Minnesota Timberwolves @ LA CLippers - 23rd December 2013

Wat a match i witnessed today. LA Clippers looking like a top 4 team this season with Doc Rivers at the helm playing against a much improved Timberwolves team with Kevin Love playing like a MVP. Him and Pekovic are like an Offensive front court nightmare. I Beleive that Timberwolves are the only team in the nba where their top 2 scorers are a 5 and a 4. This is a throwback to Old school basketball and Pekovic especially looked unstoppable at the post.

Kevin Love and Pekovic
These two looked absolutely unstoppable.Both Blake griffin and De Andre were abused time and again and a premier blocker like DJ couldnt find any type of defense against the fast hook shots of Pekovic. Kevin Love seemed to hit more hook shots than jump shots in this game which is kind of surprising as Jump shooting is his game.They struggled in jump shots though. Kevin Martin was good though going 7-12 but for some reason he played only 32 minutes.He played similar minutes in OKC but he should be playing more in a team like the Wolves as they have a very thin bench and with rubio becoming worse everyday his minutes should and eventually will increase. They finished with a combined 79 points in this Overtime game.
Clippers defense
I remember watching the Celtics Clips game and was amazed how good the Clips defense was. They clearly played better defense than the Wolves. Darren Collison was amazing in this category and even scored the same points as Chris Paul.Even CP3 has become more of a facilitator under Doc and would be grateful for not expounding excessive energy like he used to under Del Negro.The Clips look like a bonafide Payoffs team and the tenacity and will power showed today against wat looked like an unstoppable duo in Love and Pekovic. I liked how they went for the steal and not fouling K.Martin who made the mistake of going to his own half to get the ball and was immediately double teamed by Collison and Paul which enabled them to get a quick basket.I like how Jared Dudley was still in the game even after going 0-6 before in the final minutes.
The reason for the Wolves loss
The minutes of K Martin and Corey Brewer has to increase. Brewer is a top rated defender and is almost unstoppable transition offensive option.With the two bigs doing the bulk of the scoring and Rubio becoming a dud I believe that Corey brewer can be made into a ball handler and a viable third option along with K Martin. T.Wolves can still make the Playoff if they could find more defense and it might also help K Love in his MVP bid as his stats are just PURE GOLD !!! and being a losing team would take a lot of sheen out of it.

Clippers @ Celtics - 12th December 2013

Clippers @ Celtics
Couldnt miss this one when one of the champion head coaches goes back to his old team which he lead to their first championship in two decades like Doc Rivers.There are a lot of equations at play here like the famed Celtics defense Vs the unstoppable Clippers offense. A veteran Head coach like Doc vs the 37 year old rookie head coach Brad stevens.
Docs effect on the clippers

Both these coaches have been amazing for their teams. Doc has instantly made the Clippers a championship contender just by being there ans stressing on defense which the Clippers lacked severely.Especially the way he is treating and preserving his star players are amazing. In this game he rested Chris paul and rarely encouraged Blake griffin to be the offensive star for the Clips. Expecting more than 20 points from Blake is unfair to him especially if you have offensive players like Jamal Crawford,Chris Dudley ,Riddick and now the infamous Stephen Jackson. I think the very fact that Jamal Crawford takes more shots than Blake makes this team win more.But the most visible effect by Doc is the defensive approach he has bought to the Clips. Collision,De andre Jordan are first class defenders and can hold their position quite well, even Blake is gettin better in defense and rebounding.Chris paul should be loving to play under Doc system as there has been significant less pressure on him than the previous two seasons with the Clips under Vinny Del Negro.Chris Paul used to run his own plays,create opportunities for others and also be a closure for the Clips in the past two seasons.Now sometimes he isnt even on the floor when the Clips makes a run.
Brad stevens effect on the Celtics
He is famous for making a mediocre College team into a champion team at Butler and when Danny Ainge blew up the Celtics team for rebuilding thought that it would best rebuild with a rookie head coach in Brad. Wasnt he right....Brad has somehow managed to make a Rondo less team which should be way below the playoff teams into a top 6 team in the East. He has continued the defensive approach by Doc at the Celtics by encouraging the Bradley.Courtney Lee stranglehold on the defense and making Jeff Green and more importantly Jordan Crawford into a superstar. The rise of Jordan Crawford was a surprise to everybody and it is a testament to Brad's system.The Celtics usually defies their regular season standing at the playoffs and usually making it to the conference finals.Maybe they can make a run with their defense first approach this year as well
The Game
Clippers does not have a illustrious history at the Celtics centre. Infact Chris Paul - th ebest point guard in the league averages 8 points against the famed Bradley,Courtney Lee defense.Going into this Celtics were holding their opponents to a 40% FG% and making it low scoring games.The game was pretty close most of the way but the Clips defense with the combination of Jamal Crawford amazing offense pulled the clips through.This game is a testament of how good coaching makes better teams.