Magic Johnson Weighs in on Lakers vs Clippers Rivalry

Despite leaving his position as president of basketball operations for the Los Angeles Lakers, Magic Johnson is still one of the team’s most vocal supporters. A legend in his playing days, Magic wasn’t able to recapture that same energy from his role in the front office. However, to Johnson’s credit, he did help lay the groundwork for the Lakers to have the financial flexibility to land Davis and go hunting for a third superstar.

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Magic Johnson Weighs in on Lakers vs Clippers Rivalry

The Lakers were unable to land their third superstar and the Clippers not only stole Kawhi Leonard from under their nose, but also traded for Paul George. The moves instantly made both teams top contenders in the West and has ignited some fierce debate over which team is better.

Johnson weighed in on the “rivalry” between the Lakers and Clippers, throwing some serious – but accurate – shade the Clippers’ way. “We never had a rivalry,” Johnson told CBS’ Jim Hill, “we destroyed them all the time.”

Johnson isn’t wrong either. Over the course of his first decade in the league, the Lakers went a staggering 52-13 against their fellow LA team. The Clippers never won a season series against the Lakers in the time period as well with the showtime Lakers establishing a supreme dominance over not just LA basketball but the entire league as a whole.

While the Clippers have performed better in recent years, the franchise has yet to make it past the second round of the NBA playoffs in their entire existence. While this year’s version of the Clippers certainly has a shot to break through that barrier, the franchise as a whole has a long ways to go in order to catch up to the Lakers’ illustrious history and be considered a true rivalry.

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Lakers 2019-2020 Roster Outlook

While the Clippers are often lauded for their strong, playoff-ready supporting cast, the Lakers have put together (on paper) some excellent depth themselves. Surrounding LeBron James and Anthony Davis are now a plethora of shooters and perimeter defenders like Danny Green, Avery Bradly, Quinn Cook, Troy Daniels, and returning players Kentavious Caldwell-Pope & Kyle Kuzma. The increased emphasis on shooting with this Lakers team should pay big dividends as putting consistent shooters around LeBron forces defenses to either give up open looks from deep or run the risk of letting LeBron take his man to the rim with no help defense.

The Lakers also brought back rim-protector JaVale McGee and took a flier on the recovering DeMarcus Cousins – a signing that could very well end up turning the Lakers into a legitimate title contender. Cousins is a multi-level scoring talent with excellent passing vision out of the post who – when healthy – is an All-NBA level talent. Like Davis, Cousins seems to be a strong fit to play alongside LeBron and while he may never average the gaudy numbers he did before his Achilles’ injury, he could still turn back into a consistent and reliable mismatch for opposing big men.

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