The LA Clippers were told all offseason and season long last year that they were going to be second-fiddle to the Los Angeles Lakers again, and boy did that not come anywhere close to being true.
The Clips were a fourth seed and a Western Conference Finals team. The Lakers barely squeaked into the playoffs and then got bounced right away.
The Clippers will once again be the better team than the Lakers this year, and it’s for three reasons in particular.
No. 3 reason why the LA Clippers will be better than the LA Lakers again: They will be getting healthier
The LA Clippers were already better than the Los Angeles Lakers last year even without Serge Ibaka and Kawhi Leonard.
They went almost the whole postseason without Ibaka, and missed Kawhi ever since the Western Conference Semifinals were tied at two games apiece.
The Lakers complained that they had all these injury issues, when all they were missing was Anthony Davis, who’s a significantly worse player than who we were missing in Kawhi.
The Clippers will likely be getting Kawhi back this season, and will likely have him at 100% by the time the playoffs come around.
They will also likely be getting Ibaka back sooner rather than later this season, and could even have him by the time the season starts.
The Lakers’ roster looks a little better on paper, but it certainly won’t by the time it starts to count.