Los Angeles Clippers-Golden State Warriors NBA's Top Rivalry

Wednesday night on ESPN, the best rivalry in the NBA is renewed for the first time this season.

No, I’m not talking about the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. I’m not even talking about LeBron James against the San Antonio Spurs or Golden State Warriors, the teams who have bested him in the NBA Finals in the past two seasons.

I’m talking about the defending champion Golden State Warriors against the NBA’s easiest team to hate, the Los Angeles Clippers.

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The rivalry lacks a long historic backdrop like the Lakers and Celtics and the most important playoff meeting between the Clippers and Warriors happened in a first-round series that determined who would get to lose to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round that the Clippers won.

Instead of a long history or meetings in the playoffs that determined who would win the championship, this new rivalry is a simple combination of talent and old-fashioned hatred.

People who enjoy great point guard play get to take a trip to heaven for a couple hours when Chris Paul and Stephen Curry face off.

Paul, the best game manager and true point guard in the game, will be running one of the highest scoring and efficient offenses in the league against Curry, who has become the most entertaining player in the league and mixes style and substance in a way that ranks up there with the legends.

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Paul and Curry have traded amazing performances against each other over the years and especially since Paul joined the Clippers in 2011. Paul’s greatest performance came on Halloween of 2013 when he went for 42 points, 15 assists, and six steals in 37 minutes against Curry.

On that same night, Curry went for 38 points and nine assists in the classic meeting of the two point guards. Another classic meeting between the two seems due and Wednesday night could very well be the Paul-Curry meeting that we talk about for decades.

Curry and Paul aren’t the only intriguing matchup though. Blake Griffin, the player who seems most likely to get into a a spat with another player for no reason will go against Draymond Green, the player most responsible for starting spats with other players for no reason.

The matchup is highly volatile and Griffin and the Warriors have a brief history of things getting out of control. Green and Griffin have been the instigators of this recent rivalry.

Let’s go chronological for a brief summary of how the Warriors and Clippers have become such bitter rivals.

It may have started with just a small spark on Nov. 3, 2012. Former Warriors forward David Lee told Griffin to “stop flopping” after one of Griffin’s trademark flops.

Later in the same game, the Warriors bench went insane celebrating an errant corner three from Blake Griffin that hit the side of the backboard.

The game came right after it was announced that Brandon Rush, who figured to be an important player for that team was announced to be out for the season after suffering a torn ACL. The Warriors were a little more lively than most nights and the Clippers believed that the Warriors celebrated a bit too much and took offense.

The teams faced off three more times that season without any notable incidents outside of good basketball. However both teams were competing for playoff spots in the crowded Western Conference and enjoying success that had avoided both franchises for years.

On that Halloween night of 2013 in which Paul and Curry got into a duel, the rivalry was starting to become a real rivalry. Both teams had established themselves as up-and-coming playoff teams who were set up for years of contending for titles.

The game might have been an entertaining one, but the real beef happened before the game when the hometown Clippers refused to have chapel with the Warriors before the game. Holding chapel is an NBA tradition where the two teams meet for Christian services before the game.

The breaking of the tradition was a sign that the teams did not like each other and was a sign that the cold war between the teams was about to turn into a real on-the-court rivalry.

The most memorable exchange between the two teams of the night came when Blake Griffin and then-Warriors head coach Mark Jackson had the rare player-opposing coach face-to-face interaction that ended in a few Warriors players stepping up to Griffin and referees separating Griffin from the Warriors bench area.

Elsewhere in the game, Andrew Bogut and DeAndre Jordan got into a shoving match that resulted in both of them receiving a technical foul.

After the showdown on Halloween, they met again on Christmas in a game where it became apparent that these teams truly hate each other. Green started things off by throwing an elbow to the throat of Griffin away from the ball at the end of the third quarter.

This came after the Christmas meeting between the Clippers and Warriors in which the teams were far from merry. Green was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul after he threw an elbow to the head of Griffin. A few plays later, Griffin and Andrew Bogut got tangled up fighting for a rebound and Griffin was handed his second technical foul of the night and subsequently ejected.

The teams met again in the first round of that year’s playoffs with the Clippers winning in a highly competitive series that went to the seventh game. There were 10 technical fouls assigned to players and coaches throughout the series, however most of the conversation revolved around the Donald Sterling scandal.

During the scandal, the teams had put their hatred aside in an attempt to handle the Sterling situation that commissioner Adam Silver handled masterfully in his first true crisis as commissioner.

On the court, there were some important happenings. Bogut missed the series with an injury suffered right before the season ended and it forced the Warriors to get creative and start Harrison Barnes at power forward next to Lee while also giving Green saw his minutes go from 21.9 minutes per game during the regular season to 32.6 in the playoffs.

