Clips Have Good Reason to Think They Can Beat Warriors, but Do They Believe It?

LOS ANGELES — Before the Los Angeles Clippers try Wednesday night to depart from recent history and show they can actually beat the Golden State Warriors, let’s rewind about two-and-a-half years.

Y’know, when the Clippers actually beat the Warriors.

In the playoffs.

“Over the years you realize,” Blake Griffin said Tuesday, “the playoffs are what the regular season is for.”

The Clippers have lost seven of the past eight regular-season meetings between the teams, including six consecutive games.

Before that, though…

Through their regular-season accomplishments, the Clippers put themselves in position to be the last Western Conference team to eliminate the Warriors. With home-court advantage in the No. 3-vs.-No. 6 series in 2014, the Clippers took advantage of their Staples Center surroundings to come back from an eight-point halftime deficit to win Game 7, 126-121.

The changes made to both teams in the aftermath of the series still fascinate in light of where the Warriors have gone since and how the Clippers have been unable to follow.

In Oakland, Steve Kerr replaced Mark Jackson as Warriors head coach, while in L.A., Steve Ballmer replaced Donald Sterling as Clippers owner. Far more has been made of Kerr’s impact than Ballmer’s—logically, given the Warriors’ on-court success—but that makes this ongoing rivalry all the more compelling.

The Clippers were perfectly set up to capture the nation’s heart. That moment when league commissioner Adam Silver stood tall in front of an all red, white and blue backdrop to declare: “Effective immediately, I am banning Mr. Sterling for life” inspired people and helped lift the Clippers’ spirits enough to capture Game 5 from Golden State.

Ballmer has come through on his promises to make the Clippers a higher-class organization, the latest evidence of that the opening Wednesday of the private, members-only Season Ticket Club on Staples’ Suite Level A—a luxurious lounge with sweeping views of downtown for those non-business business meetings for which Los Angeles is famous.

Of course, such upgrades would resonate much more deeply if there was an NBA championship to validate …

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