It’s been quite a good new NBA season for the Los Angeles Clippers. They already boasted one of the brightest young frontcourts in the league with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan and things only got better when the stole all-star point guard Chris Paul away from their Staples Center co-tenants the Los Angeles Lakers.

The move instantly made the Clippers relevant and finally had them in headlines for all the right reasons. The team had been the butt of late night jokes for decades, but my how things have changed. Well kinda, the jokes still came, but it’s much more positive. Paul, aka CP3 went on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live last night to talk about joining the team and more. Check it below.

You have to give Paul credit, he endured the jokes and made it clear that he’s here to change things.

“What I do now is that I am with the Clippers and one thing that everyone can be assured of is that every night we’re gonna go out, play hard and we’re gonna compete.” – Chris Paul.

-Will.

Will R. is a journalist/writer who covers sports, news and music for several websites. He’s a longtime Clippers fan and his “Diary of a Clippers Fan” is regularly published during the NBA season. His music work can be found on www.WestCoastRydaz.com

After what was widely considered the best offseason in Los Angeles Clippers history, all eyes were on the Clippers to live up to their new found expectations. The NBA lockout and its impact on the season forced the team to start playing regular season games right out of the gate and it showed.

The Clippers had poor spacing and lacked cohesion and familiarity on the court, leading to plenty of missed defensive assignments and a pair of blowout losses to the San Antonio Spurs and Chicago Bulls.

Their record stood at one win and two losses and the other side of the media spotlight showed itself; the negative backlash.

Sure it was only three games, but it was a crucial moment for the Clippers. They had all seen and heard the talk of a new culture in Clipper Nation, of veterans and all-stars now around to make sure the team was ready for adversity. It was time to back up all the talk with some action.

Luckily for the team and its fans, we had Chris Paul on our side.

He took charge and put his fingerprints all over a big win over an undefeated Portland TrailBlazers team, all the way down to making a huge defensive play and hitting the eventual game-winner in the final minutes.

The Clippers and Paul carried that momentum into tonight’s game against the Houston Rockets, with Paul opening the game aggressively – to the tune of 11 points and 6 assists in the first quarter.

That great start created a 15-point lead the Clippers would never relinquish in a blowout win and gave Paul and his fellow starters plenty of time to relax and get some rest. Blake Griffin was his usual spectacular self, putting up 22 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in only 32 minutes of action. Paul finished with 20 points and 10 assists in 29 minutes and Caron Butler and Chauncey Billups each put up double digit scoring as well.

DeAndre Jordan finished with 7 points and 8 rebounds in 28 minutes, but was a major factor in the deciding first quarter, where he pulled down almost all of his rebounds. The big scoring cushion gave the backups more than enough time to make an impression, with Mo Williams continuing his early season push for Sixth Man of the year with 7 points and 7 assists in 22 minutes and Randy Foye chipping in 16 points in only 19 minutes.

The Clippers are still a big work in progress, but the recent signing of backup big man Solomon Jones and extra practice time should be great for them, along with the debut of Reggie Evans. They’re now on a two-game winning streak and have an excellent chance to extend it to three with the Milwaukee Bucks coming into town on Saturday.

The win against the Rockets was their third sellout of the season (in 3 total home games) and the fans surely went home excited about the team and its future.

-Will.

Will R. is a journalist/writer who covers sports, news and music for several websites. He’s a longtime Clippers fan and his “Diary of a Clippers Fan” is regularly published during the NBA season. His music work can be found on www.WestCoastRydaz.com

The Los Angeles Clippers have been enjoying a public surge in popularity ever since they acquired All-Star point guard Chris Paul. The news was greeted with joy from Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, who proclaimed it would be “Lob City” for the young stars.

Now Los Angeles rap star Tyga, of Lil Wayne‘s Young Money has made a special Clippers remix to his hit song “Rack City” called “Lob City Clips” and you can check it out below.

The Clippers won their season opener against the Golden State Warriors and are expected to be a fan favorite across the NBA. You can download the “Lob City Clips” remix below.

