Familiarity in sports between opponents can usually make for great theatre when it comes to the playoffs. Lakers - Celtics, Baltimore Ravens - New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers - Seattle Seahawks are examples of matchups of teams that built disdain for each other just because they encountered each other so much season after season. That is what is going to make the series between the Los Angeles Clippers (57-25) and Golden State Warriors (51-31) must see TV for NBA fans, these two squads are sick of seeing each other.

The Warriors and Clippers are Pacific Division foes that are in two different stages of perception. The Clippers are viewed to be at a stage where NBA Championship expectations have been put on them because of the personnel and coaching. The Warriors are viewed as young upstarts with a coach that is still getting his feet wet. 

The Clippers and Warriors split their regular season series 2-2 with each team defeating the other on their homecourt. This series is going to be a whole lot closer than people think. The Clippers come into the series as the leading scoring team in the NBA at 107.9 ppg. The Warriors come in as the 10th best scoring team in the league at 104.3 ppg. The Warriors knock the trey down at a 38% clip which is fourth best in the league, and the Clippers are the best defensively against the three-pointer allowing opponents to hit 33.2% of their attempts from deep. Tranversely, the Clippers hit 35.2% of their three-point shots, good for 22nd in the NBA, while the Warriors allow opponents to hit 34.4% of their shots from downtown which is third best in the league.  The Warriors allow opponents to hit 43.6% of their field goal attempts overall, ranking them third in the NBA, while the Clippers let teams shoot 44.1% from the field against them which ranks fifth.  There is a lot of similarities between these teams, but also there are a lot of differences. 

The Clippers are going to be bringing one of the best frontcourts in the league into this series comprised of Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. Griffin has improved his game by leaps and bounds dropping 24.1 points and 9.5 boards on the ledger while shooting 52.8% from the field. His once suspect jumpshot is hitting the bottom of the net more often than not and his overall understanding of the game has totally improved. DeAndre Jordan could quite possibly be the most improved player in the NBA. Jordan used to be considered big for nothing, a waste of 6-foot-11 in the paint. All Jordan was good for was posterizing people for ESPN highlights and amusing the masses, while being a liabilty on the defensive end. Now, DeAndre Jordan has tranformed his game into being a defensive presence in the middle and a tremendous rebounder to boot. DeAndre snatched 13.6 rebounds per game this year which led the NBA. 

Oh, by the way, the Clippers have the best point guard in the NBA as well in Chris Paul. "CP3" is coming off another stellar season in which he averaged 19.1 points and 10.7 assists. Chris Paul is at the point in his career where a championship is going to be legacy defining for him. He is possibly going to be the most driven player on the floor.

The Warriors, meanwhile, will be bringing the best young backcourt in basketball into this series namely Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson a.k.a "The Splash Brothers". Thompson and Curry hit 484 three-pointers this season between them which easily led all NBA backcourts. Stephen Curry quite possibly put together an All-NBA First Team worthy season with averages of 24.0 ppg and 8.5 assists per game. Also, the acquisition of Andre Iguodala has proved to be monumental for them since "Iggy" brings a much needed on-ball defender to the floor. The issue for the Warriors is going to be the frontcourt rotation where center, Andrew Bogut is going to be out with an injured rib. This leaves forwards Jermaine O'Neal, Marreese Speights, Draymond Green, and David Lee as the players that have to play rugged in the paint. Lee, who has nice numbers at 18.2 points and 9.3 boards per game, is going into this series not 100% physically. The frontcourt possibly could be a weaknees that can be exploited by the Clippers. 

Golden State has shown much improvement as a team this season by winning 51 regular season games and making the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in 22 years.

Warriors coach Mark Jackson has surely changed the culture of the Golden State Warriors. On that same token though, so has Clippers coach Doc Rivers. The bottom line is this, the Clippers are seeded No.3 and the Warriors are seeded No.6, but the seeding really is not going to mean much in this series. That is why "The Dubs" - "Lob City" is much see TV.

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About the author
James FitzGerald IV
I am just blessed to know that no matter what, all things you go through can be used for God's purpose. The good and the bad. That is really refreshing.