The Los Angeles Clippers are first in their division and they play against the Chicago Bulls on Friday night and the game will be live on ESPN at 8 pm and streaming online from the WatchESPN website from the United Center and the two most high profile players in the game will not be playing in Derrick Rose and Chris Paul and that leaves Blake Griffin, Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer and DeAndre Jordan handle things.
The Clippers come into the game after a disappointing loss to the Charlotte Bobcats on the road and now they play against the Bulls at the United Center before continuing their little road trip for the Grammys. Both the Lakers and the Clippers are on road trips to give their home arena to the yearly music awards and they are in first place in the Pacific division now with a 29-15 record. The West is much deeper than the east this season and Doc Rivers has the Clippers playing well without Paul, ranking in the top half of the league in defense and they have been scoring in bunches as well, ranking in the top five in points per game with over 105 scored per contest.
Griffin has stepped up with Paul injured and the star point guard is hoping that he can get back soon after the All-Star break. The Clippers got 27 points and six assists against the Bobcats and Jordan ended up with 20 rebounds, but it wasn't enough to snag the game on the road and now they will try and rebound against the Bulls. The Clips are ranked fourth in assists and 15th in rebounds and now a top five offense will face off against one of the top defenses in the league from the Bulls.
Check here for the NBA coverage for the Clippers and the Bulls.
The Bulls are coming into the game after a nice win over the Cleveland Cavaliers and it was even sweeter for some of the players, as they did not want to fall to their former teammate in Luol Deng, who was traded to the team in the Andrew Bynum deal. Bynum is now waived and Deng is with the Cavaliers and the team comes in after DJ Augustin had 27 points and seven assists to lead the Bulls and he has played well with Rose out, while Noah was primed up with 18 rebounds in the game against Deng.
The Bulls next play against the Bobcats on the road and that is sandwiched around road games, as they had the Cavs on the road and the Clippers at home. The Bulls are now one game over .500 and they are hanging around in the east without Rose, which is much easier because of the conference they are in. The team comes in ranked just 29th in scoring with under 95 points per game, but the team has been stellar on defense, averaging just 92 per game to rank second in the league. The team is also ranked seventh in rebounding and 12th in assist per game and the matchup on Friday on ESPN starts up at 8 pm between the Bulls and the Clippers.