Great Clips! A Seismic Shift in Los Angeles

There are sports franchises that are never supposed to win. I would say "in this day and age", but the old-timers remember the Washington Senators, who never won a World Series even with Walter Johnson pitching, or the St. Louis Browns, who needed World War II to win a pennant.

Some teams never catch a break, never draft the right player, or just don't get the right bounce at the right time.

The Los Angeles Clippers were one of those teams. This is the team that let Elton Brand go to Philly, kept Michael Olowokandi over Lamar Odom, and had two stars sustain terrible injuries on freak accidents in the preseason (Note: these videos are not for the easily squeamish).

Shawn Livingston's ACL tear

Blake Griffin's broken kneecap

Such was the fate of the Clippers, the team forever in the shadow of the Lakers.

Was.

On Monday night, the Clip Show served the Lakers to the tune of a 19-point victory. And they did with a subpar effort from Blizzy Blake.

It's too early for everyone to scream it from the rooftops, so I'll do it for you:

THE CLIPPERS ARE THE TEAM IN L.A.

Flash back to...

...last season, when the Clippers had just pulled a home victory over Miami, further adding to the consternation of Heat fans. I said then that Los Angeles' other team was moving in the right direction with the parts they had, but it would take a long time for them to challenge the Lakers for L.A. dominance.

After a flurry of in-season and offseason moves, the landscape is very different. The Clippers were the winners of the Chris Paul Chase, picked up Mo Williams in a midseason trade and also acquired veteran Chauncey Billups. They did lose key players Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman, but with Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and Caron Butler in the frontcourt with Paul and Billups in the backcourt, the Clippers suddenly have one of the most exciting starting rotations in the West.

Meanwhile, the Lakers lost their temper in their playoff series with the Mavericks and haven't stopped throwing temper tantrums since. After dangling Lamar Odom in their own proposed trade for Paul, Odom demanded his walking papers and went to, of all teams, the Dallas Mavericks. Can you imagine how many snide phone calls and text messages Mark Cuban sent Jerry Buss that day?

The Lakers picked up Josh McRoberts from Indy but not much else, and now Kobe's day-to-day with an injured wrist. Add to the mix Mike Brown's first season at the wheel and you have the perfect sh&t storm in Hollywood. Can things get worse for the Lakers?

Christmas magic

The San Andreas Fault sits right underneath Los Angeles, and scientists say eons from now, Lakerland will break off from the continent and float out to sea. That is also the generally accepted amount of time it will take for the Clippers to move past the Lakers as Los Angeles' favorite team.

I think it's coming sooner than that. The Laker fan base is dedicated enough to their team, especially from the glory years of the '80s and 2000s, but the Lakers are losing their. Kobe's 33 with mounting injuries; Derek Fisher is four years older. Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum will do their thing, but who's behind them in the rotation: McRoberts, Troy Murphy? Joe Smith? Theo Ratliff? 

The intagibles of Metta World Peace (yes, I will be calling him that until further notice) are not to be overlooked. Still, the Lakers have a slew of rookies and Luke Walton off the bench. Devin Ebanks and Derrick Caracter aren't ready. Shannon Brown is gone. How will the Lakers survive the second and third quarters of games?

The Clippers have lower billing against the Warriors Sunday night, but Golden State will be without Stephen Curry in another mini-miracle for the red and blue. The Lakers, meanwhile, have to contend with a better, hungrier Bulls team at Staples.

The time is right for the Clippers to move up the L.A. star charts. Will it be this season? The future isn't clear, but the magic 8 ball says, "Signs point to yes." If you don't believe me, ask DeAndre Jordan.

Rising over Gasol and Bynum? Can you say, "foreshadowing"?

Suffice it to say, Bill Simmons should be very happy this year. I will be, too, once I get my custom-made "Lob City" shirt.

See you in the cheap seats, Clippers fans.

JS

Note: Shouts out to Bradley alum Zack Andrews for making the Lakers' roster! Congratulations to #21, throw a power move from Sac-town.)

Finally, A "Clip" Show Worth Watching

Have you ever had a moment of pure vindication?

Come on, you know the feeling. That feeling you get after someone's been criticizing something you've done, or something you've said, or something you believe in. Endlessly. The taunts don't stop. They just keep challenging you and challenging you, and for a long time, it looks like they're right. Eventually, you start doubting yourself: Maybe I'm wrong.

And then, in one blazing moment, the truth comes and smacks them in the face, knocks them to the ground, and you get to stand there, gloating. Vindicated.

Yeah, you know that feeling.

After tonight, so does Blake Griffin. And so do the Los Angeles Clippers.

That other team

I won't say that I called the rise of the Clippers. They've had chances before now, with Elton Brand and Corey Maggette. Heck, I think they even went to the playoffs one year. But that could've been the Dodgers, I don't really care.

That's how L.A. feels about the Clippers: they just don't care. And why should they?

The Lakers are going to be the team in Los Angeles. Too many stars on and off the court. Too many championship banners in the rafters. Too much cash, too much glitz, too much Kobe. Before this year, more people recognized DJ Mbenga than Eric Gordon.

The Clippers aren't even L.A.'s bastard child. They're more like the confused and angry kid from the wrong side of the tracks you feel sorry for, so you them stay at your house, like Benjamin McKenzie's character on The O.C. (sorry, had to do it.) Think about it: the Lakers just kind of let the Clips play at Staples, never mind that their red, white and blue colors are less-suited to the L.A. aura than Vinny Del Negro.

Worse than that, the Clippers have just had a lot of bad luck. Elgin Baylor squandered draft pick after draft pick for them, and Don Sterling has probably become Al Davis-lite watching the Lakers use Staples as a trophy room.

Still, I was the only guy in my house to call Blake Griffin a high-quality basketball player (Clark in particular still hates him), and I was the first guy in my house to call the rise of the "Clip Show".

To the test

I make no qualms about my hatred of the Miami Heat. I despise the fact that three all-NBA players basically decided "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and grouped up in Miami. I was never the biggest LeBron fan on the block, but after the Decision and the commercial, I stopped giving him any credibilty (by the way, his Cavs tweet was just the icing on the cake). Even after things leveled out and Dwyane Wade carried them through the first few months of the season, I still find myself hating the Heat, wishing them to get blown out whenever possible.

I realize the Heat are the best team in the East. That doesn't mean I will give them the chip right now.

So tonight was a perfect moment for my predictions to sink or swim. The Heat beating the Clippers didn't mean much, aside from the margin of victory; the Clips were 12 games under break even. But the Clippers beating the Heat meant a whole lot. Like I said, the Clips were 12 games under break even.

Either I was right about the Clippers or totally wrong about the Heat.

A six-point, wire-to-wire L.A. victory later, I feel like I was right.

And for the future?

This was the Clippers' biggest victory in a looooooong time. Eric Gordon said it was probably the best win in his two years with L.A. But it's a great sign that most of the players and coaches weren't putting too much into this. As Vinny Del Negro put it, "we've still got a game Friday night."

Yes, LAC is an exciting basketball team, but they realize being exciting and making highlights hasn't changed the fact that they're losing a lot of games. Their number-one focus is with changing that mindset. Whether that means clearing out Baron Davis soon (yes), letting go of Vinny soon (probably), or even a change of ownership (wouldn't doubt it), the players are conscious of who they are, who the Clippers are: the second team in Los Angeles.

But for one night, for all the Heat-haters in the world, the Clippers were the best team on the planet. No, "The Clip Show" is not here yet to take on the fabled "Lake Show". But like any clip show, you can bet it'll be here soon.

And for me, that's vindication enough.

JS