So Far This Season:

The Raptors are 8-4 which put them in third place. They have been playing excellent of late and have a chance to prove it against this Clipper team. The Raps have proven they can beat the opponents they are supposed to beat - now its time to show that they can hang with the big boys.

Source
The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. The team was established in 1995, along with the Vancouver Grizzlies, as part of the NBA's expansion into Canada. When the Grizzlies relocated to Memphis, Tennessee to become the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001, the Raptors became the only Canadian-based team in the NBA. They originally played their home games at the SkyDome (since renamed Rogers Centre in 2005), before moving eastward along Bremner Boulevard to the Air Canada Centre in 1999.

Like most expansion teams, the Raptors struggled in their early years, but after the acquisition of Vince Carter through a draft day trade in 1998, the team set league-attendance records and made the NBA playoffs in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Carter was instrumental in leading the team to a then-franchise high 47 wins, and their first playoff series win in 2001, where they advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals. During the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons, they failed to make significant progress, and he was traded in 2004 to the New Jersey Nets.

After Carter had left, Chris Bosh emerged as the team leader. In 2006–07, Bryan Colangelo's first full season as President and General Manager, a combination of Bosh, 2006 first overall NBA draft pick Andrea Bargnani and a revamp of the roster helped the Raptors qualify for their first playoff berth in five years, capturing the Atlantic Division title with 47 wins. In the 2007–08 season, they advanced to the playoffs again, but failed to make the playoffs in each of the next five seasons. In a bid to persuade Bosh to stay, Colangelo overhauled the team roster for the 2009–10 season, but Bosh signed with the Miami Heat in July 2010, ushering in yet another era of rebuilding for the Raptors.

After Masai Ujiri was brought in as the new General Manager in 2013, he traded Bargnani to the New York Knicks. With a backcourt led by Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, the Raptors returned to the playoffs, won their second Atlantic Division title, and won a then-franchise record 48 games in the 2013–14 season. However, they failed for a fourth consecutive time to advance beyond the first round of the playoffs. In the 2014–15 season, they won a then-franchise record 49 games, but failed for a second consecutive year to advance past the first round of the playoffs, getting swept by the Washington Wizards, 4–0. In the 2015–16 season, they won a franchise record 56 games, finishing in second place in the conference for the first time in franchise history. In the playoffs, they won their first playoff series since 2001 by defeating both the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat, advancing to the Conference Finals for the first time against the Cleveland Cavaliers, only for the Raptors to lose to the eventual NBA champions in six games.

Game Stats Pregame

Los Angeles Clippers

So Far This Season:

The Clippers are 12-2 this season - they are picking up where they left off last year - showing the basketball world why this is the team to watch this year.

The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Clippers play their home games at the Staples Center, an arena shared with the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA, the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL).

The franchise was founded in 1970 as the Buffalo Braves, one of three expansion teams to join the NBA that year. The Braves moved from Buffalo, New York to San Diego in 1978 and became known as the San Diego Clippers. In 1984, the Clippers moved to Los Angeles. Through much of its history, the franchise failed to see significant regular season or playoff success. The Clippers were frequently seen as an example of a perennial loser in American professional sports, drawing unfavorable comparisons to the historically successful Lakers, with whom they have shared a market since 1984 and an arena since 1999.

The Clippers' fortunes turned in the early 2010s with the acquisition of core players Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and Chris Paul. In 2013, the franchise won its first division title, as the team made the playoffs for the ninth time in franchise history and the third time in the previous eight seasons. They also added to their budding rivalry with the Lakers, as they finished with a better record than the Lakers for the fifth time and won the season series for the second time since moving to Los Angeles in 1984, this time in a sweep. They repeated as division champions in 2014.

Source