It was less than five years ago when players in the Clippers locker room were visibly upset over a 48-point victory.
They had just demolished the Lakers, set a bevy of records, and quite literally laughed through a “road” win at Staples Center. They not only proved supremacy in the Battle of L.A. but did so with the kind of emphatic bravado that in the second and third quarter was like watching Mike Tyson eviscerate opponents pre-Buster Douglas.
But Clippers players, not so privately, yearned to hang a 50 on the yellow-clad team down the hall.