1. Team Profile:

The Los Angeles Clippers joined the NBA in 1970 and moved several times during that time, never getting rid of their status as a fish-belly team, with their best record being the Western Conference Semifinals. In recent years, the main team has suffered frequent injuries, and the future is still uncertain. Blake Griffin, the top pick drafted in 2009, became the cornerstone and hope of the team's future. In the 2011 offseason, with the addition of Chris Paul, the Los Angeles Clippers officially entered the ranks of the NBA powerhouses.

On August 13, 2014, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer successfully acquired the Clippers, officially becoming the new owner of the Clippers. In August 2015, the Clippers were fined $250,000 by the league for providing third-party business cooperation opportunities without the league's permission. On March 22, 2016, Forbes ranked fifth on the 2016 Team Value List.

2. Basic information:

Chinese name: Los Angeles Clippers

English name: Los Angeles Clippers

Region: Los Angeles, California, USA

Founded: 1970

Main Stadium: Staples Center

Capacity: 18997

Current Coach: Doug Rivers

Notable personalities: Elton Brand, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul

Owner: Steve Ballmer

Jersey colours: home white, away black, red

Major honors:

3. Team history

In 1970-71, as the first owner of the Buffalo Braves, Paul Snyder assigned NBA superstar Dolph Shays to coach the team for the Braves' first season. But the composition of the team is disorganized.

During the 1976-77 season, former ABA League Kentucky Colonels owner John Brown bought a 50 percent stake in the Braves from Paul Snyder and later purchased the remainder of his shares. The new owner sold the team's signature player, Bob McAdoo, to the New York Knicks for $3 million.

In 1982, at the age of 46, Don Sterling successfully bought Ilf Levin's San Diego Clippers for $20 million.

In 1984, the team moved to Los Angeles and was renamed the Los Angeles Clippers.

In the 1991-92 season, the Clippers successfully qualified for the playoffs for the first time in 1991-92 after the team poached Larry Brown, who had been involved in management issues and star use.

In the 1993-94 season, the arrival of new coach Bob Weiss did not stop the team's downward trend. Seeing that things are not good, Sterling may be too worried about the team's profits and losses, so he chose to trade Danny Manning, the star of the house who was almost full of attendance in the first half of the season, and one season later, he gave Ron Harper, whose statistics had dropped slightly, to the Bulls.

In an effort to continue to cut back on expenses, owner Raheem Sterling began to re-engage with Baylor's team management, moving to the Clippers at the Honda Center in order to share the cost of the rental space with the Anaheim Nightducks in the same city. The perfect balance sheet of each year does not attract the praise of the league's colleagues, but instead endless condemnation and ridicule, hence the title of the most angry boss in the league.

In June 1999, the Clippers successfully picked Lamar Odom with the fourth pick in the draft, and also hired retired decorated player Dennis Johnson from the SuperSonics as a full-time coach, and the team moved to a new home, Staples, to share the luxurious basketball arena with the Lakers.

In 2001, a series of changes made the Clippers a veritable powerhouse of the Young Guard, and although they still had a 31-51 record at the end of the season, the bench averaged 37 points per game, and the team's average of over 100 points per game showed the madness of youth to the whole league.

In the 2003-04 season, Andre Miller, Lamar Odom, Michael Olowokandi and Eric Piakowski, the longest-serving veteran in franchise history, left the team without contract extensions, and the Clippers' record continued to be sluggish.

In the 2009-10 season, the Clippers luckily drew the 2009 lottery.

In the 2010-11 season, the team started with just one win and 13 losses. Just when the audience thought the Clippers were going to spend another season in the ordinary, Blake Griffin activated the entire Clippers team. Griffin relied on super-explosive physicality and terrifying interior lethality to help the Clippers win 12 out of 17 games at one point.

In the 2011-12 season, Chris Paul joined, and the duo with first-round pick Blake Griffin brought excitement to the fans, and the team also made the playoffs. In the first round, they eliminated the Grizzlies who staged the Black Eight Miracle in 2011 with 4 wins and 3 losses, but they met the Spurs with four championships in the Western Conference semifinals and were swept in four straight games.

In the 2012-2013 season, the Clippers finished third in the West with a 57-25 record. But in April 2014, the league forced the Sterling family to sell the team and fined him $2.5 million for insulting blacks. Previously, Sheri Sterling and the Sterling Family Trust had reached an agreement with former Microsoft senior official Steve Ballmer to sell the Clippers for a record $2 billion. In the first round of the playoffs, he played 6 games against the Grizzlies, and finally lost to the opponent with a total score of 2-4 and stopped in the first round of the playoffs.

