LA Clippers will see perfect record end tonight against Portland

Things for the LA Clippers haven’t been terrible without Chris Paul, but they’ll get their first loss tonight versus Portland.

For whatever reason, the Trail Blazers know how to get to the LA Clippers. Not only have they done it in the postseason, but also in this year’s preseason game as well.

Los Angeles enters Thursday night’s action against Portland with a 3-0 mark to start the season. As a counter, the Trail Blazers are 3-1 to start their respective season, with a win in their first and only prior home game.

As ESPN writes on their matchup, the Clippers are out-manned in the depth charts, and that will be a tremendous x-factor when they play each other. After having to play a lot of his guys in a crazy amount of minutes, here’s what ESPN’s report cites Doc Rivers as saying:

"“Too many minutes, really, by everyone,” Rivers said. “The first thing I saw when I looked at the stat sheet: I didn’t like the minutes. That’ll change. I’ve just got to expand (the rotation). With (Teodosic) out, that hurts us.”"

Thanks to their rookie point guard from overseas being injured, Los Angeles is left trying to still figure out a strong rotation, even after they beat the Utah Jazz a few nights ago.

It’s also worth noting that Portland is the kind of grind it out team that can thrive in these ugly situations, especially when they’re at full strength and their opponent is not.  This is the only time they’ll meet before the end of January, but this game will be one that Los Angeles just won’t have enough to take home with them.

Plus, outside of their win over Utah in which they had to overplay everyone, they only have wins over the Lakers on opening night and a follow up win over the disastrous Suns to show for it.

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Don’t let their 3-0 record fool you, this Clippers team is in trouble when they take the floor in Portland.