Matt Barnes Tells Clippers to Cool It: How Should Lob City Respond?

The Los Angeles Lakers are facing the possibility of becoming the town's second-best team to the Los Angeles Clippers, a situation quite unfamiliar to the purple and gold, and Lakers forward Matt Barnes doesn't like all the showboating the "Lob City" Clippers are displaying. 

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"They act like they won the dunk contest after every dunk," Barnes said. "So, as players, people aren't going to tolerate that."

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Barnes has a point. All the excitement after routine dunks is completely unnecessary, especially when these players have won nothing in their careers, except Caron Butler and Chauncey Billups.

Matt Barnes isn't exactly qualified to call out superstar players, but you cannot ignore the fact his comments are spot on.

Barnes also has a problem with Clippers all-star Blake Griffin, saying that the talented forward flops too much.

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"He's an amazing athlete and an amazing player but he does flop a lot," Barnes said. "You're too big and too strong to be doing that. Then he wants to talk.

"... He's a special athlete. Probably one of the best athletes I've ever seen, but all the flopping is unnecessary. That's the way he plays and it works too, they call it, so you can't be mad at him for it."

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Barnes was also upset over a flagrant foul called in the two team's game on Wednesday night, when he gave Griffin a bit of a shove and was called for a flagrant foul.

Here is the play for those of you who haven't seen it.

Barnes does shove Griffin someone as big as Blake should be thrown to the ground that easily from a soft shove.

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"I looked at [the replay] and yeah, my arms did get extended but [Griffin] flailed everywhere like I threw him to half-court," Barnes said. "I just think the refs are so quick to judge. Even after looking at the replay, I heard initially they wanted to call a flagrant 2 and I'm just like, 'Are you kidding me?'

"I guess there's just no hard fouls anymore. It was just a hard foul."

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The Clippers need to act like they've been there before, even if they haven't.

It's cool to get excited after sweet alley-oops, but to do that after every dunk is completely foolish and teams will lose a lot of respect for them real quickly if it continues.

The Clippers should react to Barnes' comments by taking the high road and focusing on the upcoming season, one that is full of potential.

They don't need to be getting into verbal battles with the Lakers, because then their focus is more on beating their crosstown rivals and not getting into the playoffs.

A young team like the Clippers cannot be distracted by the media games played by veteran players on veteran teams.

Blake Griffin and his teammates need to show some mental toughness and forget about Barnes, because in the end, the only ones who will stop the Clippers from being the best team in Los Angeles this season is themselves.

Nicholas Goss is an NBA Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report

Follow @NicholasGoss35