Lakers, Clippers Prep For Last Regular Season Meeting As Crypto.com Arena Co-Tenants
Tonight, your 31-28 Los Angeles Lakers, the Western Conference's ninth seed, will square off against the 37-19 LA Clippers, the West's fourth seed, for the final time as co-tenants of Crypto.com Arena.
The Clippers are gearing up to move to the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, just steps away from the Lakers' former stomping grounds at the Forum, as Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times notes.
“We understand what the Lakers mean to the city and what they’ve done, but for us to have a place that we can call home and be comfortable, I think that was the right thing to do,” Clippers head coach (and former Lakers champion) Tyronn Lue said.
Lakers starting point guard D’Angelo Russell reflected on how bizarre it was to see his own team's home arena get decked out in Clippers trimmings for "road" games. Woike notes that the Lakers' home court boasts 34 additional wood panels, while the Clippers’ court actually runs 10 feet longer. Tonight's matchup, by the way, is indeed a "road" game.
“Yeah, it’s weird. That’s the word,” Russell said. “You go home and your place is redecorated. It just looks different.”
“They had to make it home," All-Star Lakers forward LeBron James said. "It makes sense. They want to make it as ‘home’ as possible... And it feels like a road game. Their lighting is different, the court is different, the seats look different — all that type of stuff. It feels like a road game — but you just don’t have to travel. Feels like you’re driving to a road game.”
Funnily enough, the Clippers actually have a superior record in their mutual home floor meetings, 50-47, since Crypto.com Arena first opened its doors as the Staples Center in 1999. The Lakers, have won six titles since then, however, to the Clippers' zero.
“I mean it is definitely a different feel,” reserve Clippers guard Norman Powell said. “I think both organizations do a good job of putting their own touch on the arena when it’s a home game and it’s us playing against each other. When it’s a Laker game, it’s a little more dark and intimate with how they black out the stands and like the focus, you can see all the lights are on the court. And the Clippers have a more inclusive environment where everybody’s just trying to get everybody involved and into the game and to have different things going on."
