Wed. 11/17 vs. Clippers Results Inside - Postgame comments

Realm of Shadows wrote:

GWHiZiTSPHiL wrote:Yeah, some of the people here are down right haters

*Raises hand* Yes I hate the C"li"ppers, why they haven't been booted from L.A is beyond me.

GWHiZiTSPHiL wrote:

Suntzu wrote:

GWHiZiTSPHiL wrote:

Suntzu wrote:Lets hope Chucky has some vet tricks up his sleeve and Lamar can contain Elton.

I want to argue. I want to fight. But logic tells me you might be right.

Ill still wager that Chucky will cause some disruption in the Rook's game and LO will give Brand something to work with ...even if its just due to motivation via playing his old team. If he tanks in his assignment then so be it. Bring on Grant and Mihm.

None the less..i think LO gave TD some problems here and there (quickness , etc.) so i expect Brand to be solid but a notch below his usual self...which is 2 notches below TD (barely). The counter argument is one could say Brand is more of a banger than TD and will wear LO out. Id counter and say LO will force Brand out a touch and tire him out with his quickness. I expect EB to lose the board battle as well.

Lakers win regardless

I'm confused. Who are you arguing with: me or yourself?

KB8 till infinity wrote:For me there is one important question! Who is going to defend Jaric! He had 25/7/8 against Alston because this guy is small! What about the diet? He will be burned!5-11" to 6-7"! I think in this game its time to let Butler defending Jaric! Kobe defending Maggette! Simmons is easyer to defend than Jaric! I think Butler is going to have a big night!

LA Times: Great! Just what everyone around here always wanted:

A real city series.

It might not be as much fun as going deep into the playoffs, but, in case you missed it, this is a new era. The Lakers aren't quite as good anymore, and the Clippers aren't quite as bad.

You remember when Kobe Bryant said that the rivalries with the Kings and Spurs were over?

Well, this one's heating up.

"I don't know what the outcome is going to be," Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy said Tuesday, "but I think we'll match up with them better with Shaquille gone."

Of course, most people preferred the old way, when this was a Laker town, the season didn't really start until April 15 and the "city series" was a figment of reporters' imagination, and then only if they needed an angle.

There was a lot of feeling but no rivalry. The Lakers were barely aware of the Clippers' existence, except during their four annual meetings when the Lakers showed them who was who, as when Shaquille O'Neal went for 61 against them in 2000 because, he said, they didn't give him enough tickets.

The Clippers would have loved to make it a rivalry, but they lost 27 of the 32 games in the Shaq-Kobe era.

The Lakers once won 16 in succession, going almost four years — March 3, 1997, to Jan. 7, 2001 — without losing to the Clippers.

Counting their interim guys, the Clippers had five coaches in the Shaq-Kobe era, and three of them came and went without beating the Lakers.

Chris Ford was here for two seasons — well, a lockout-shortened one and a Donald T. Sterling-shortened one — and was 0-7. His replacement, Jim Todd, was 0-1. Dennis Johnson, who replaced Alvin Gentry, was 0-2.

The Clippers' high point of the Shaq-Kobe era was 1996-97, when Bill Fitch was 2-2. After that, Fitch was known in the Clipper front office as "the Laker Slayer."

From the arrival of Shaq and Kobe in 1996 to O'Neal's departure, the Lakers were more celebrated every season. Meanwhile, the Clippers brought in a dozen exciting young players but managed to stay the Clippers.

There's no truth to the rumor that the FBI was using the Clippers for its witness-protection program, but it still wasn't easy being one of them.

"I think when you decided to be on the Lakers, you realize it's going to be a circus over there," said Eric Piatkowski, the longest-tenured Clipper of them all, after finally leaving last season.

"You're on the Lakers, you're in Los Angeles, you have Shaq and Kobe….

"You get numb to it, especially living in L.A. It's a different world. A lot of those guys love that spotlight. Guys on that team want to be movie stars. Guys want to be rappers. They love the spotlight. It doesn't seem to affect them at all."

Or, at least, it took a long time to affect them. When the Lakers finally blew up, the pieces went everywhere.

Last summer, Bryant almost — but not quite — became a Clipper.

For months, we were looking at — and some of the principals were dreaming about — the mother of all city series: Kobe and the Clippers vs. Shaq and the Lakers.

Bryant was interested in the Clippers, and everyone knew it. Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak and Dunleavy, who were good friends from their Laker days together in the early '90s, even joked about it.

Kupchak would ask what the deal was. Dunleavy would say, on July 1, our arms are going to be wide open and we're just hoping he runs into them.

In July, Bryant said he intended to become a Clipper, but Jerry Buss headed him off at the pass.

We can only speculate on what would have happened if Bryant had gone to the Clippers, with their better, bigger, younger supporting cast.

It would have been disorienting, to say the least, with local fans forced to reconsider their loyalties. Many would have stayed with the Lakers, if only out of habit and to protect their seat locations.

Even so, the Clippers would have picked up several thousand season-ticket holders before they could print up new prices, with the newcomers delighted to learn they could buy two from the Clippers for the price of one for the Lakers. Kobe and an exciting young team, at a discount!

Anyway, a new chapter starts tonight.

"Oh, yeah, without a doubt, we're looking forward to it," Elton Brand said. "We've got similar records…. It's been very one-sided, but we think we have a team that matches up well with them."

Said Dunleavy: "There are no bonus points for us. Of course, there's going to be a buzz around town, but the rest of the league doesn't care if we beat the Lakers or not."

And, for a change, no one knows how it's going to turn out.

MarkMadsen wrote:oh yea , anyone know if slava is gonna play tonight? I just wanna to see Slava shut down Brand with his incredible defense.

Lakers Dynasty 2000 wrote:I've got my tickets for tonight

I'm going to leave in about 15 minutes.

Shaq Fan wrote:no, its called ESPNand it rules