The Los Angeles Clippers play host to the Portland Trail Blazers at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday.

The Trail Blazers have been a contender throughout the last decade, but this is a new squad. The final piece hanging around was Damian Lillard, but they shipped him off to Milwaukee in the offseason. That has Portland in full-on rebuild mode, but they have a ton of young pieces that have fans excited about the future. DeAndre Ayton was the focal point of that Lillard deal, while Scoot Henderson was taken with one of the first picks in the draft. There are also veterans like Jerami Grant and Malcolm Brogdon on this team, so, it's not a squad anyone should overlook, despite looking like a rebuilding team!

The Clippers have been one of the focal points of the James Harden trade talks, but nothing has come to fruition yet. That means this is relatively the same squad we saw last season, and it's just a matter of health for this talented team. Everyone knows Los Angeles is one of the most dangerous squads when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are both healthy, but that's been a rare occurrence over the last few years. Missing two superstars would kill any unit, but both guys are fully healthy coming into the 2023-24 season. That has this as a make-or-break campaign for this team because they can't continue to underperform with such talented and pricey players.

Los Angeles swept the season series over Portland last year and have won 12 of their last 13 games over them in total.