Ed Note: I’ll spare you guys the Star Wars comparisons this time. You can hear me Jar Jar Binks the whole thing in the last segment of ClipperBlogLive. It was as awful as it sounds, but hopefully still entertaining. — D.J.

How you view this game largely depends on whether or not you’ve fully adapted to the new Clippers psyche. Let’s break this thing down with the two different viewpoints.

With Chris Paul back in the lineup, the Clippers lost 96-91.

Old Psyche: Sure, Chris Paul was back — but did he do anything? Paul was 2-for-8. He had 4 points. The majority of his assists came on the perimeter, not at the rim. The corpse of Derek Fisher outscored him, so you know he wasn’t himself. If he’s healthy, it’s a completely different story. Really, it’s promising the game was so tight without him playing well.

New Psyche: It doesn’t matter if Chris Paul wasn’t at full strength — he’s a better point guard than Fisher on one leg. It’s inexcusable that with all the talent on the perimeter, Andrew Goudelock put up more points than Paul and Billups combined. Why can’t the Clippers offense consistently create good looks? This is a coaching problem.

The Clippers shot 37-for-87 from the field (42.5 percent) for their 91 points.

OP: Hey, the Clippers are a jump-shooting team. Sometimes they just don’t fall. You know what’s great to take away from this game, though? The Clippers got up 21 more shots than the Lakers. They’re winning the possession battle just about every night because they’re rarely turning the ball over. If the backcourt doesn’t have an outlier of a night shooting the ball (11-for-41 between Paul, Billups, Williams and Foye), they probably win this game by 20.

NP: Relying on jumpers is not a sustainable way to win basketball games. What if they go cold for an entire week during the playoffs? Is that going to be the calling card for a Chris Paul/Blake Griffin led team? 19-foot jumpers? This is a coaching problem.

Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol combined for 42 points on 15-for-24 shooting.

OP: There’s no shame in this. Gasol is one of the most skilled big men in the game, and Andrew Bynum is a load in the paint. Not to worry — we’ve seen this song and dance before. Bryant will go into takeover mode when he doesn’t have to, and Bynum and Gasol will become non-factors. Tonight, they just played like elite talents who were finally properly utilized.

NP: Why have so many other teams figured out how to slow down Pau Gasol, but not the Clippers?  He was just coming off an 8-point game against Indiana! Why didn’t they double down off Fisher or Barnes and make those guys beat them? Why was human foul and rebound machine Reggie Evans left on an island to handle Gasol all by himself in the second quarter? It’s a concern that Griffin and Jordan are getting ran over by good frontcourts. This is a coaching problem.

The defensive lapses down the stretch came up again, as the Lakers came from behind and stole the win. 

OP: Defensively, the effort was there. Caron Butler made Bryant work and got a hand up on most of his shots. Of course, Bryant getting buckets was inevitable and it’s understandable that Bynum and Metta were going to get away with some things once the game became even more physical. History says that Chris Paul’s team will be better than Kobe Bryant’s team in the game’s final minutes 9 times out of 10. Look — the Lakers were just better tonight.

NP: Nope — that’s too many games in row where the Clippers have yielded open looks when their defense is supposed to be getting tighter. The need for a wing defender is still a glaring one. The crusty old Lakers found a way to get blocked shots and steals towards the end of the game — why couldn’t the Clippers? The defensive rotations are slow and often unpredictable, and the closeouts are half-hearted at best. This Clippers are 23rd in defensive efficiency and can’t cook up ways not to rely so heavily on Billups and Butler to be fresh and active defenders on the perimeter. This is a coaching problem.

It’s crazy to think that we’ve arrived to the point where no loss is acceptable and there are no moral victories, but here we are. Which side do you stand on? Are the Clippers in trouble or not? Is it no longer okay, given all the talent, that the Clippers get outplayed by a championship contender?

Yours in the comments section.

ClipperBlog’s Kevin Arnovitz and Jovan Buha answered some questions on the revitalized rivalry between the Clippers and Lakers in a feature on ESPN.com:

1. Who are the three best players in Los Angeles?

Kevin Arnovitz, ESPN.com: (1) Chris Paul. (2) Kobe Bryant. (3) Blake Griffin. And I feel ludicrous leaving Pau Gasol off the list because he’s one of the best reasons to watch basketball in Los Angeles. The point is that if you have the next six months free and unlimited resources, rent a place within five blocks of Staples Center, buy two sets of season tickets and die happy.