In the 2013-14 season, the Clippers won back-to-back Pacific titles. met the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, although the first game relied on Paul to take the lead, leaving the Thunder's home fans silent, but in the end they were defeated by the Thunder with a total score of 2-4 and missed the Finals.

In the 2014-2015 season, the first round of the playoffs happened to be the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, and finally played 7 games and advanced to the next round 4-3, but in the Western Conference semifinals, the Clippers were forced to advance to the Western Conference Championship with a 3-1 lead, and were eliminated in the Western Conference semifinals for two consecutive seasons.

In the summer of 2015, Jordan Jr.'s farce allowed the Clippers to maintain their main lineup, and they wanted to break through again with the results of the 15th season, but something happened in the West that no one expected. Last season, the Clippers went 53-29 and finished fourth in the West. The Clippers didn't dare to think about hitting the championship, they actually thought about whether it would be good for us to enter the Western Conference first, but the cruel truth is that the opponent the Clippers faced in the first round was the Golden State Warriors, and in the regular season, the Warriors won all four games against the Clippers.

So the story of what happened in the first round of the playoffs is very subtle, the Warriors and the Rockets G4 in the afternoon, Curry is injured and out for two weeks, and people are shouting, maybe Paul's chance has come. But that night, the Clippers and Trail Blazers' G4, in the third quarter, Paul injured his wrist when trying to steal, and he injured the third metacarpal bone of his right hand and fractured it. Walking off the field, Paul kicked off the mat on the sidelines, unwilling and full of anger with nowhere to vent.

Hours later, Paul underwent surgery and Griffin announced that he would be out for the season, and the Clippers were outscored by the Trail Blazers with a 2-0 lead.

In its 47 years of existence, the team has not reached a single divisional final.

4. The composition of the team this season

Head Coach: Doc Rivers

Born on October 12, 1961 in Chicago, Illinois, USA, he is a former American professional basketball player, a point guard, and currently the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. Doug Rivers was selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the 31st round of the 2nd round in the 1983 NBA Draft, and played for four NBA teams in his career: the Hawks, Clippers, Celtics and Spurs, and was named to the NBA All-Star team in 1988 and won the James Walt Kennedy Citizen Award in 1990.

In 1996, Doug Rivers announced his retirement. After retiring as a player, he began coaching and was named NBA Coach of the Year in the 1999-2000 season. In the 2007-08 season, Doug Rivers led the Boston Celtics to an NBA championship. He has been the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers since June 25, 2013.

Rivers' coaching ability has gradually been questioned by more and more people, not to mention giving his son a chance, from the empty city when he first arrived at the Clippers, there has been no breakthrough until now. Stephenson, Josh and others who were coming during this period were all thought to have the potential to change the pattern, but they all ended up in vain. Limited by high salaries, the Clippers have been very passive in reinforcements, and can only use the mid-level clause and the base salary of veterans to expand the rotation lineup. Therefore, there is also a saying in the industry that "General Manager Rivers has a problem for Head Coach Rivers again".

Key player: Blake Griffin

Born on March 16, 1989 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, he is an American professional basketball player who plays as a power forward/center for the Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA.

Blake Griffin entered the NBA as the top draft pick in 2009 and was delayed by a year due to injury. In the 2010-11 season, he was named to the Rookie of the Year First Team; He was selected to the All-Star team three times, and won the championship in the 2011 All-Star Slam Dunk Contest; 4-time All-Star selection.

Griffin is averaging 21.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and five assists per game this season.

Key player: Chris Paul

Born on May 6, 1985 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA, is an American professional basketball player who plays as a point guard for the Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA.

In the 2005 NBA draft, Paul was selected by the New Orleans Hornets with the fourth place in the first round, and in the 2005-06 season, he was named the best rookie in the NBA. In November 2011, Chris Paul joined the Los Angeles Clippers.

Paul is averaging 18.1 points, 9.3 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game this season.

DeAndre Jordan: Averaged 12.6 points, 13.7 rebounds and 1.67 blocks per game this season

Jamal Crawford: Averaged 12.2 points, 2.6 assists, and 1.6 rebounds per game this season

JJ Redick: Averaged 15.1 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game this season

Austin Rivers: Averaged 12 points, 2.7 assists, and 2.2 rebounds per game this season

Maris Speights: Averaged 8.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 0.8 assists per game this season.

5. The team's home stadium:

The team rented the Los Angeles Sports Arena until 1999 and moved into the Staples Center with the Lakers in 1999.

