Sam Cassell led the way for a balanced Clippers attack with 23 points. Corey Maggette had a monster game with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Cuttino Mobley chipped in with 18 points. Elton Brand had a solid game with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks. Shaun Livingston filled up the boxscore with 14 points, 4 rebounds and 9 assists. Tim Thomas had another good game with 8 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists. Chris Kaman only played 22 minutes, but he scored 11 points and grabbed 5 rebounds.

The Clippers were down 70-65 after three quarters, and then the Clippers woke up and out-scored the Nuggets 31-25 in the 4th quarter. Sam Cassell and Tim Thomas would not let the Clippers lose, even though they didn’t get alot of help. Cassell scored 35 points, grabbed 6 rebounds and dished out 6 assists. Tim Thomas came off of the bench and scored 21 points, including 5 3-pointers. Corey Maggette added 13 points and 7 rebounds. Elton Brand had a bad game scoring only 8 points and grabbing only 6 rebounds. The team defense was great, holding the Nuggets to 38.6% from the field.

It’s amazing that the Clippers won this game when you consider that they were out-rebounded 56-38!

The Clippers changed up their line-up to play the Suns kind of game and it didn’t pay off. Quinton Ross (10 points and 4 rebounds) played over starting center Chris Kaman, who had 9 points and 9 rebounds in 23 minutes. Coach Dunleavy should have played his best players and have made the Suns adjust to him. Elton Brand played a huge game (mostly at center) scoring 28 points and snatching 13 rebounds! Cuttino Mobley (17 points), Sam Cassell (17 points in 22 minutes) and Shaun Livingston (14 points) tried their best to keep up with the scorching Suns that shot 53.2% as a team.

Cuttino Mobley is the starting shooting guard for the Clippers. He is an offensive player that looks for his shot, and causes teams problems because he’s one of the few left-handed shooters in the NBA. Mobley is a good shooter who has hit 37.8% of his career 3-point attempts. Mobley has averaged 16.8 points per game, 4.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game over his 581 game NBA career.

Quinton Ross will be Mobley’s back-up and he’s mostly a defensive specialist. Ross is not a shooter than can stretch the court like Mobley can. Ross has only averaged 4.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 21.9 average minutes per game over his career.