Battle LA the Hottest Ticket in Town

The LA Clippers have generated a lot of buzz ever since they pried Chris Paul away from the grip of NBA Commissioner David Stern. Instead of quietly building on the success of Blake Griffin’s inaugural campaign, the Clips decided to step out of the kiddie pool and dive head-first into the deep end. In addition to CP3, they were also the winners of the Chauncey Billups amnesty sweepstakes. Couple that with the free agent signing of versatile small forward Caron Butler and the re-signing of athletic, shot-blocker extraordinaire DeAndre Jordan and suddenly the prospect of simply making the playoffs wasn’t good enough. Projections of a deep playoff run and dare we say it, a red, white and blue championship banner hanging in Staples Center suddenly had Clipper Nation bowing in reverence and kissing the ring on Donald Sterling’s hand.

Clippers Nation has had more to cheer about with the addition of superstar CP3 and veteran Chauncey Billups. Copyrights may apply. All rights reserved.

But through all of the trumpeted fanfare, amid sports talk radio dialogue of taking over the city, and even as the Clips were neck-and-neck in the standings with their purple and gold neighbors, one thing remained to be proven, and that was accomplished Saturday night with their 102-94 thumping behind Chris Paul’s 33-points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals. This may still be a Lakers town, but one thing was proven beyond a doubt. These Clippers are for real, as in verified, double-checked and tested. Not only did the Clips take away the Lakers tremendous advantage on the boards (50-42), not only did they nullify their disparity with points-in-the-paint (38-40), but they beat the Lakers at their own game, never relinquishing the lead during the entire contest.

Not even Kobe Bryant (42 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals) could prevent the Clips from exacting their third consecutive win (2-preseason, 1 regular season) of the abbreviated season against his 16-time champs. But Kobe got very little help from his “supporting” staff as the Clips wrecked havoc by feasting on a heavy diet of pick-and-pop from both CP3 and Billups (19 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists). And for good measure, Blake Griffin (22 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists) had plenty of signature oohs and ahhs to please Clipper Nation while also agitating the Laker players.

Neighbors are not always friendly with one another and this affair was no different. Mike Brown did not appreciate Griffin pushing Darius Morris (7 points, 4 assists, 1 steal in 24-minutes) while the rookie was in midair after dunking the ball. To make matters worse, the whistle had already blown and the play was dead. Morris landed awkwardly while Brown had to be restrained from rushing the court after Griffin. For his trouble, Brown was assessed a technical foul and the mood out on the court went even sourer. Unfortunately for the Lakers, they could not channel their emotions into better play whereas the Clips continued to build on their lead.

Pau Gasol (14 points on 7-17, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block) was pushed so far off the block that he became a jump-shooting non-threat. Andrew Bynum, the other half of the Lakers formidable front line (12 points on 6-13, 16 rebounds, 4 assists) was double- and triple-teamed whenever he got the ball, forcing the Lakers into a hurried and ineffective offense. Without Kobe carrying the entire offense, the Lakers would easily have been blown clean out of the water. Even the recent good play of Matt Barnes (6 points on 1-6, 2 rebounds, 2 assists) and Derek Fisher (7 points, 4 assists, 1 rebound) hit rock bottom against the peppier Clips.

With Mo Williams out of action (sore right foot), Randy Foye (10 points, 2 rebounds) responded nicely while trying to harass Kobe out on the wings. And with the Lakers without the services of Steve Blake, other than Morris, who picked up the bulk of the minutes, the Laker bench managed only 6-points and 5-rebounds. Hardly championship material for a team laden with veterans and ample leadership. If nothing else, this was a good wake-up call for the Lakers. And as for the Clippers, this was as good a win as they’ve ever had.