The LA Clippers need to see the Lakers get their rings on opening night.
On Tuesday night, NBA fans will watch the Los Angeles Lakers get their 2019-20 championship rings and watch another banner lift into the rafters of Staples Center. Their opponents, the LA Clippers will have a front and center seat for the show.
That’s exactly what they need.
Listen, the Lakers won the championship while the Clippers, again, failed to make it out of the second round. We didn’t get the highly touted “Battle of LA” in the Conference Finals like we had been promised all year. During the regular season though, the Clips looked to be the better team. They felt like they were the better team. We never got to see if that was the case.
After last season’s disappointing collapse in the second round versus the Denver Nuggets, the Clippers’ organization made several changes. Doc Rivers was let go. Both JaMychal Green and Montrezl Harrell, two key pieces in their playoff rotation, moved on. Still, the main core remains.
For guys like Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Marcus Morris, Patrick Beverley, and the rest that were there last year, getting one more taste of disappointment might just be the little bit needed to push them over the edge. That group knows that they fell apart. Each has talked about their expectations this season and what they will do to make change happen. While that’s all and well, seeing their across hall rival hang a championship banner that could have been theirs might be that extra motivation they need.
Under Ty Lue and with new additions like Serge Ibaka, this Clippers’ team will have another chance to win that elusive first championship. These new additions help and add more championship pedigree to the roster.
Will the changes the LA Clippers made be enough? We’ll find out. Tuesday night won’t be indicative of the season as we saw from last year’s opener. The Clips will still have things to figure out before they make another postseason run. When they get there though, hopefully, they remember what seeing the Lakers get their rings felt like.