Rivalry? What rivalry? According to Dwight Howard, a Clippers/Lakers rivalry doesn’t exist. The Lakers, who will face the Los Angeles Clippers tonight at Staples Center as the home team, have become much more competitive with their co-tenants over the recent years. However, Howard, having only been in Los Angeles for a few months, doesn’t see it that way.
“I don’t have an issue with the Clippers. I thought the rivalry was the Celtics. “
Dwight’s right. The rivalry will always be the Celtics; however, the Lakers and Clippers have had a noteworthy past. The Clippers have not won a season series against the Lakers since 1993. The Clippers have also dropped the past nine consecutive games with the Lakers at home, but the Clippers have a shaky Lakers season start (0-2) on their side this year.
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Dwight Howard is not about to underestimate the Clippers.
“They have a great team. It seems like they practice lobs the whole practice. Everybody’s catching lobs. Even Green, one of the guys who don’t even dunk was catching lobs. I even saw the coach before the game… They was throwin’ him lobs. It’s really lob city over there.”
All jokes aside, rivalry or no rivalry, the goal is the same. After a rough start, the Lakers just need to put a tally in the win column.
“For us, we just want to win. We just want to put some wins on the board.”
Tonight, the Lakers are most likely without a member of their “Super Team.” With a contusion on Steve Nash’s lower right leg, the starting point guard is still a game time decision for tonight.
“It’s a game-time decision. It doesn’t look good, but they haven’t ruled him out yet.” – Coach Brown
After this morning’s shoot around, Coach Mike Brown expressed the difficulty of tonight’s game with or without Nash. Howard, however, doesn’t sound worried.
“If he doesn’t play tonight, we’ve been going over a lot of film in the back, and I’ve been working on my guard skills. I might be Steve Nash Howard. Tragic Johnson that’s what they’ll call me.”
Let’s hope the word ‘tragic’ doesn’t make it in tonight’s post-game report.
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What do you think about Mychal Thompson’s Lakers predictions for the season? Check out our Lakers Nation exclusive interview below.
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