The Staples Center may have been a fortress for the Los Angeles Lakers, but the San Antonio Spurs had the keys to the gate
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The Staples center is an iconic name in sports history – by and large the most famous modern stadium name. While two of the Los Angeles teams have had to share the stadium, only one has ever experienced success in that arena. Not many road teams can say they have a winning record in the Los Angeles stadium, in fact only one can say that.
The San Antonio Spurs coached by Gregg Popovich have a winning record against both the LA teams. While it is a close shave with the Lakers (one game difference at 91-89) they’ve trounced the Clippers 131-48. There have been great battles over the years and even though the building remains the same, the name change means that the Staples center record stays forever.
The Spurs have been one of the most consistent teams in the history of the sport, but they are currently in rebuild mode. The team still has the identity it once had when Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili played, albeit it is a much younger set of players. The last battle at the Staples center ended with a Spurs win, easily blowing past a problem riddled Lakers squad.
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San Antonio Spurs have had the Lakers’ and the Clippers’ numbers for many years
The Clippers are the third-best in a two-team arena – such is the state of the franchise. Always the minnows, never the victor, the Clippers are finally looking to move away from the shared stadium. The Crypto.com Arena shall only lost one LA team now, and that is the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers and the Spurs however was a different ballgame. The 20+ years of the rivalry after moving to the new arena was great. Each team won multiple championships, and both had arguably a top 3 player of all time in Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan. The black and silver against the purple and gold – it was always a royal basketball affair.
While the Lakers have had multiple coaches throughout these years including the likes of Phil Jackson and Pat Riley, the Spurs have stuck with one coach and it has paid dividends.
This meant that the identity of the Spurs never faltered – something that the Lakers lost after their super team fiasco in 2012-13. The Clippers don’t even count in this equation, because they’ve never been in the same strata as the other two teams in discussion.
