Lakers and Clippers: 2 shots by 2 HOFs in Crunch Time.

     Last night, was a great game between two teams who happen to share the same building. They played with an edge and a buzz that has never been there for a long long time. In fact, it had been a one-sided beatdown where the shimmering Purple and Gold would thrash the faded red and blue.
This game's outcome you could say was as certain as death and taxes.

    Today, those days are long long gone. It's a new day in L.A basketball as the Clippers youth, eye popping athleticism and cohesion stand tall over the vapid soap opera that is the Lakers. The Clippers were the better team on that cold L.A night and were it not for a near collapse in the Final Quarter, they would have cruised to a double digit win.

   I will not talk about the game. Instead, I will talk about two shots by Future HOFs Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul in the final seconds. Those two were striking in that they kinda showed where the two teams are at this very moment since the season began just two months before.

    In that, the shot by CP3 over Kobe in the final seconds, signified that a new L.A team right now is contending for the crown that had long been a given for the Purple and Gold in the last 30 plus years. The way CP3 iso'd Kobe taking him off the dribble and then fading back to swish the jumper much to the delight of the fans was fitting as it seemed to be a torch passing moment where the King of LA Hoops crown was passed from Kobe to CP3 (for now).

   It's a Belle Epoche (Beautiful Time) for Clipper fans as they ascend to the throne that had long eluded them dating back to their Buffalo days in the 1970s. New challenges await this coming of age squad and they know that the season is not decided in early January but in June. Something that makes this battle they fought tonight, a small step on the way up the mountain by contrast.

    For the Lakers in those final seconds of a close game, Kobe took the ball with his team down by four and tried to make one of his crazy crunch time shots. Statistically, it's a low probability that it will go in for any player. It may also explain why his crunch time closer label may be hilariously overrated in the grand scheme of things.

  As the ball danced over the cylinder and fell out, it represented something that I did not grasp until later that night, while watching a Mad Men episode on Netflix. One scene down below can be seen as a metaphor for their season up to now:



   In that, the Lakers built a superstar laden starting five but age, injuries, personality conflicts and turmoil have turned a promising season into a nightmare. They have been at the front page of headlines where at any time, the team may either implode or tear at the seams, if it hasn't already.  They're looking to find themselves back to a simple time just as the Clippers have ascended thanks to the CP3 trade, which irks Lakers fans like an old wound.
 
   A time where they were contending for rings, rolling the competition on their way to winning championship after championship and beating the Clippers to a pulp every single year. It was an era of where they would mock and put down their next door tenants for their bad luck, drafting and a dreadful skinflint of an owner who's son passed away in a sad set of circumstances. May his son Rest in Peace.

   Alas, they can never return to those days. Those are now a memory as the only thing they face now is a murky uncertain future with no light on the tunnel in sight. That in itself, scares the Lakers and their fans a lot more.