Pre-Game Reconnaissance: Knicks vs. Clippers- 2/9/11

We're doing these now.

Odds and Ends!

- The Clippers are 4th in the league in Free Throw Rate and also 4th in Offensive Rebound Rate.

- This is the second of a back-to-back for the Clippers, who lost in Orlando last night.

- From Marc Berman of the Post:

"It’s going to be a great matchup — a great challenge for both of us," Stoudemire said. "I remember Blake when he was first coming out [of Oklahoma], he came to my skills academy camp. I think I showed him too many skills. But he’s applying his hard work and he’s playing well."

- The Clippers have lost four straight and are in the midst of an ELEVEN-game road trip.

- Here's the Clips Nation preview of tonight's game.

What happened last time!?

Knicks 124, Clippers 115: Blake Griffin dunked a bunch, but the Clippers defense couldn't handle Danilo Gallinari and friends.

Wassup with the Clippers!?

Steve Perrin, magistrate of Clips Nation:

The Knicks are getting the Clippers in a perfect storm of trouble. They're terrible on the road (3-17 prior to Tuesday night's game in Orlando), playing without Eric Gordon (they're 2-7 without Gordon) and on the second game of a road back to back. So yeah, if the Knicks don't win this one, then something is seriously wrong.

Knicks fans may recall this guy Griffin, who had a pretty good game last time the teams played. He's still great, but he needs help, and without Gordon in the lineup, defenses are finding it much easier to load up against Griffin without paying a price. With Gordon, Chris Kaman and Craig Smith all hurt, the Clippers bench is pretty depleted. It doesn't help that the other rookies, Eric Bledsoe and Al-Farouq Aminu, have tapered off significantly.

The good news for the Clippers versus the first meeting is that they will have Baron Davis this time around. Baron has been good this season, very good at times, facilitating the offense, breaking down defenses, and setting up Griffin and DeAndre Jordan for easy finishes. But it probably won't be enough to a road weary, injury depleted team on a back to back.

Know the opponent!

#3- Al-Farouq Aminu: Al-Farouq's full name is a palindrome. Don't try it out, just take my word for it. I SAID DON'T TRY IT OUT.

#12- Eric Bledsoe: Eric, more than the rest of his teammates, was deeply affected by all the astrology uproar a month or two ago. Believing he had been transformed into an Ophiuchus, Eric grew his hair to shoulder-length and called several Los Angeles-area pet stores in search of "serpents".

#45- Rasual Butler: Rasual's attempts to coax Bledsoe into forming a rap duo called "Eric B. and Rasual" have been unsuccessful to date.

#50- Ike Diogu: Instead of Powerpoint presentations or celebrity guests, the Clippers' free agent pitch to Ike was a group visit to Legoland. Ike is also paid in Bionicles.

#9- DeAndre Jordan: DeAndre penned an entire series of young adult fantasy novels under the nom de plume "D. Andre Jordan".

#1- Craig Smith: Like all "Craigs", Craig aspires to host his own talk show someday.

Wilson Chandler is unimpressed by your highlights!

Hey, Wilson, check this out!

Wilson?

Oh.

Here is a picture of the opposing coach!

And now are you are prepared for Knicks-Clippers. I hope to make this a running feature, and also add some new elements while rotating stuff in and out. Game thread will be up later.