The ‘Battle of L.A.’ has been an interesting dynamic since LeBron James and Anthony Davis went to the Los Angeles Lakers and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George went to the Los Angeles Clippers. There have been a fair share of close games between the Lakers and Clippers, although the latter have owned the purple and gold for the past couple of seasons in their regular season matchups.
The Lakers have lost 11 straight to the Clippers with their last win dating back to July 30, 2020 when the NBA restarted the season in the bubble after the COVID-19 shutdown. Lakers fans have been antsy to end this losing streak to their cross-hall rival, but they have been left hanging for awhile.
Due to the historic franchise that the Lakers are, they are seen as the team that runs L.A due to their 17 championships to the Clippers’ zero. George recently gave a peak behind the curtain on what it’s like to be a Clipper in L.A., via Podcast P with Paul George:
“At Crypto[.com Arena], we share the space there, it’s a weird dynamic. I was telling them we’ll go in the weight room and Bron got his shit, we don’t touch his shit, logo’d out. It feels like we’re the little bros over there, they treat us different. The [Lakers’] shit is like upscale, so it’s just a weird dynamic, it’s a Lakers town. It’s funny to me like if I’m somewhere and they like ‘aww you should be a Laker’ or ‘come to L.A.’ and I’m like bro what?”
George, who grew up in nearby Palmdale, is very familiar with the dynamic in Southern California. He requested a trade to the Lakers when he was unhappy in Indiana although eventually ended up with the Oklahoma City Thunder. With nothing ever materializing, it leaves Lakers fans feeling uneasy with George playing for the Clippers.
In the NBA Bubble, the Lakers were waiting for their Western Conference opponents and it seemed that the Clippers and Lakers were on a collision course to play their first playoff series against each other with the Clippers up 3-1 over the Denver Nuggets. However, that did not happen due to the Nuggets winning the series 4-3.
Despite the Clippers beating the Lakers the last 11 times, the latter are still seen as the superior team in L.A., as they should due to championship history. But, the Lakers are still in search of breaking that losing streak heading into next season and there’s no doubt the Clippers will be hungry to finally get over the hump.
D’Angelo Russell believes Warriors struggled to match up with Lakers in postseason
With the Lakers flipping their trajectory as team at the trade deadline, the team became more dynamic offensively with more shot creation and shot-making. D’Angelo Russell believed that the former defending champion Warriors struggled to matchup with the Lakers in the second round due to multiple scoring options, which led to a series win for L.A.
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