Staples Center is located in the heart of Los Angeles, California, USA. The Live development is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex on Figueroa Street. Construction began on March 31, 1998 and officially opened on October 17, 1999.

It is the only arena in the NBA that is shared by two teams at the same time, and the only arena in North America where two NBA, one NHL, and one NBA team are home at the same time. In 1999 and 2000, the Staples Center was awarded the title of "Arena of the Year" twice.

6. Team and fan culture

The Clippers' emblem is similar to the Pacers' emblem, with a fast-spinning basketball at the bottom of the entire crest, with the words "CLIPPERS" and "LOS ANGELES" in blue art form in front of it.

In June 2015, the Los Angeles Clippers officially unveiled their new logo and uniform. The new logo of the Los Angeles Clippers will retain the original red, white and blue elements, and will add new black elements. For example, the English name of the Los Angeles Clippers "Clippers" will be composed of black text with capital letters.

On March 1, 2016, during the Los Angeles Clippers' halftime game against the Brooklyn Nets, the Los Angeles Clippers unveiled the team's new mascot, a cartoon vulture, whose name is Chuck the Condor. As the owner of the Clippers, Ballmer introduced the team's new mascot to fans at halftime.

The shape of the Condor Chuck is very cute, the Condor Chuck wearing the 213 Clippers jersey is quite cute, it fell from the sky for the first time, and it can also continue to backflip, causing the audience to exclaim.

Previously, in order to find an exclusive mascot, the Los Angeles Clippers had officially offered a sky-high annual salary of $200,000 to recruit. Because in the NBA league, the average mascot earns more than $100,000 a year. The more entertainment a city has, the lower the value of a mascot, such as star-studded Miami, where the average NBA mascot earns less than $60,000 a year.

7. Analysis of this season's combat power

For the Clippers, they have had a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs during the regular season this season. At the beginning of the season, the Clippers were unbeatable, and their defense was intimidating to the league, outscoring opponents by an average of 16.6 points per game in 15 games, and at one point topped the league with a 13-2 record.

As the season progressed, the Clippers' record continued to decline, with Riefin, Paul, and Redick being knocked down by injuries one after another, and their rankings dropped again and again.

By now, they have slipped to fifth place in the West, with a win rate of only 60.3%.

If it weren't for Paul and Griffin's timely recovery, the Clippers would most likely be overtaken by the Thunder and slip to sixth place in the West.

The Clippers have a decent offense this season, averaging 108.5 points per game, sixth in the league. However, he averaged only 22.4 assists per game, ranking 14th in the league.

8. Playoffs outlook

This season's playoffs are crucial for the Clippers, with two key players, Griffin and Paul, both having the power to jump out of their contracts this summer. Although Paul has reached a verbal contract extension agreement with the team, the 32-year-old has little time left in the peak of his career, and if the Clippers continue to slump in this year's playoffs, it is not ruled out that Paul will choose a stronger next home in order to compete for the championship.

This season may be the last chance for the Clippers to make it to the Western Conference Finals. If it fails, there is a good chance that the combination of Paul and Griffin will disintegrate this summer. In all fairness, though, their journey to the playoffs won't be easy this year.

The Clippers, who are currently ranked fifth, are likely to face the Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. Facing the Devils' home court in Salt Lake City and the Jazz, who are known for their tough defense, good at tough battles, and thick lineups, the Clippers will be in a fierce battle in the first round of the playoffs.

Compared with the Jazz, the Clippers have a certain advantage, after all, they have top point guards who have not yet passed their prime, Griffin and Jordan Jr., the league's top shooter Redick, and Crawford, who has won the best sixth man of the year three times.

However, their biggest weakness is the bench and rebounding. Docs hasn't been able to make the team's bench better over the years, and the Jazz's roster depth, especially the depth of the front, is terrifying, which will cause a lot of problems for the Clippers.

And on the Clippers' bench, the only one who can rely on is the 37-year-old Crawford. In the last three consecutive wins, the Clippers have taken 44 fewer shots than their opponents, which also reflects their lack of backcourt rebounding protection.

Against a long-arm interior combination like Gobert and Favors, the Clippers' rebounding will be a lifeline in the first round of the playoffs. Even if they can make it past the Jazz, the Clippers will need to beat the Warriors with the Big Four if they want to realize their dream of a Western Conference final.

With the strength and depth clearly at the bottom, unless the Clippers play another historic level of defensive intensity, and Paul Griffin can be more aggressive and efficient in crunch time, they really have little hope of winning.

9. X-factor

whether Griffin can take over the game at crunch time;

Can the substitute not dig a pit;

Speights' three-point shot can pull Gobert out of the line and give the Clippers more room to attack.