Why Lakers-Clippers Los Angeles Rivalry Will Be Better Than Ever in 2013-14
Things have changed in Los Angeles.
In the past, it's been the Los Angeles Lakers who have ruled Hollywood. They've bowed to no one, least of all their Staples Center cohabitants, the Los Angeles Clippers. One failed/successful Chris Paul trade later, everything changed.
The Lakers' loss was the Clippers' gain. Paul came in and swiftly changed the culture of his current team. He transformed the Clippers from a laughingstock into a formidable contender and destination of choice. And since 2011, everything has been leading up to this—the apex of the Clippers-Lakers rivalry.
On paper, the Clippers are better. Healthier. They won their first Pacific Division title last year after notching a franchise-best 56 victories, and they deepened the roster with offseason acquisitions of Jared Dudley and J.J. Redick. Doc Rivers will be roaming the sidelines, too, attempting to bring together a roster loaded with talent.
Meanwhile, the Lakers failed to win the Pacific for the first time in five years in 2012-13. They lost Dwight Howard and Metta World Peace over the summer, and Kobe Bryant still isn't healthy. No one really knows what to expect of them as a result, though ESPN projected them to finish 12th in the Western Conference.
This staunch contrast in direction and makeup is exactly why these two teams are fated to clash harder than ever.
The Clippers can taste a championship; the division is theirs to lose. But the Lakers are looking to show they're still here, too. Trying to harvest success out of a campaign they've been counted out of.
Cloaked Banners
Rivers wasted little time in leaving his mark on this rivalry.
Prior to the start of the regular season, it was announced that the Clippers would be covering every one of the Lakers' 16 championship banners during Staples Center home games, as the Los Angeles Times' Brad Turner confirmed.
The nerve of these Clippers, right? Masking ever-present reminders of how dominant the Lakers were is punishable by, well, nothing. Other than the wrath of Nick Young, that is.
"He can do that?" Young said after finding out about the veiling, according to ESPN Los Angeles' Dave McMenamin. "For real? That's disrespectful. We got to talk to Doc. He can't have that. We got to do something about that."
Though the cover-up act clearly enraged Swaggy P—who was a part of exactly zero of those championship teams—it elicited a different kind of response from Steve Nash.
"I guess if you were in the Clippers' organization, you probably want to do that, too," Nash said, via McMenamin "It's their arena on their night, so I would try to make it feel like home."
Quite obviously, it's Nash who's right. Concealing the remnants of better days in Lakerland doesn't erase them from the team's history or our memory. Behind the scintillating faces of Blake and Paul, among others, hangs 16 championship banners, all of which are dedicated to the Lakers.
Still, the mere decision to disguise them is a sign of how far things have come. Los Angeles has always been the Lakers' town, but the Clippers continue to inch in on their territory. Burying those championship drapes are just another way they're staking their flag in the arena, in the city.
Not everyone will be as animatedly displeased about the Clippers obstructing view of those drapes as Young. Those who deserve to be upset—Kobe and Pau Gasol—may never voice their concerns. But when these two teams are on the floor, you better believe the intensity will be there.
How could it not when the Lakers, as unpredictable as ever, are, for the first time, being painted as the inferior product?
Shots Fired
Trash talk is already flowing between the Clippers and Lakers like their players' contracts say so.
Chris Kaman, who spent eight seasons with the Clippers, was quick to dismiss the notion of his former team ever usurping the Lakers in importance.
"I respect what they’re doing and what they’ve done, but still, they’re nothing like the Lakers,” Kaman said of the Clippers, per the Los Angeles Times' Mike Bresnahan. “You look up here at all the championships. They’re never going to have that. It’s never going to happen. I don’t see it."
Nearly a decade playing under Donald Sterling's senselessly despotic rule has left Kaman skeptical about how successful the Clippers can be moving forward, too.
"Before, the owner, Donald Sterling, didn’t care about winning,” Kaman said. “He cared about sharing that luxury money."
Swaggy P, who played 22 games with the Clippers in 2011-12, has made his thoughts on their place in Los Angeles abundantly clear as well.
"But the feeling of being a Laker is much different," Young said of the difference, via the Los Angeles Daily News' Mark Medina. "The atmosphere is crazy, and the fans are better. The Clippers are like our little brothers."
Little brothers that won 11 more games than the Lakers this season. Little brothers that are projected to finish with a better record this year.
Little brothers that don't even consider the Lakers a rival.
"I don't think it'll ever be a rivalry," Clippers center DeAndre Jordan opined, per the Times' Broderick Turner. "You guys [in the media] want it to be, though. I would say Memphis more than the Lakers."
The Memphis Grizzlies? Over an in-house opponent? I get that the Clippers have faced the Grizzlies in the first round of the playoffs these past two years, but damn.
Players, especially from the Clippers' side, may not be prepared to admit it, but this is a rivalry. And there's no shortage of incendiary devices currently being thrown into the fire.
Kobe's House
The Lakers could be in full-blown tank mode and Kobe still wouldn't let the Clips run away with the city of Los Angeles without a fight. Too bad Kobe is still rehabbing a ruptured Achilles he suffered last April.
"No," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said when asked if Kobe would play against the Clippers opening night. "My God, I know he's Superman, but my God. He hasn't run yet.”
If the Lakers know when the Black Mamba will be returning, they're withholding the information. No definitive timetable or target date has been released. Until there is one, the Lakers will be without their most important player and a central figure of this rivalry.
Kobe "Bean" Bryant hates to lose. Always has. Anything less than a championship is a finish you know Bean won't be happy about. Losing the division crown to the Clippers couldn't have sat well, either. When he returns, no matter what the Lakers are playing for, you can bet he'll have remaining games against the Clippers circled on his calendar.
Chris Paul was supposed to be Kobe's teammate, not the starting point guard who spearheaded a renaissance for his rival. The Lakers are already being written off against everyone else. Kobe is already being written off in certain circles. So many factors are at play here, and it's created an interesting dynamic.
Kobe and the Lakers are engaging in a quest to prove the majority wrong—to contend for a playoff spot. With or without him, setting screws to the Clippers is the perfect foundation for their case.
Personally, I imagine Kobe talking his teammates' ears off, reiterating how important it is that the Lakers protect their house. That they protect their city. That they win the battle for Los Angeles, whether he's able to pitch in or not.
Fighting Different Battles
Separate battles for the city of Los Angeles and division and conference will be waged this season. But the war is only just reaching its peak. The Clippers will never have Los Angeles' affections. Not the way the Lakers have. There's too much history for them to overcome.
They can, however, be the better team. Last season, that's exactly what they were. It was them who won the division. It was them who made a current contender stronger over the offseason. And it's them who will also always be playing from behind, looking for that opportunity to take the next leap.
Those in purple and gold have an inherent edge. Again, history. But as the two teams have gone in different directions, that edge has and will continue to be tested.
Will the Lakers always have Los Angeles? Yes. Will they forever have the belief that the Clippers are the inferior franchise? That it's more than their history keeping them ahead of their intra-city rival? We don't know.
Therein lies what these two teams are playing for. The Lakers? They're fighting to keep their standing pure, something other than history to rest their laurels on.
Those new-and-improved Clippers? They're attempting to chip away at the Lakers' reputation one victory, one division crown at time. That way, while they still know they'll never be the Lakers, they'll look back and be able to say there was a time they were better. When they were the best Los Angeles had to offer, even if most don't want to admit it.
When they were able to join a conversation once exclusively held for the Lakers, and the Lakers alone.
