The Los Angeles Clippers play host to the Portland Trail Blazers at Staples Center on Tuesday.

The Trail Blazers (8-12) come into this matchup winning three-straight games and fans are hopeful it's the end of an ugly start. Losing 12 of your first 17 games is hard to recover from but that's what this team has to do. They have the talent to get out of this hole though, finishing third in the Western Conference each of the last two years, It's all about Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum but a couple new additions are starting to find their stride. Hassan Whiteside just had 10 blocks in the last game and Carmelo Anthony picked up a player of the week award last week As long as those two keep doing that, this team should be in fine shape with McCollum and Lillard taking on most of the ball-handling duties.

The Clippers (15-6) had some seriously high hopes coming into the year and they've been living up to most of the expectations. The only real blips have been when Paul George and Kawhi Leonard are our of the lineup, as that makes for four of the six defeats. What's scary is that this club ranks Top-10 in both points allowed and points scored, showing their versatility on both ends of the floor. While it's easy to understand why they're successful with Leonard and George, many people overlook this special bench. Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams combine for the most bench points in the NBA, which is truly scary considering their dangerous duo in the starting lineup. As long as these two duos keep doing work, this team will be hard to beat.

Los Angeles won their first game over Portland this season, 107-101, on November 7. Prior to that, the Trail Blazers won six of their previous seven games over the Clippers.