Jovan Buha, ClipperBlog: (1) Chris Paul. (2) Kobe Bryant. (3) Blake Griffin. Paul is arguably the league’s best point guard since Magic Johnson and clearly the best player in L.A. Bryant, while diminishing in skill, is still the “King of L.A.” However, his throne is in danger. Griffin, the almighty challenger, is rapidly approaching Bryant in terms of skill set and stature, and he should be ruling L.A. for years to come.

Chad Ford, ESPN.com: Paul edges out Kobe only because Kobe, at the age of 33, is now slightly less effective than he used to be. Paul, to me, is still the best point guard in the NBA and can have a bigger impact on the game right now. Griffin is a distant third and just a sliver ahead of Pau Gasol. But with Paul throwing him lobs and getting him a few extra easy buckets a night, Griffin should quickly start widening the gap between him and Gasol.

Darius Soriano, Forum Blue and Gold: (1) Kobe Bryant, (2) Chris Paul, (3) Pau Gasol. Kobe and Paul could easily be switched here with little complaint from me. They’re both sublime players who impact the game like few others. Gasol, though, continues to be the third-best player in Los Angeles because of his work on the boards, his all-around offensive game, underrated help and positional defense, and elite passing.

Marc Stein, ESPN.com: (1) Chris Paul. (2) Kobe Bryant. (3) Blake Griffin. CP3 is a certifiable top-10 talent. All those miles have slowed Kobe just enough to open up the floor for Griffin, another top-15 talent. But the holes in Griffin’s game — you still don’t have to guard him when he’s 18 feet out and his tendency to overdribble gets him into trouble — keep him third for now. Barely.

To read their takes on which team will be better this year and more, click here.

There is an air of finality which pervades over this Spring’s NBA Playoffs. Looming behind record television ratings lie the uncertainty of the new collective bargaining agreement, which has the potential to alter the league’s economic and regional power balance. On the court, the time for the heirs of Jordan seems to be coming to a close—as Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett—the men who once played against his aging Airness, prepares to leave the stage. Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Dirk Nowitzki are poised to seize the throne, and right on their heels are the league’s youngest stars; Durant and Rose, eager to jump the line. For most Angelenos, the annual Spring basketball fever that grips the city have come to a premature and inglorious end with the Lakers embarrassing meltdown. And for some Clippers fans, the end of Phil Jackson’s era one week after Blake Griffin’s unanimous selection as Rookie of the Year has instilled hope that the ground is finally shifting between LA’s two NBA franchises.

But the relationship between the Lakers and Clippers and their coexistence in Los Angeles have been always been more complex than a simple intra-city rivalry. Even in a large metropolitan center like LA, there might not be enough contrarians and underdogs to constitute a fan base for the woebegone Clippers franchise. Though it would pain many Clippers fans to admit, the refracted glory of all those Lakers championships might have done more to fill the stands at the Sports Arena and Staples Center than their team’s performance through the years. In a way, it might be said that the Lakers success has made the viability of a second or third team in the city possible. As the career of Kobe Bryant winds to a close, however, just as Blake Griffin’s star is ascending, the Clippers find themselves in an unfamiliar position of having the city’s most electrifying athlete, and quite possibly, the league’s next marquee player. What happens in the next few years; how the franchise handles the growth and development of Blake Griffin, and how they assemble a team worthy of his immense talents, will determine if the Clippers can change their franchise’s trajectory once and for all. Heading into this summer of transition, it is perhaps worthwhile to look back upon the men who have defined both teams, and how it came to be that more people in Los Angeles now identify themselves as basketball fans more than any other sport.

It has not always been this way. Basketball, played indoors, conceived in the harsh New England winter and reared in Mid-Western gymnasiums, seems a poor fit for a Southern California culture blessed with abundance sunshine. When the Lakers first moved to Los Angeles, they would draw a few hundreds fans to a high school gym. Upon returning home from a road trip, players would get on a truck with a bullhorn, drive down Wilshire Boulevard and take turns bellowing at people on the streets, imploring them to attend that evening’s contest. The late Chick Hearns would recall, “They were drawing nothing. They would play one night at a high school gym. They played the Shrine Auditorium on a stage! If you fell off the side, you dropped six feet.” The Lakers early years in Los Angeles were defined by their courageous but ultimately futile attempts to wrest the NBA crown from the imperial Red Auerbach and his Celtics. John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty riveted the city’s attention, but professional basketball’s popularity lagged behind baseball, football, and even boxing in the public’s consciousness. But by the time Magic announced his shocking and tearful retirement in 1991, the Lakers have captured the city’s affection. Starting with Jack Kent Cooke, the Lakers made a concerted effort to court Hollywood stars and cultivated an atmosphere of glitz and glamour in a city that adores both. Over time, over many championships for the Lakers and over many lost seasons for the Clippers, the crowd at Lakers and Clippers games will come to reflect the city as it imagines itself to be, and the city as it actually was.

