Golden State Warriors: The Los Angeles Clippers are not a rival
The Golden State Warriors once again proved the narrative of the Los Angeles Clippers being rivals is an alternative one.
Narratives drive emotions in sports. Without narratives and an emotional impact, we wouldn’t get the feelings from the game that we do. With a team as polarizing as the Golden State Warriors, narratives surround them endlessly. For a few years now, one of those narratives has been that the Los Angeles Clippers are a rival to them.
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The two teams clearly don’t like each other and the battle between Northern California and Southern California is one that has been long established in sports. However, to say the Clippers are a rival to the Warriors is going out an extended limb with no wait to the branch the narrative stands on.
For the eighth straight time on Saturday, the Warriors dispatched of the Clippers. Like many of the games between these two teams, this was a lopsided victory in the favors. To be fair to Los Angeles, Chris Paul is out and that makes any game different.
Still, they lost 144-98 and there’s no excuse for a team with two superstars to lose by that much. Maybe it speaks volumes about how good the Warriors are or more about what a weird the conundrum Los Angeles finds themselves in without Paul.
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What can’t be overstated is that even without Paul, the Warriors still run rampant over them without much of a challenge. To leave the NBA for a second, Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians once opined to reporters asking whether the bug and the windshield is really a rivalry?
Rivalry seems to be a term tossed around with the Warriors lately. A lot of that stems from LeBron James’ comments about Golden State and how he doesn’t see them as a rival. While some argue whether or not teams out of conference can be rivals, it can’t be argued that Warriors and Cavaliers isn’t more of a rivalry than Golden State and the Clippers.
The only thing fueling this alternative narrative is that they play in the same division. Other than that, there are no wins to show for it from Los Angeles and Steve Kerr’s team have thoroughly embarrassed Doc Rivers and company on multiple occasions. That’s not to say this might not be a rivalry down the line, but for now it’s not a rivalry and should not be considered as such.