It can no longer be denied … The Lakers are no longer the best basketball team in the city of Los Angeles.
The rivalry is still fresh. It was only last year that David Stern vetoed a trade between the league owned New Orleans Hornets (soon to be Pelicans?) and the Los Angeles Lakers in which the latter would receive Chris Paul in what was to be the biggest blockbuster trade of the season. Just days later, Chris Paul landed in Hollywood but for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Staples Centre became home to the best Clippers team we had ever seen. However due to injuries to Paul and Blake Griffin, the Clippers exited in the second round of the playoffs to an experienced San Antonio Spurs squad. But it seems that is where the misery has ended for Los Angeles’ second star-studded team.
During the off-season, the Clippers acquired former Lakers: Matt Barnes, Ronny Turiaf and Lamar Odom. That’s not where the new signings ended with a surprise snapping up of twelve year veteran Jamal Crawford. Then there was Grant Hill, who was originally being targeted by the Lakers. But after the Lakers signed Steve Nash and Dwight Howard along with a revamped bench, nobody expected the Clippers to take control of Los Angeles like they have.
Just five days ago, the Clippers had their seventeen game win streak snapped by the Denver Nuggets. You read that right, seventeen (new franchise record)! The run included a dominant display over an array of talented teams with only three of those games won by five or fewer points. It was the NBA’s longest winning streak in four years.
Just two days ago, the Lakers suffered a defeat to the Clippers which solidified the point that not only did Los Angeles belong to them now, but this team was capable of so much more than city dominance. Behind Kobe Bryant’s thirty eight points and Dwight Howard’s twenty-one points and fifteen rebounds, the Lakers didn’t exactly play badly. In fact, even Bryant himself said the team notched together one of its better games of the season; but they still lost. What does that tell you ladies and gentleman? The younger brother has finally grown up and can deliver a bloody hard punch to his older sibling.
The Clippers sit at second in the Western Conference with a record of twenty seven wins and eight losses, just behind the Oklahoma City Thunder. Where are the Lakers? Nine places behind them with a record of fifteen wins and eighteen losses. Los Angeles is no longer dominated by the Lakers and their fans, its the Clippers town now as Lob City is the new Showtime.