From the very beginning, the stewardship of the current Lakers franchise under the Buss family and the Clippers under Donald Sterling have been closely intertwined. After all, it was to Donald Sterling whom Jerry Buss depended on for last minute financing when he acquired the Lakers in 1979. And it was Jerry Buss who convinced Sterling to buy the Clippers and move the team from San Diego two years later. Both men made their fortunes during the last great commercial real estate crash of the 1970s and rode the subsequent rebound in Westside properties to great wealth. In the summer of 1979, Jerry Buss introduced his prized rookie, Earvin Magic Johnson, to the city’s luminaries at Sterling’s annual White Party. Years later, Magic would remember that evening as his introduction to the glamour and wealth of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Sterling’s Gatsbyesque mystique on that late summer night never extended to his future basketball team. Jerry Buss’ Lakers, with an ebullient Magic at the controls, would establish themselves as the gold standard of the modern NBA, winning 10 NBA championships in three decades, while Donald Sterling’s Clippers would compile one of the most wretched records in professional sports during the same span.

For over twenty years, the General Managers of both teams were Lakers legends; Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, brothers-in-arms who had succumbed, time and time again, to Red Auerbach’s Celtics. In his prime, Elgin was a phenomenal athlete, pulling off breathtaking acrobatic moves that would presage the arrival of Julius Erving and Michael Jordan. Four years older than Jerry West, Elgin was the dominant personality in the Lakers locker room when West arrived as a nervous rookie. Though the relationship between the two men remained cordial, there was always a tinge of rivalry between the proud Baylor and the insecure West. At the dawn of the Civil Rights era, a phenomenal star of Elgin’s caliber couldn’t help but look askance at the loner with a thick Appalachian accent who suddenly became the face of the Lakers franchise and would later become the league’s logo. Many years later, even their great rival Oscar Robertson bristled, “All of you media guys are racist. You can’t ask me a question without asking about Jerry West.”

Eight times, Elgin Baylor would lead the Lakers to the NBA Finals, and eight times, he wound up on the losing end. In Game 5 of the 1962 NBA Finals, Elgin scored 61 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in leading his team to victory over the hated Celtics. But in the end, it was for naught, though his 61 points have endured as an NBA Finals record, the Celtics would go on to capture their fourth straight crown. Elgin’s balky knees finally forced him to retire in 1972, nine games into the season. Whether by luck or by inspiration, the Lakers, led by West, won the next game in honor of their former captain. Then they went on a tear, winning a remarkable 33 games in a row, finally culminating in the first NBA championship for the city. Elgin Baylor, the savior of the franchise during its darkest days, would retire without a title, and he would retire one game before his team went on the longest winning streak in NBA history.

In his later years, Jerry West would claim that Elgin Baylor was one the best player he had ever seen and had the honor of playing with. At the peak of his prowess, Elgin might have indeed been a superior player, but as general managers in the NBA, there was no question who was the better judge of talent and architect of a team. Prior to the 1983-1984 NBA season, Jerry West cleared the Lakers logjam at point guard by trading Norm Nixon to the San Diego Clippers for the rights to sharpshooter Byron Scott. The lighting quick Nixon joined a Clippers team that boasted the previous season’s Rookie of the Year—Terry Cummings—who led the team in both scoring and rebounding in his first campaign and seemed poised for stardom. In the first of many boneheaded moves that would recur under Sterling, Terry Cummings was then traded to Milwaukee before the team moved from San Diego to Los Angeles.

As Elgin Baylor took over the reins of the Clippers franchise, the team he assembled had intriguing talent but lack any sense of direction. Gunners like Norm Nixon and Quintin Dailey shot the ball without remorse, while the franchise waited in vain for an enigmatic Benoit Benjamin to fulfill his vast but ultimately wasted potential. The Clippers went 12-70 in 1986, they would marginally improve to 17 wins the following year, and notch 21 wins the year after that. During that time, the Lakers were in the midst of winning back to back titles, the first team to accomplish such a feat since the Celtics. Byron Scott, the player that Jerry West had traded for was instrumental in spreading the floor during their championship run. On the 1987-1988 team with Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy, Byron Scott led them all in scoring and shot a remarkable 53% from the field as a long distance marksman.

