Clippers Rising, But Fall Short

Blake Griffin had posterizing dunks. Nick Young took over in the fourth quarter. Eric Bledsoe played big minutes down the stretch, extending the Clippers half court defense. Caron Butler scored a season high 28 points on 50% shooting. Everyone played well enough that Chris Paul was able to be a distributor and not a scorer. And the crowd was electric—but somehow that was not enough for the Clippers to overcome their metaphorical older brothers in the city of LA, in their biggest game of the season.

The Clippers played loose, and it was great. Not only was it entertaining to watch on TV and inside of Staples Center, but they played their best game of the season trying to add to a six game winning streak.

And the Lakers had to play their best game of the season to maintain their elder brother stature over the Clippers.

The game had intensity, as Griffin spent much of the game jawing with Pau and Bynum. But it was not a dirty game. That would have lead to sloppy basketball. But it was the most entertaining game of the season.

In successive plays, after Ramon Sessions’ technical foul, Blake Griffin went up and collided with Pau and kept going up to finish his posterizing dunk, Randy Foye’s acrobatic up and under reverse layup, and Chris Paul’s lob pass to DeAndre Jordan in traffic. That put the Clippers back in the ball game, and really picked up the intensity in the stadium, but the Clippers still didn’t win.

At the end of the third quarter, Jordan snuck up behind Sessions trying to run out the clock, stole the ball, and came down for a Randy Foye three pointer. And the Clippers still didn’t win.

Chirs Pual did a fantastic job late in the game of taking advantage of how the Lakers were switching. His penetration possession after possession would cause Bynum and Gasol to switch out to him, a matchup that favored Paul time after time. And the Clippers still didn’t win.

It was not a performance devoid of mistakes, with successive turnovers in the beginning of the fourth and a critical dropped ball by DeAndre Jordan from Caron Butler actually driving to the hoop. And for as well as Bledsoe played, he made some costly turnovers.

But Blake Griffin cost the Clippers the game because the moment seemed to catch up with him. Anxious to do the spectacular, he rushed shots throughout the game, which made him inefficient.

The Clippers played well enough on the defensive end, but the Lakers played their best game of the season. Bynum bullied the Clippers inside to his game high 36 points. Kobe looked like Kobe from the start to the end of the game. The Lakers are unlikely to play a game that well the rest of the season.

In Staples Center for this Clipper home game, there were MVP chants at Kobe and boos of Blake Griffin during the game. And then there were loud boos at Kobe and heckling of the Lakers players. It is situation unlike any other in the league, when you can be a beloved player in your home city, but still get heckled in your own building.

To argue about whether it’s a rivalry or not is missing the point. It’s a matter of perception. The older brother will never admit in mixed company that they feel threatened or challenged by the younger brother. The younger brother wants it to be a rivalry, because that at least acknowledges his accomplishments and talents. The Lakers are the Clippers older brother. Rivalry or no rivalry cannot be an objective position.

The point is that this was a great basketball game, one that brought out the best in both of these flawed (likely) playoff teams, and the best out of the people in our city. The stands were the least chromatically uniform that I ever seen in an arena. The crowd was an estimated 60% Clippers fans and 40% Lakers, sitting interspersed, cheering and heckling both teams in the most intriguing game in Los Angeles since the Lakers were in the Finals. Fans in Staples were loud and excited, and stepped up to the big game just like the players did.

The Clippers and Lakers do not play again in the regular season, but somewhere David Stern was watching the game, and at the very least hoping for a playoff matchup between these brothers.