A few days ago The Los Angeles Times’ Mike Bresnahan reported on Twitter that the Los Angeles Lakers were “tentatively scheduled” to face the ummmm rival? Los Angeles Clippers on Christmas day this season.
Lakers will apparently be home for Christmas. Clippers, too. They're tentatively scheduled to play each other Dec. 25 in a Laker home game.
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) August 7, 2015
If you’re wondering why the Lakers are playing on Christmas yet again, for the 17th straight year where they’re 6-11 in the Kobe Bryant era according to Bresnahan, it’s because people love the Lakers and people love to hate the Lakers.
It doesn’t hurt that this is deemed a rivalry and there are plenty of storylines that feed into this game such as the nixed Chris Paul trade, D’Angelo Russell working out with Chris Paul to prepare for the draft and Doc Rivers covering up the Lakers’ championship banners. What this really boils down to is a battle for the heart of the fans of Los Angeles.
The Lakers have been abysmal for the past two seasons, for the first time ever the Clippers have had a better record than the Lakers for three straight seasons and they’ve only won one game against Lob City in the past three years. Now, they’re on a national stage with the team that’s one of a handful of real title contenders while the Lakers look to compete for the seventh or eighth seed in the western conference.
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With all that said, it’s probably a 35-40 percent chance the Lakers win this game. Mainly because the Clippers, a team with championship ambitions could potentially look at the Lakers like the Lakers used to look at the Clippers – like they were nothing. There are plenty of upsets in a long 82 game season, and this could be one of them.
The Clippers are the better team on paper, likely a top-four seed in the West but that’ll mean nothing come Christmas day. The Lakers have added young talent that could potentially play fast with a talented Clippers team. You’ll have the old veterans in Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant, each likely playing their last season, facing one another yet again, but not for titles. For pride.
That’s what this rivalry is right now for the Lakers, it’s about pride. It’s about the Clippers still being the Clippers and the Lakers unwillingness to surrender the crown as king of LA. And on December 25, we’ll see who gets to be king for a day.