The makeup of that Lakers championship team was a stark contrast to the Clippers. Jerry West had assembled a team whose stars complemented one another perfectly; Magic ran the offense with élan, Kareem’s sky hook remained one of the most unstoppable shots in the game, Big Game James’ spin move was devastating in the low block, while Byron Scott silky smooth jumpers kept the defense honest. Their role players; AC Green, Mychal Thompson, Michael Cooper, and Kurt Rambis all defended and rebounded with steely toughness, as if girding themselves for a showdown with their nemesis in Boston. Years later, West would say, “I’ve seen teams trade players who score tons of points and people say, ‘How in the world can you trade that player?’ He might score tons of points and his team won’t win. I’ve also seen teams trade players who are very good players and you substitute another player in there and the team just fits better together.” It was something that West instinctively knew; that the personality and chemistry of a team can be as crucial as talent when the goal is to win an NBA crown.

The Clippers that same year was led in scoring by Michael Woodson, who believed in hoisting up a lot of shots and hoisting them up quickly. The mercurial Quintin Dailey was also there, capable of catching fire and scorching an opponent for 30 points one night while shooting the Clippers completely out of contention the next. The only saving grace for the franchise that season was the performance of rebounding phenom Michael Cage, who hustled for every loose ball as if the game was never out of reach. Cage needed 28 boards in the final game of the season to snatch the rebounding title away from Charles Oakley. He would grab 30, giving a small measure of solace to Clippers fans as the Lakers celebrated the league’s first back-to-back championship in twenty-two years.

For basketball fans of my generation, our love for the game was forged by those Lakers and Celtics rivalries of the 1980s. We were a bit too young to remember the days before Magic and Bird, when the NBA Championship was shown on tape delay at midnight, when the Association was near bankruptcy, marred by drug scandals and the perception that the league was too black, too urban, and too out of control. In the 70s, the country was still recovering then from the wounds of Vietnam, from the riots that swept through Harlem, Watts, Chicago and Detroit, and from the sense that the country had lost its vitality and its way. At its lowest ebb, the NBA was seen by middle America as emblematic of the era’s worst traits; filled with selfish, egotistical players who wanted to showboat, preen, and party more than they wanted to compete. Magic and Bird came into the league in 1979 and instantly restored the league’s credibility and its competitive spirit. That one was black and one was white, that they outwardly played such an aesthetically different game, and that they would renew the league’s most storied rivalry was too much for casual fans to ignore.

But behind Magic’s ebullience joy and Bird’s taciturn demeanor was their fierce determination to win, such that they would never allow outside distractions to interfere with their final goal. The renowned boxing trainer Cus D’Amato once said that you can only be as good as your opponent, and that you must honor a great rival because he will reveal your flaws and frailties, which you must overcome in order to become a worthy champion; to become the man that you were meant to be. During their playing days, there was no love lost between Magic and Bird, they would keep tabs on each other’s stats from the previous night for extra motivation. And when they met each other on the court, particularly when an NBA championship was on the line, casual fans tuned in with the hope that they might see something rare and incandescent, something on the level of the Thrilla in Manilla, when the level of competition is raised to such lofty heights that it might reveal some dark mystery of the human heart.

As much as Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain established the popularity of professional basketball in Los Angeles, Magic’s Showtime Lakers and their rivalry with Larry Bird’s Celtics was the pivotal moment for the modern NBA. Not only did Magic and Bird revitalized a league that was near bankruptcy, they ushered in a new era of modern sports, paving the way for Michael Jordan to redefine merchandising, advertising, and entertainment on a global scale. Until Blake Griffin, the Clippers never had a player with the ability to dominate the game at such an elite level. His electrifying assaults on the rim have captivated even casual fans dulled by the blur of ESPN Highlights. On any given night, there is a chance that Blake will show you something that you’ve never seen before, something that borders on the impossible. And there is something intangible too, when Blake throws down a monstrous dunk over a defender, he glares at them like the legendary 1920-30s fighter Mickey Walker, the Toy Bulldog, who used to loom over his fallen opponent and marveled at the destruction he has wrought, as if his own abilities to inflict violence terrified even himself. Blake has the requisite charisma and physical dominance to become the league’s next marquee player, just as Kobe tries to ward off the ravages of time and fans grow weary of King James’ professional AAU squad. For the first time, Donald Sterling and his men must now work under the burden of expectations, of assembling a team worthy of their young star, and putting their franchise on equal footing with their co-tenants at Staples Center. In the months ahead, Blake Griffin and Kobe Bryant will influence their teams in significant ways. How their respective front offices deal with a fading star and a rising one, how they cater to the personality and drive of their franchise players will determine the fate of their teams for years to come, propelling them toward either glory or ruin.

