INGLEWOOD — The overachieving, underappreciated Clippers cooked the Lakers so thoroughly in a 116-102 victory on Sunday night it was as if JJ Redick had ordered it that way when he shared his thoughts on the Intuit Dome before the Lakers’ first game there: “Well done,” he had said, “well done.”
The chefs hosting the game were only too happy to oblige. They built a lead as large as 26 points, made the Lakers – struggling to tread water at 22-18 – look stagnant and vulnerable, and triggered LeBron James’ annual midseason denouncement of his team’s roster construction.
And it brought to mind a familiar riddle: What would it take?
What would it take for the Clippers to really work their way into the hearts and minds of Lakers-loving Los Angeles? To turn their slice of the pie into a bigger chunk, to make a true and lasting dent?
Never say never, they say.
Anything is possible, they say.
Defense wins championships, they tell us (for what it’s worth, these bought-in Clippers have the second-best defensive rating in the NBA).
If you build it they will come? That one might turn out to be a Hollywood myth.
The Clippers have built this remarkable new arena, right? The place is so “dope, super-dope,” that even Lakers fans like Daniel Balver, visiting for the first time Sunday, had to give props.
It’s a high-tech hoops palace with so many original flourishes that resonate with basketball connoisseurs. There’s the décor: high school jerseys from all over the state lining the wide concourse. “My favorite part,” Laker fan Anup Parikh said.
And the outdoor court, steps away from the arena’s entrance, inviting to anyone with a jump shot: “I love, love the basketball court for the people,” Sumer Sharma said. “And I love how people react to it. It’s not like there’s somebody there regulating the system, there’s some balls on the court and it’s just do whatever you want to do. That’s beautiful; that’s L.A. Just people amongst people. Different jerseys, all playing together.”
The Clippers, of course, would prefer for all of those Angelenos be wearing their jerseys. That’s why they’ve cordoned off The Wall for only card-carrying Clippers fans, the marquee feature inside the arena, that steep, almost continuous 51-row section behind the basket near the visiting team’s bench.
You can see the vision, and the results: Before the Lakers’ visit, opponents were making just 72.8% (152 of 209) of their free throws against The Wall.
But I have yet to see that 4,500-seat section bottom-to-top full, including Sunday in what was an announced sellout. All 17,927 tickets might have been sold, but not all of those seats had a fan’s fanny in it.
This riddle-wrapped conundrum, L.A.’s other basketball team: The Clippers haven’t had a losing season in 13 years, so it really shouldn’t be a surprise that they’re good again. They entered Monday with a 24-17 record. Or that they’re a top-five seed in a deep Western Conference. That Coach Tyronn Lue has a group that started the season short on star power playing hard and playing together and still scratching the surface. Because they’ve just started integrating their best player – oft-injured two-time NBA champion Kawhi Leonard – into their game plans. And they’ve got the super-dope new arena.
They should be a hot ticket, and they would be in most markets: Good basketball, fun venue, a great time.
But the Clippers are the worst-drawing team in the NBA, averaging 16,205 fans per game – fewer than any in any non-COVID season since 2009, when the they finished the season 19-63.
Is it the $70 cost to park in the arena’s dedicated structure? The traffic between downtown L.A., where they previously played, and their $2 billion new operational hub in Inglewood? Maybe the restrictions on who can sit amongst the supporters on The Wall?
Or is it local history and tradition? Love and loyalty, won over decades in L.A; the Lakers’ 17 NBA championships to the Clippers’ none? “Showtime,” Shaq and Kobe, LeBron …
If you’re from L.A., you know the deal, like you might know that, with Sunday’s result, the Lakers have lost to the Clippers 31 times in 40 games since Steve Ballmer rescued the organization from former owner Donald Sterling.
Under Ballmer, the Clippers have been consistent, competent, creative, competitive. They refurbished every public court in L.A. and branded it with their logo. They have managed assets smartly. But they’ve been unlucky and underwhelming; the “213 Era” that brought both Leonard and Paul George to L.A. – two local guys who spurned the Lakers – ended with just one Western Conference finals appearance in five seasons.
What would it have meant if the Clippers had won one Larry O’Brien championship trophy with one of the George-and-Leonard teams? Lou Williams said when that “213 Era” was tipping off: “We can possibly hear boos at our own parade.”
OK, what if they had won two? How many of those so-far-impossibly-hard-to-come-by titles would it take? And who’s winning them? Because the Clippers would also have to win in style, with a star or stars who aren’t only killers in the clutch but who have the charisma to command the spotlight in the crowded constellation that is L.A.
Never say never?
Maybe the Clippers will forever play the pesky younger sibling. Maybe they’re more of a proverbial thorn in the side. But eventually their bad luck is going to run out and their competence and competitiveness will be rewarded. And then they’ve got the super-dope arena. So maybe they will come.
What would it take for the Clippers make up real ground in L.A.?
That doesn’t usually feel like a serious question. But watching Sunday as the Clippers dismantled the Lakers again, and did it under their own roof, flag firmly planted, it didn’t seem ludicrous to wonder.