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Clippers First Round Won’t Include Grizzlies

Coming into the Los Angeles Clippers Tuesday night matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies one thing was certain, the Clippers will be in the four seed in the Western Conference Playoffs. Their opponent for the first round on the other hand wasn’t quite as clear. Los Angeles had a chance to somewhat determine their own destiny come round number one. Lose to Memphis and hope the chips fall their way the rest of the season so they can see the injury-laden Grizzlies in the first round or play for the win and let the chips fall where they may. Doc Rivers and the Clippers chose the latter.

Sixth man of the year candidate Jamal Crawford sat and watched his Clipper team from the bench at Staples Center Tuesday as he was the only Clipper contributor ruled inactive for the contest. He had a great seat for the Clippers dismantling of the Grizzlies in a wire to wire 110-84 Clipper win.

Chris Paul didn’t take any time to get his game rolling in this one as he immediately started dishing the ball off and scoring at will in quarter number one. He hardly calmed down as the All-Star guard ended the night with a double-double getting 12 points and 13 assists.

Memphis clearly was struggling to slow down Los Angeles in this one as they were just lacking that toughness that has made this rivalry so challenging for the Clippers in the past. With no Mike Conley, Tony Allen or Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph was tasked with leading his team to a win in this one and he just couldn’t do enough. Only having 14 points on the night to go with 4 rebounds, it is easy to see why the Grizzlies might have struggled.

Blake Griffin on the other hand continued to reassert himself into the Clippers playoff plans, building off his previous strong performance against Dallas, with 12 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals in this contest. He has absolutely shown Clipper fans exactly what they wanted to see upon his return from injury and his form certainly looks playoff ready.

The one thing on the night that didn’t go the Clippers way was JJ Redick injuring his heel at the end of the first half, and not returning for the second half of the game. However after learning the nature of his injury, this certainly seemed like a precautionary measure with the playoffs rapidly approaching.

This is likely the last time in the regular season we will see the Los Angeles Clippers usual starting lineup as very few of the usuals will even make the trip to Phoenix Wednesday to take on the Suns in the last game of this regular season.

A good win for the Clippers on Tuesday as beating a playoff team is certainly never a negative. CaliSportsNews will keep you updated on who the Clippers will take on in round number one and enjoy the final game of the regular season. Thanks for reading along Clipper Nation.

Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things Los Angeles Clippers and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, All the time!

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