-Will.

Will R. is a journalist/writer who covers sports, news and music for several websites. He’s a longtime Clippers fan and his “Diary of a Clippers Fan” is regularly published during the NBA season. His music work can be found on www.WestCoastRydaz.com

It’s been a rough year for the Los Angeles Lakers. First they got swept out of the playoffs by the Dallas Mavericks, suffered with everyone else through the NBA lockout and then got hit with almost nothing but bad news after it ended. They had a trade for Chris Paul rejected, lost Lamar Odom for nothing and made a bunch of roster moves that left everyone underwhelmed. Josh McRoberts, Jason Kapono and Troy Murphy aren’t exactly big deals.

To make matter worse, Kobe injured his wrist in the first preseason game, leaving the Lakers to face their surging Staples Center co-tenants the Los Angeles Clippers with a rag tag line up. It didn’t go well, with the Lakers losing for the second time this week to the Clippers.

Pau Gasol only scored 13 points in the loss, a fact not lost on Lakers super fan Snoop Dogg, who took to his Twitter page to voice his, uh, displeasure with the big Spaniard.

The season hasn’t even officially started, but it doesn’t look like Gasol is exactly a fan favorite, at least not at the moment.

All-star point guard Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers made major headlines teaming up with Blake Griffin, almost instantly creating anticipation for the two superstars to regularly hook up on amazing alley-oops. The two haven’t played together long but they are already hooking up for highlights, as seen in tonight’s preseason finale against the LA Lakers.

The Los Angeles Clippers shot up to the top of many NBA fans’ must see TV for this season when they traded for all-star guard Chris Paul. The news of the trade was a welcome one for the Clippers two young high flyers Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, who coined the term “Lob City” as soon as they found out. In their second (and final, thanks lockout) the dunking duo made a highlight of their own when Blake led the fast break and threw a lob for his big buddy Jordan, who slammed it home. Check the video below, via @Jose3030.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Lob City.

A lot of times people say so and so dunked on another so and so but in actuality the dunker slammed in the vicinity of the dunkee. That’s not the case with Jeremy Evans of the Utah Jazz completely flushing on Portland’s Gerald Wallace. Evans showed his hops from the dotted line when he threw one down in the face of Wallace Wednesday night. Unfortunately for Jeremy, Gerald stepped in quickly to take the charge. Some refs will look past the offensive foul on a highlight play like this. No such luck for Utah.

One more time in slow motion:

The New York Knicks continued what has been an impressive off-season by signing free agent point guard Baron Davis. The veteran point guard was released by the Cleveland Cavaliers via the new amnesty clause and cleared waivers, freeing him up to sign with any team he liked.

The Knicks won a sweepstakes which reportedly included the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat. Although he’s currently unavailable to play because of a back injury, Davis should be ready to play within a month. Despite his injury, Davis tweeted his happiness with the Knicks signing, while also giving thanks to God and praying for a Knicks championship.

Davis joins new Knicks acquisition Mike Bibby and world champion center Tyson Chandler alongside stars Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony.

The Knicks are hoping Davis and Bibby can make up for the loss of Chauncey Billups and provide veteran depth and leadership at the point. Davis has career averages of 16.5 points and 7.3 assists.

Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez successfully defended his title Saturday against challenger Jorge Masvidal.

Melendez was rarely challenged in the main event, shown on Showtime, with Masvidal failing to exploit his reach advantage and the champ, also known as “El Nino” showcasing his superior skills on his way to winning a unanimous decision.

The San Diego crowd was heavily in favor of Melendez, repeatedly chanting his name as he controlled the fight. Melendez now has a 20-2 MMA record and seemed extremely confident after the bout, directing comments at the UFC and asking for more competition to challenge him. He said he’s prepared to take on the UFC’s lightweight champion, no matter who he is.

Female champ and crowd favorite Chris Cyborg also defended her belt on the fight night, defeating her opponent in only 17 seconds with a vicious flurry of punches.