LeBron James Does Not Believe That Clippers-Lakers Is A Rivalry

The Los Angeles Clippers drew first blood against the Lakers on Tuesday night. The two squads faced off in Staples Center on the first night of the 2019-20 campaign, and despite there being positives for both sides, the Clippers came out on top, 112-102.

Neither team is a finished product yet — the Lakers went through a ton of roster overhaul during the summer, while the Clippers won despite Paul George being on the sideline for a while as he’s recovering from offseason shoulder surgery. Plus while there was excitement about this game, both teams have their eyes on winning the Larry O’Brien trophy, so it’s hard to get too fired up about them squaring off against one another right now.

In fact, LeBron James went as far as to say that despite the two teams sharing a city and a home court, he does not believe that Clippers-Lakers is a rivalry, pointing to the fact that he did not believe this was a particularly big test for either team.

“I disagree on how big of a test it was, it’s the first game,” James said. “The NBA is back, and that’s what everybody’s trying, to have the narrative of a rivalry game and a huge test. I think both teams are not who they want to be. We have a lot of room to improve, we’re a new group that’s coming together, we have a new coaching staff, we have a new system. And it’s not a rivalry, we’re trying to get better every single day on how we can be as great as we can be. We did some good things tonight, we did some not so good things, and that happens in a Game 1, especially for a new club.”

The implication, of course, is that this will feel more like a rivalry once both teams are playing up to their potential, which probably isn’t wrong. The two teams will play three more times during the regular season, so perhaps James’ tenor will change throughout the year. It would probably help, regardless, if we were treated to seven games between the two teams once the playoffs roll around.