Rapid Reaction: Clippers Easily Defeat Lakers in First Preseason Game

The Los Angeles Clippers looked like a new team tonight as they dominated the Los Angeles Lakers and claimed a 114-95 victory. 

New acquisition Chris Paul created havoc in the lane as he led the Clippers with 17 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and five steals.

The dynamic Blake Griffin had an average game with 12 points, but the new talent more than made up for his poor showing, a contrast to last year, where they would have struggled when their superstar lagged.

The Lakers looked lost as their weakest link, point guard, and were exploited by the Clippers deep talent at the position, with Chauncey Billups (23 Points), CP3, Randy Foye and Eric Bledsoe all playing well.

For the Lakers, the one bright spot seemed to be the health of star shooting guard Kobe Bryant, who had an experimental procedure done in the offseason in Germany.

Lakers center Andrew Bynum also had a good game with a double-double (15 points, 12 rebounds) while Pau Gasol seemed to put the persistent trade rumors behind him to score 16 points and grab seven rebounds.

So what can each of the LA teams take from this preseason skirmish?

For the Clippers, there were almost no negatives to find in this game, as they shut down the Lakers offense in the second half and easily shot almost 50 percent from the field.

The combination of DeAndre Jordan, Blake Griffen (to an extent) and Chris Paul looked unstoppable with a few SportsCenter top plays already in the books.

The much-anticipated “Lob City” began to come alive, and while the Lakers weren’t at their best defensively, the Clippers had quite a few spectacular dunks that any team would have struggled to prevent.

While this is the first preseason game, and therefore shouldn’t be taken too seriously, this display does bode well for the future of the Clippers, so long in the shadow of their more decorated crosstown rivals.

Looking at this game from a Lakers point of view, it was easy to become depressed about the upcoming season.

While new acquisitions Josh McRoberts and Troy Murphy played fairly well, there will be deep doubts about the Lakers chances to compete for a championship with their current roster.

The Lakers will have to seriously consider making a major move, maybe finally caving for Dwight Howard, in order to shake up their team.

Perhaps the Lakers simply don’t match up well with this new-look Clipper team, but poor showings by the likes of Metta World Peace, Luke Walton, and others seem to indicate that the Lakers simply don’t have sufficient talent or quality in their side to challenge for another banner.  

Many Lakers fans will be cursing NBA commissioner David Stern, in the wake of this game, after seeing what could have been as CP3 showed off his talent.

The Lakers looked like a new team (and not in a good way), while the Clippers looked as though they were hitting midseason form already.  

While this is only a glorified exhibition game, the Lakers fanbase will only be edging closer to complete panic mode, while the Clippers fanbase finally has something to cheer about.

At the end of the day, it seems like a new era is dawning upon Los Angeles.