Hours before the Clippers knocked off the Lakers on Wednesday, I asked Mike Dunleavy how a coach can tell the difference between real, permanent growth and the fleeting illusion of improvement.

“You ask yourself, ‘Is the team able to do what it wants to do?’”

Wednesday night, the Clippers got most of what they wanted offensively courtesy of Baron Davis, who is playing his most prolific stretch of basketball since he arrived in Los Angeles.

What accounts for that uptick? It’s probably a combination of factors.

Stops Matter & Transition
The Clippers, above all else, want stops.

With Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman on the back line, Rasual Butler and Eric Gordon on the wings and a motivated Baron Davis providing pressure on the ball, they have enough size, strength, shot-blocking and guile to be a good defensive unit. When that defense clicks, the Clippers notch big wins — Denver, Boston, Lakers, at Oklahoma City.

The to-run-or-not-to-run discussion surrounding the Clippers always struck me as a theoretical debate. While there are teams who are gifted at pushing the ball after made baskets (Houston/Aaron Brooks, Phoenix /Steve Nash, etc), transition opportunities come off defensive stands and rebounds. After residing in the bottom five of the league in defensive rebounding rate for a good part of the season, the Clippers have been doing much better work on the defensive glass. Last night, they created 21 transition opportunities for themselves, and generated points on 14 of those 21 chances.

The Clippers’ defensive schemes looked not unlike what they unleashed on Portland and Brandon Roy on Monday night. The Clippers’ traps were smart, strategic, and generally came from the place on the floor least likely to produce a high-percentage shot.

“We were trying to go quick at [Kobe Bryant],” Dunleavy said. “He’s so great. He knows the double-teams are coming, so he just makes his move faster. We were trying not to come off Bynum, because Kobe does a great job of finding him. We were willing to give outside shots to other guys. We want to get our rotations out there and wanted to contest shots, but if it comes down to Kobe in the post or somebody else taking a shot from the outside, we’ll take the other guy.”

Watch the latter half of the fourth quarter and you can see the level of alertness in the Clippers’ defense behind the Bryant traps. The Clippers defenders are communicating, pointing to one another, shifting their weight with purpose, but rarely cheating absently.

When you pair that defensive commitment with guys running hard toward the rim on the outlet, you get possessions like that nice break at [4th, 4:59] where Craig Smith gets to the basket underneath the Lakers’ slow transition defense. Rasual Butler feeds him from the perimeter for an easy layup, and the Clippers extend their lead to six — a margin that never narrows.

The Pick-and-Roll
Baron Davis, Chris Kaman and Mike Dunleavy each made independent comments lauding the chemistry — all three used that phrase — between Baron and Chris on the pick-and-roll. Remember how fluid Sam Cassell and Elton Brand were with that side screen-roll?  How Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins operate the Boston S/R to perfection? How Nash makes every big he’s ever worked with a master?

It seems like the most basic action you can run. It’s not a skill like shooting the ball and it doesn’t require too much body control — just patience and precision.

But in some respects those qualities are harder to perfect than a shooting stroke. Over the past week or so, Baron and Chris seemed to have established the symbiosis a point guard and his big man needs to make plays in the halfcourt.

“If [the Lakers] wanted to play soft, Baron made shots over the top,” Dunleavy said. “And if they stepped up, he hit [Chris] Kaman on the roll or swung the ball and found open guys.”

Baron and Chris picked apart the Lakers on those pick-and-rolls — from every spot on the floor and, as Dunleavy elaborated, with flawless reactions. On the second possession of the third quarter, they run it on the side. The Lakers anticipate it quickly and blitz Baron against the sideline. So how does our dynamic duo counter? By having Kaman slip toward the hole. Baron bounces the pass between Bryant and Bynum to Kaman on the move, and Chris finishes against the Lakers’ collapsing weak side defenders with an off-balance fling at the basket while falling to the floor. He draws the foul and the Clips go up 12.

