Los Angeles Clippers faced off with one of their rivals in the Golden State Warriors last night. Clips hosted the Dubs at the Staples Center to try to improve their standing in the Western Conference playoff picture but they fell short late, losing 110-106.
All season long the Clippers have expressed their displeasure on their lack of a home-court advantage since very early in the season. With the playoffs a little more than two weeks away, it appears as though nothing has changed.
Blake Griffin joined his teammate Chris Paul in publicly stating the obvious about their issues with their home court. Fans from other top teams in the league tend to infiltrate the Staples Center and make their presence felt during Clippers home games. The players are starting to get sick of it.
Following from Jill Painter Lopez of Fox Sports West
Blake Griffin: "Homecourt advantage is just not there for us. If that's how it feels in the playoffs, it's not looking good." #Clippers
— Jill Painter Lopez (@jillpainter) April 1, 2015
This is not the first time #Clippers players voiced displeasure with Clippers fans. Opposing fans were louder vs Bulls than vs Warriors
— Jill Painter Lopez (@jillpainter) April 1, 2015
And from Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles.
Warriors fans made Staples Center sound more like Oracle Arena on Tuesday night. They loudly cheered every made basket by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, and chanted “M-V-P” when Curry was at the free throw line, causing several Clippers players to look up into the stands and shake their heads.
“I don’t know what we could do, but it would be great if it wasn’t that way,” said Griffin, who had 40 points in the loss. “It’s kind of like when we play the Lakers. I don’t know, maybe worse. It’s one of those things where it would be great if it wasn’t like that.”
Los Angeles is and forever will be a Lakers town, no matter how much the Lakers struggle because it won’t be for long. The game last night between the Warriors and Clippers felt more like just an arena full of people coming to enjoy the game as opposed to the Clippers fans filling the arena.
I mean, just listen to the crowd reaction after Stephen Curry dropped Chris Paul on a crossover. It sounded like they were in ‘roaracle’.
Clippers now face a tough road ahead if they don’t have any type of home-court advantage, literally and figuratively. If they face off with a tough opponent in the first round and their fans aren’t lining up in waves to support then their backs will be against the wall from the jump.
It’s almost impossible to win a series with no type of home court advantage.
