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| Lakers |
Chauncey Billups led all scorers with 23 points while Chris Paul debuted with 17 points, nine assists and five steals. For Kobe Bryant said the Lakers with 22 points, while Pau Gasol had 16 points and seven rebounds.
They breathe the air of change in land Angelenos. The team owner Donald Sterling is aims to break a record every year built on the foundations of the failure, either by bad executive decisions or serious injury of key players.
Four times they reached the playoffs for the title in its history, the last in 2006, where he first reached the conference semifinals, a goal that now seems possible after arrival at the base star team from the New Orleans Hornets.
The duel was morbid. Paul saw the faces with the team where he was calling at a point of transfer to three bands that sent Gasol to Houston. But the NBA pushed back the agreement and the Clippers moved quickly tab.
Fans of the "poor relation" of Los Angeles are in luck and this is confirmed stratospheric plays including an alley-hoop from Paul to DeAndre Jordan or the connection between the veteran Billups and the "killer" Blake Griffin, brutal on the counter.
The Staples Center, with purple and gold exercising at home on Friday, was nearly filled to witness the first game of the season in the California city, 225 days after the painful elimination by 4-0 against Dallas in the semifinals of the Western Conference.
Mike Brown has built a technical team to the extent that the Italian Ettore Messina appears as a consultant. The exentrenador Real Madrid did not sit on the bench for the Lakers, but did so in the second row, right behind Brown and did not hesitate to applaud the actions of their own in the first moments.
There were reasons. The Lakers quintet (Steve Blake, Kobe Bryant, Matt Barnes, Pau Gasol-received with loud applause after weeks of rumors about a hypothetical transfer, and Andrew Bynum) jumped onto the field eager to please in front of his opponent.
Paul and Griffin happen to be one of the most exhilarating and spectacular pairs competition that offers a base to which to add pieces like Billups's leadership, the kind of Caron Butler and intimidation and springs of Jordan.
It opened the game with a triple exchange between Bryant and Billups, followed with a broken speed rivals Paul (now Blake and rookie Darius Morris, Derek Fisher rested) and continued with the men strokes of rotation of both franchises .
Metta World Peace (formerly known as Ron Artest) is emerging as the Lakers' sixth man, now finished with 0 / 8 in shots, while Josh McRoberts, a recent signing, surprised by its intensity and quick understanding with their peers. Jason Kapono Also served its purpose: to hit the triple.
In the Clippers enjoyed what may be their primary deficit this season: the lack of bench. Mo Williams disposed of minutes, just like Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes, but are missing inches guarantees to meet Jordan and Griffin.
However, some things never change. Bryant is still the master of the Lakers. Systems his team will provide clarification and multiple combinations to be solved he who, while Bynum-Gasol combination is presented as the weapon to explode.
In the section on things to improve, above all, it appears the defense, mainly the rival base-shaped dark cloud. The lack of intensity was palpable, like the apathy of many players to stop when outside the release key in the removal of a few months ago against the Mavericks.
The Clippers won by 69-96 in the absence of 9:48 in the fourth quarter against local amateur resignation, witnessed a significant physical slump of his players in the second half. In contrast, the visitors had harvested a 6 / 7 on-pointers in the period before and faced the last section of the party with the peace of duty done.
He finished the game and the question asked by media and fans for days is even more relevant: the Clippers this year get away with a better record than his great rival?
