The LA Clippers vs. Los Angeles Lakers game has been officially flexed out of their 8 pm primetime slot for Friday night.
The Clippers vs. Lakers rivalry was supposed to be the definition of showtime basketball when the Lakers traded for Anthony Davis and the Clippers traded for Paul George and picked up Kawhi Leonard. This year, however, it’s not valued like that. It’s mostly due to the Lakers looking so shaky to start.
The Lakers are 12-11 this year, and the eye test gives them a much worse grade than even that record. They aren’t very athletic, they’re not durable, they’re old, and they don’t have the shooters that many teams in the West do. Just as I predicted, the Russell Westbrook trade has backfired and ruined the team’s court spacing.
The national networks don’t even want to show the Lakers against a crosstown rival despite how large of a following the Lakers have.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ season has been bad for their crosstown rivalry with the LA Clippers.
Now of course, Los Angeles Lakers fans are going to point out that they have a better record than the LA Clippers. However, the Clippers were supposed to have the lesser record with Leonard out. The fact that they’re only a half game behind the Lakers (11-11) without Leonard speaks volumes to how far the Lakers have fallen.
Next, as is typical of Laker fans, they’re going to complain about injuries. They’re going to say that it doesn’t matter than Leonard is out because LeBron James has missed some time. Because James missing 12 out of 23 games is the same exact thing as Leonard missing 22 out of 22 games, correct?
The Clippers have been a scrappy team that is sitting at .500 without their franchise player, despite playing 10 games against 2021 playoff teams so far. The Lakers haven’t had anywhere near the impact from injuries that the Clippers have had (keep in mind that Serge Ibaka and Marcus Morris Sr. were out for quite some time as well), and are 12-11 despite playing just eight games against 2021 playoff teams so far.
The Clippers are not playing how the fans want them to, but they’re without Leonard and are bound to get better when he gets back. The Lakers are just lost. It’s why Warriors-Suns has turned into the better matchup.
They were literally just on primetime TV playing against each other on Tuesday (TNT), and now they are going to be nationally televised again. It goes to show how this rivalry is viewed with the Lakers, who have the biggest brand in the sport, disappointing the way they are.