Geoff JohnsonThe Los Angeles Clippers will have a tough visit to the Pepsi Center as they face the Denver Nuggets, this Thursday night at 10:30 PM ET, in a game of two teams that will light up the western conference playoffs.
Both are the third and a fifth seed in the standings and have 83 wins combined. Los Angeles lost to the Thunder at home on Sunday and will face the Bucks on Wednesday night.
The Clippers showed no composure against the Thunder and were outplayed again. “We came up short, and it seemed like every time something happened, we just couldn’t get over the hump,” Chris Paul said. “They got the timely calls when they needed them, but they played a pretty good game.”
“It’s always going to be a tough, chippy game anytime we play them because we’re both pretty physical teams with physical bigs, so there’s a lot of pushing and all that down low,” Blake Griffin said. “I guess it’s tough to officiate and know what to call and what not to, but they seemed to know today what to call.”
The Nuggets beat the Kings 120-113 on Tuesday, with Ty Lawson scoring 24 points and Danilo Gallinari adding 23 for Denver.
“Early in the season we lost some leads on the road in the fourth quarter, and we lost some tough games lately,” Denver coach George Karl said. “But we’re a young team and young teams will do that. But we are maturing and finding our identity a little better.”
Denver already beat the Clippers 92-78 this season.
