Dec 15, 2012; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin (32) dunks during the first quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Scream blasphemy if you want: Chris Paul’s season-high for assists in a game is 16. Brandon Jennings has 19 and 17 in the last two games.

Of course, Paul had 15 assists and zero turnovers in a rout of Cleveland earlier this week so that’s fairly good as well, no?

The Bucks haven’t played as lopsided a game as the one they played against the Clippers on December 15th.  While the Bucks played a game the prior night in Cleveland, the Clippers waited for them in Milwaukee.  LA used fresh legs and ridiculous interior passing to carve the Bucks into fresh venison. It wasn’t pretty. Expect a mildly more entertaining game tonight.

Projected Lineups

Clippers: Chris Paul, Chauncey Billups, Caron Butler, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan
Bucks: Brandon Jennings, Monta Ellis, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Ersan Ilyasova, Larry Sanders

Eddie Doucette Returns

Former Bucks broadcaster and recent Curt Gowdy Award winner Eddie Doucette will join the radio broadcast of this game with Ted Davis.

According to the Journal Sentinel, Doucette will do the play-by-play in the second and third quarters, while serving as an analyst for the other two.

Big lead

The NBA changed to an eight-team playoff for the 1983-84 season.  In those 30 seasons since, no eighth-place team has had a lead over the ninth-place team (through the games played on March 5th) as large as the one the Bucks currently hold.   They lead the 76ers by 7.5 games (and the Raptors by 8.0 games) in the standings.

In 1994, the Nuggets led the Lakers by 7.0 games at the same point, and in 2000, the Kings held a lead of the same margin over the Nuggets. Unsurprisingly, both the ’94 Nuggets and ’00 Kings made the playoffs.

Clipperland  

• Lamar Odom fell asleep at a hearing for the custody of his children.
• Blake Griffin got chopped in the groin by Serge Ibaka, who was not suspended.
• Chauncey Billups has returned from a ruptured Achilles’ tendon that crushed the Clippers’ title hopes last season. Through 13 games, 20 of his 30 field goals are three-pointers.

Some stats

Remember that crack about Brandon ‘Generous’ having more assists than Chris Paul?

I would like to retract that one, please. The Clippers are googolplexes of parsecs ahead of the Bucks.  They shoot better, force more turnovers, and snag more rebounds.  There are a few scarce categories where Milwaukee is ahead.

For the Bucks, the keys will be not turning the ball over and doing a better job on the defensive glass.  Milwaukee grabbed an unhealthy 56.6% of available defensive rebounds in their most recent game against Utah.  If they perform like that against the Clips, they’ll lose by 40.