After making multiple roster acquisitions last summer, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers have succeeded in turning themselves into legitimate title contenders for the 2019-2020 NBA season. Despite the presence of other powerhouse teams like the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, and the Utah Jazz, most people believe the battle for Western Conference supremacy will lie in Los Angeles, between the city’s two teams.
Since the start of the season, the Lakers and the Clippers have continued to live up to expectations and as of now, they own the top two spots in the Western Conference. In a recent appearance on the Big Apple Buckets podcast, Lakers veteran shooting guard Danny Green talked about the potential matchup between the two Los Angeles teams in the 2020 NBA Playoffs. Though the Clippers are considered the heavy favorite to fully dominate the Western Conference and win the 2020 NBA championship title, Green said that they shouldn’t be overconfident, since they would be needing to play “seven road games” when they face the Lakers in the postseason.
“If the Lakers and the Clippers do meet each other in the playoffs, those are seven road games for the Clippers. That is the Lakers arena,” Green said, as quoted by TalkBasket.net . “Even if they play in Staples Arena, they change the paint and all that type of stuff, trust me, those are seven home games for the Lakers. The Clippers have [to] just hope and pray they didn’t run into the Lakers. But I think it’s inevitable.”
What Green said is somewhat true. The Lakers may have missed the Western Conference Playoffs in the past six years, but the Clippers still haven’t replaced them as the most popular NBA team in Los Angeles. No matter what the design of the court will be, the Staples Center is expected to be filled more with Lakers’ fans than Clippers’ fans when the two go head to head in the 2020 NBA Playoffs.
However, regardless of who has the “homecourt advantage,” all NBA fans would definitely love to see the two teams play against each other in a best-of-seven series. Though they already tested each other’s strength three times in the regular season, the games in the postseason will be much different. The NBA suspension will be beneficial for both teams as it will ensure that all of their key players will be healthy when the real battle begins in the postseason.