The Warriors were sent home, but the seeds were planted with Barnes and Green playing in a small-ball lineup that Jackson rarely went to during the regular season.

Jackson was fired after the series and replaced with Steve Kerr, who used the foundation that Jackson had built to take the Warriors to their absolute highest potential. The Clippers and Warriors faced off four times with the Warriors winning three times.

There were a few face-to-face scuffles but the most memorable and hilarious occurred when Dahntay Jones make a point to bump into Green, who was conducting a postgame interview after the Warriors 106-98 victory.

Green was asked about the bump from Jones layer on and this is what he had to say:

"I think he wanted a reaction from me, but he don’t play, so, you know, me getting suspended and him getting suspended, it’s different. You know, when you don’t play, that’s probably his role on that team. So, I’ve had that role once before in my career, a couple years ago, but I can’t afford to, you know, feed into that, where I get into it with him after the game, and, you know, get fined, get suspended, and hurt my team when, you know, if he gets suspended, they may not even notice.I think he wanted a reaction from me, but he don’t play, so, you know, me getting suspended and him getting suspended, it’s different. You know, when you don’t play, that’s probably his role on that team. So, I’ve had that role once before in my career, a couple years ago, but I can’t afford to, you know, feed into that, where I get into it with him after the game, and, you know, get fined, get suspended, and hurt my team when, you know, if he gets suspended, they may not even notice."

The Clippers were bounced in the second round of the playoffs before what would’ve been an epic showdown between the Clippers and Warriors to decide who would represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals.

These teams legitimately hate each other and have made comments recently that have stoked the fire between the two. Clippers head coach Doc Rivers threw a grenade at the Warriors by suggesting that they got lucky by avoiding the Clippers and Spurs in the playoffs in route to their title last year.

The Warriors heard Rivers’ comments and were not shy in their responses.

Klay Thompson was especially brash in his reaction when asked by Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN, “I wanted to play the Clippers last year, but they couldn’t handle their business.” Thompson didn’t stop there and continued to Ether the Clippers.

"“If we got lucky, look at our record against them last year. I’m pretty sure we smacked them. Didn’t they lose to the Rockets? So that just makes me laugh. That’s funny. Weren’t they up 3-1, too? Tell them I said that, too.”"

Bogut got in on the fun as well, adding that he got his ring fitted for his middle finger so they can kiss it. Bogut went on to mention that the team didn’t need any motivation but the Warriors would throw Rivers’ comments on a board and be aware of his words.

He finished his answer by adding, “It’s one thing taking it from a team that’s won a championship, taking those kind of criticisms. But from a team that hasn’t? It’s kind of dead air.”

Rivers later cleared it up that he should’ve said that he wanted to play the Warriors and didn’t mean to say that the Warriors were lucky by avoiding the Clippers and Spurs, but given the intensity of this rivalry, the damage had been done and there would be no going back.

The teams face off again tonight and it’s a game that every basketball fan should have their DVRs set to. The Warriors and Clippers are bringing undefeated records into this one and both are living up to their statuses as contenders. Curry is playing at a ridiculous level of basketball that has people wondering if he’s surpassed James as the best player in the league.

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Griffin is looking better than ever and could be an MVP candidate if Curry allows there to be an MVP race at all. Paul hasn’t had to do too much this season, but you can be sure he’s playing with the idea of showing the world he’s still the best point guard in the league. Green, Thompson, and Jordan are all entering their primes.

People often complain about NBA players being too friendly with each other and how the game wasn’t like that when the Bad Boy Pistons and Michael Jordan were trying to step on each other’s throats, and not always just figuratively.

People miss the days of rivalries fueled by hate like the Pistons against Jordan, Patrick Ewing‘s Knicks against the Bulls, the Reggie Miller-led Pacers against the Knicks. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were close friends but would do anything to avoid losing to each other.

If you’re one of those people who miss those types of rivalries, watch the Clippers and Warriors. Two of the top five teams in the NBA are playing each other Wednesday night and they hate each other.

The beauty of the NBA is that on any given night, any given game could be the game of the year (just ask those who watched the Oklahoma City Thunder’s double-overtime win against the Orlando Magic can attest to this). With that being said, some games are just more likely to be the most memorable game of the season.

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Any time the Clippers and Warriors face each other, there’s a pretty strong possibility that this could be the game of the year and that could easily be the case Wednesday night.

NBA: Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors Set To Renew NBA’s Best Rivalry

By Cameron Stewart | Nov 4, 2015

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