L.A. Wins Game 7...

...twice.

"It's suddenly fashionable to be a Clippers fan," Los Angeles Times columnist Chris Erskine wrote in February, "while Lakers fans lick their wounds or, as is often the case with Lakers fans, hire someone to lick their wounds for them."



The Clippers did it the hard way.


The Clippers on Sunday won a Game 7 for the first time in franchise history, defeating the Memphis Grizzlies, 82-72, at the FedEx Forum — prevailing in a winner-take-all game on the road, a situation in which few gave them much chance of success...


NBA history was against the Clippers — visiting teams had won only 19.5% of Game 7s.


Clippers history was against them too — this is a franchise that was 0-2 in Game 7s, and has made the playoffs only five times since Donald Sterling purchased the team 31 years ago, and eight times overall.


And this is a Clippers team with nine new players on the roster, a team that twice had failed to close out Memphis after building a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.


But now they can say they are a Clippers team that will play in the Western Conference semifinals.




A spectre is haunting the Lakers - they may no longer be the best team in the NBA...or the Staples Center.  If the Lakers and Clippers each achieve their objective and win the next series - they will face one another for the right to play in the NBA Finals.  And it is just possible that we will learn that the Clippers are not Icarus...but Nemesis.