The permutations of this pick-and-roll are numerous. Sometimes Baron and Chris take advantage of a slow recovery as Chris rolls, and sometimes Chris realizes he has the space he needs for his jumper (which doesn’t fall at a proficient rate Wednesday night, though these are shots you want him taking).  And sometimes Baron creates the space to launch a 17-footer over a much shorter Derek Fisher. Notice 17… not 21 and, therefore, a much higher-percentage shot.

Getting the Wings Going
Eric Gordon didn’t light it up, but he and his counterpart on the wing, Rasual Butler, provided the spacing that Baron and Chris needed to execute many of those sets. Gordon played a particularly intelligent game. Check out the possession at [2nd, 9:07]. When Shannon Brown crowds him on the left side of the perimeter, Gordon collects the pass from Telfair and drives hard to his right. Odom, who’s on Craig Smith (strategically placed high to give Eric an open lane to the hoop), doesn’t have time to get in Eric’s path. Eric seals himself off from Odom, elevates strongly and converts the layup.

Butler had one of his more complete games of the season: A couple of well-timed 3s, though his overall shot percentage was nothing dazzling. What I liked about his overall performance was that he played in that Tayshaun Prince mold — gathering rebounds, making sharp entry passes for assists, and playing both strong man defense and using his length to cordon off the Lakers’ weak side options.

Nobody will ever have cause to complain on the nights Butler is an accurate sniper from the arc, but really productive small forwards don’t just 3-and-D. They facilitate the offense as alternate perimeter playmakers. Butler did that Wednesday night.

Maximizing Your Assets
Craig Smith will be more useful some night than others. Against the Lakers’ bigs, he’s a handful. That’s especially true when the Clippers are in an up-tempo mode. Smith runs the floor extremely well and beelines to the rim in transition as well as anyone in the league — which explains his 59.2 field goal percentage. Once Smith has position in the post, that thick body of his has an uncanny way of getting to the rack. I have no idea how he does it apart from being very good at preserving his direct route to the rim by sealing off his defender. Everyone loves easy baskets, but you need the personnel to get them.

Then there’s Marcus Camby. The 13 rebounds come as no surprise, and I suppose the five dimes in 28 minutes don’t either. Having a big man who can makes plays in a high-low scheme from the elbow is indispensable. On a night when Baron is the best playmaker in basketball, Butler is creating opportunities and Camby is making pinpoint interior passes and zippy feeds from the perimeter, the Clippers’ ball movement is like a pinball game.

That’s how you beat one of the top defenses in the league.

The devastating combination of length, agility, and passing ability among the Lakers’ bigs makes it difficult to be too frustrated by their dominance over the Clippers up front.   The Lakers score 70 points in the paint tonight, the majority of which belong to Andrew Bynum, who finishes with 42.  It’s not as if Bynum pushes his Clipper defenders around on the block.  Instead, he works himself easy shots through motion, mismatches, second chances, and active work around the rim.

Bynum gets his first bucket of the night exploiting a mismatch down low against Thornton courtesy of a high S/R with Luke Walton; the second basket comes on a putback; the third on a pass from Kobe Bryant out of a triple-team when DeAndre Jordan leaves Bynum to help; the fourth on a back door cut from the left wing. The fifth when Pau Gasol hits the diving Bynum between two defenders [Brian Skinner leaves Bynum to help] ; the sixth on another back door cut.

The Clippers leave Bynum unattended far too frequently — and should be faulted for doing so.  But the spaces on the floor change so fluidly in the Lakers’ offense — to say nothing of the ball movement — that it’s unreasonable to believe the likes of Skinner, Jordan, and Thornton can execute a defensive scheme that could contain Bynum. If it weren’t Bynum, it would’ve been Gasol.

On the other end, DeAndre Jordan has a breakout game: 23 points, 12 rebounds [six offensive], four blocks, and only one turnover on 89% TS.  Jordan is on the receiving end of a bunch of alley-oops.  He also collects a fair amount of garbage.  But he shows some skills:

• [2nd, 6:34]  Freddie Jones and Jordan execute a pretty drag screen.  Jones dribbles left, and Bynum tracks him.  But this leaves a clear path for Jordan to dive to the hoop.  Jones deftly threads the needle to Jordan at about 10 feet.  Jordan is in high gear as he catches the ball, but is met by two Laker defenders [Lamar Odom & Trevor Ariza].  What does Jordan do?  Dance his way between both defenders with a pretty stutter step, then lays it up and in.

