The Hallway Series: The Lakers, the Clippers and what it means to be rivals
By Lewis Pipkin
The history of the rivalry between the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, and a look at what is to come as both teams rise in the West
In Los Angeles, the Clippers have certainly been the red-headed stepchild. The Lakers are far and away the city’s darling, presently and historically. And who can blame the Los Angelites?
The Lakers have won over 3300 games and have an all-time winning percentage of .594, the second-highest in NBA history, just behind the San Antonio Spurs.
The Clippers sport a lowly .406 winning percentage, good for 29th overall, only beating out the Minnesota Timberwolves’ .398 all-time win percentage.
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The Lakers have won 16 NBA championships, and the Clippers have never even made the Western Conference Finals. Practically, the only thing these teams have in common is their arena.
The only time the two teams have had great records at the same time is 2012 when the Lakers went 41-25 and the Clippers went 40-26. Both teams lost in the second round of the NBA Playoffs – in 5 to the Thunder and in 4 to the Spurs, respectively. Since the 1999–00 NBA season, the Lakers lead the series 43–36; but in the playoffs? It’s 0–0.
"“…Rivalries are made in the playoffs, not in the regular season,”"
Kobe Bryant once said on the night of a Lakers-Clippers matchup in 2006. The two teams have never met in the postseason, and if you take Kobe’s word for it, that makes it the furthest thing in the world from a rivalry. It’s simply two teams coexisting 30 feet away from each other.
Often heading in opposite directions.
The correlation between the two teams’ winning percentage since the 1984-85 season is -.735; meaning, when the Clippers start winning, the Lakers usually start losing, and vice versa. Graphically, you can see that since the night Kobe declared the so-called “Hallway Series” to be just another matchup, the Lakers have been on a slide while the Clippers rise (where the Clippers are represented by blue and the Lakers with gold):
If the playoffs are any indication, the Lakers’ rivals are the Spurs, the Celtics, maybe the Suns… for modern times, at least, that’s about it.
And the Clippers have… the Grizzlies?
Golden State, maybe?
They’ve faced those two, the Spurs, and the Jazz twice each, and that’s the most that they’ve played anybody in the postseason since the 1995-96 season. This season, though, I have a feeling that will change.
After adding Anthony Davis, along with a bruised DeMarcus Cousins and a couple of real, actual shooters in Danny Green and Troy Daniels, LeBron James and the Lakers look to get back to their winning ways.
And, I don’t know if you’ve heard the news, but Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are now Clippers and they’re joining what was already a playoff team, at the expense of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari.
I don’t know what a rivalry is to you personally, but in a season where the dynamic duo is the new big three, having two explosive pairings sharing a city is going to be the start of something huge in Los Angeles. And I think it’s going to rival the Knicks-Nets rivalry back in its heyday.
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Both of these teams are loaded. Both of these teams have some feeling out to do. But I’m confident that both of these teams are on a collision course to meet up in the second or third round of the playoffs, and sparks are going to fly then and in all four of their regular-season matchups.