Contrary to discourse, Warriors-Clippers a budding rivalry
Golden State Warriors head coach Marc Jackson can downplay the matter all he likes, but the fact is that his team has a growing rivalry with the Los Angeles Clippers.
No, the Clippers and Warriors haven't ever met in the playoffs, a normal prerequisite for a rivalry. And neither team is paying lip service to it, either, which always helps.
Rivalries are born out of contempt, which is, of course, born out of familiarity. The teams aren't quite there yet, which is why we qualify the rivalry with terms like growing or budding. What is clear through two meetings this seasons is that neither team is fond of the other (and a playoff series between the two would be a treat for fans).
Back on Oct. 31, Jackson got into it with Blake Griffin on the sidelines, which was simply a precursor for a second quarter blow-up between the squads:
The Clippers would win 126-115 on their own turf despite Steph Curry's 38 points, thanks largely to an unbelievable 42-point, 15-assists, six-steal performance from the Point God, Chris Paul.
In a Christmas Day rematch, things got heated once again.
Draymond Green was tossed for a Flagrant-2 foul on Griffin, followed by Griffin getting ejected for a second technical foul after getting into it with Andrew Bogut (who received a Flagrant-1 himself).
The NBA later admitted that Griffin should not have been ejected but the damage to the relationship between the teams had already been done. The Warriors won, too, 105-103 on their own turf, evening the series.
On Thursday night, the teams will tangle once again, squaring off in the Bay Area for the second time.
The Clippers enter play fourth in the West at 33-15, five games ahead of the Warriors and riding a four-game winning streak. But they also come in without Paul and on the second night of a travel back-to-back, while the 27-19 Warriors are better rested and missing only players a little further down the depth chart.
On Wednesday, Jackson tried to downplay any growing animosity:
"It's not a rivalry. We don't have bad blood. In this league, when you're competing and teams are getting after it and you're jockeying for playoff position in your same division, it makes it exciting. "
A one-one split in a pair of close games, each with several scuffles, between teams in the same division jockeying for position? If it's not a rivalry yet, it sure has all the ingredients.