The Los Angeles Clippers started a new chapter in their history after the opening of Intuit Dome recently. They finally moved out of the Los Angeles Lakers’ shadows after sharing the Crypto.com Arena (previously Staples Center) for 25 years. The move from downtown LA to Inglewood has brought new-found excitement among Clippers fans. But with excitement also comes hope.
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Therefore, there is now pressure on the Kawhi Leonard-led squad to win Championships to mark their new beginning. Norm Nixon, who has played for both the Clippers and the Lakers, expanded on the dynamics the two teams in LA will now face after the Clips’ latest move.
During an interview with Sirius XM, Nixon touched upon the Clippers’ regular season dominance over the Los Angeles Lakers in recent years. However, according to him, they won’t rise to prominence unless they win a championship.
The 2x NBA All-Star lauded the Clippers’ shift to the Intuit Dome. He admitted that the innovative Arena stands out from the rest of the NBA arenas. However, it won’t have much effect unless the Clippers win it all.
Nixon argued that there are a lot of hoops fans in LA who despise the Lakers. But the Clippers will have to end their championship drought if they want to lure them in to their part of town.
“When you look at the Regular Season records, the Clippers have owned the Lakers in the last several years. Going into a new arena is going to be a wonderful thing…but it still don’t matter, if you don’t win. You have to win championships,” Nixon said.
“Los Angeles have millions of people, you have a lot of fans who don’t like the Lakers, they are just Lakers haters. But those guys wouldn’t go to the Clippers games until they win a championship,” he added.
“You have to win some championships.”
Norm Nixon has big hopes for the Clippers in the new Intuit Dome with @Jumpshot8 and @SamMitchellNBA pic.twitter.com/hcwAbd6Dzc
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) August 16, 2024
Norm Nixon is spot-on about the Clippers’ regular season supremacy over the Lakers. Since the 2012-13 season, the Clippers have won every season series against their LA rivals until the 2023-24 season. Earlier, it was the Chris Paul-Blake Griffin lob city era that edged out the Lakers at Staples.
Then they fell prey to the Clips repeatedly during the Kawhi Leonard era. The Lakers have managed just 16 wins in the last 53 games between the two franchise. However, LeBron James and Co. still achieved more postseason success than them in this era.
They won the 2020 championship while the Clippers are yet to appear in the NBA Finals. The Clippers will begin a much-needed fresh chapter at the Intuit Dome, but they will have to bury their postseason struggles for good, as Norm Nixon pointed out.
