Los Angeles Clippers: Could Lob City Alley-Oop Itself into the NBA Finals?

Twelve games into the season last year, the Los Angeles Clippers held a woeful record of 1-11.

This year? The team is 8-4 and currently stands second in the Pacific Division behind a Los Angeles Lakers team due to face three above-.500 teams in as many games, including the Miami Heat tonight.

And how fitting it is that, despite dramatically improving both their lineup and winning percentage, the Clippers conveniently manage to find themselves in the shadows of the purple and golden team of Los Angeles yet again. 

One gets the sense that even if the Clippers were ahead of the Lakers in the standings, they probably still wouldn't get their due recognition as being the new show on the block. At least not when it mattered.

Such is the case for a team which has shown its body of work to merit its reputation as the laughingstock of the NBA and warranted the feelings of skepticism that underlie such a perception.

Therefore, it's only natural that the highest trajectory we can project for a team that has already beaten two of last season's conference champions, as well as its vaunted neighborhood superiors, is a group that went from being a punchline to having a puncher's chance.

And I'm here to tell you that that is a load of crap. Because not only is this Clippers team good, they are good enough.

Think about it.

They have a defensive anchor in DeAndre Jordan, who is averaging a league-leading three blocks a game.

They have an offensive mastermind in Chris Paul who almost single-handedly kept the Lakers from advancing and ultimately getting swept by the Dallas Mavericks in last year's playoffs (sounded funny in my head).

They have the depth in guys like Caron Butler, Mo Williams and the relentless Reggie Evans.

They have the championship experience and pedigree in Chauncey Billups, who proved as recently as yesterday that he is still worthy of his nickname, "Mr. Big Shot."

The only thing this team is really missing to get them to that next level is a defensive mentality. As of now, the Clippers are ranked 26th in the NBA in defensive efficiency.

Maybe that's the fault of a team that is too eager to run down the other side of the court and perform its next highlight. Maybe it's the fault of a coach like Vinny Del Negro, who has yet to prove his stature in the league.

Heck, maybe its because a lot of the new faces are all still trying to mesh with each other.

In any case, this team has all the talent they need to be a title contender, and they have another 54 games left to fine-tune their ship.

By then, who knows where they might end up?

Just don't be surprised at what provokes your jaw when it's all said and done.

Because it may not be due to a laugh or a lob.