Jordan displays a freakish level of athleticism, soft hands, a good handle, and a nose for the ball.  Can you imagine if he cultivates a face-up game from 12 feet?

Steve Novak continues his torrid January.  This month, he’s now 21-40 from beyond the arc after tonight’s 4-5 3PA performance.  Unfortunately, his liabilities are apparent tonight.  Despite his 14 points in 24 minutes, Novak finishes a -11.  He simply can’t match up defensively against the Lakers’ long 4s — specifically, Lamar Odom.

Kobe Bryant was in a deferential mood all night, but Eric Gordon doesn’t get off easy, but does solid work defensively.  Two sets to examine in the second half:

• [3rd, 2:42] On the left wing, Bynum comes high to set a screen for Bryant that doesn’t bother Gordon much.  EJ manages to stay close to Bryant along the left sideline, walling off the lane.  At the baseline, Bryant turns the corner, but he’s far underneath the basket.  For 99% of the league, this would be an impossible angle.  But Kobe switches hands and flings a carnival reverse layup off the window.  What to do?
• [4th, 2:20] Same set.  Bynum’s screen is marginally more effective this time.  Again, Bryant dribbles along the sideline, with Eric managing to stay in front of him.  Rather than turn the corner at the baseline, Bryant backs Gordon in at the low post, then launches a quick turnaround jumper over EJ.  It’s no good.

Bryant finishes 5-15 from the field, with three pairs of FTAs. Tonight he’s a facilitator, not a scorer [12 assists, one shy of his season high], and it serves his bigs well.

Ultimately, the Clippers lose the game on the glass.  There are 35 rebounding opportunities beneath their basket.  The Clippers grab 18 of them…but the Lakers take 17.  That’s a 54% defensive rebound rate.  Anything in the low 70% range is pretty awful.  Below 70% demonstrates a Golden State-level of rebounding incompetence.

There’s something a little unseemly about rationalizing the team’s sorry state, but it’s indisputable that if the Clippers’ principal frontcourt were healthy, DeAndre Jordan might be playing down in Anaheim.  Instead, we’re seeing a raw talent gradually refine his skills against the league’s best players, and the upward trajectory of his confidence offers real promise.

Anyone with a rooting interest in the Clippers would do much better to ignore wins and losses and segment the remainder of the season into a series of smaller goals. The Clippers are unlikely to win many basketball games between now and some point in the future when a combination of Baron Davis, Zach Randolph, Marcus Camby, and Chris Kaman returns.  Whether you arrive at this conclusion with the requisite blame for whoever is at fault, or whether you’re just a Clipper fatalist, it’s important to get to that mental place as soon as possible.

The Clippers face the Lakers and the regenerative ring finger on Wednesday night.  It’s entirely possible there won’t be more than 20 minutes of meaningful basketball, but that doesn’t mean the Clippers shouldn’t go into the game with a few items on their to-do lists:

• Eric Gordon:  EJ’s Tour of Perimeter Killers continues against the league’s best scoring guard. Kobe Bryant has some height on Gordon, and will seek to exploit that advantage with his turnaround jumper.   Gordon faces the same problem every smaller guard must contend with against Bryant.  If EJ crowds him, Bryant will explode past Gordon en route to the rim.  However much that dislocated finger is killing Bryant, he’s playing through the pain.
• Al Thornton: Thaddeus Young and Al Thornton both shoot about 36% on two-point jump shots.  Here’s the difference: 54% of Thornton’s shots are of the two-point jumper variety, but Young makes the low-percentage shot only 35% of his overall selection.  Instead, Young opts for more attempts inside, where both he and Thornton shoot greater than 60%.  Thornton must resist the temptation to settle for stuff outside.  He’ll start the game against Vladimir Radmanovic, a defender he should be able to take off the dribble.  Al will still have to confront the Lakers’ stellar help defense, but penetration gives him a fighting chance.  Firing jumpers over the Lakers’ lanky defenders doesn’t.
• DeAndre Jordan: The Clippers’ rookie center did an effective job staying out of foul trouble on Monday while defending the post adequately against Al Jefferson.  The Lakers’ Andrew Bynum is a more athletic cover.  In addition, the Lakers’ bigs move around the halfcourt a lot more than Minnesota’s, which means Jordan’s most challenging task won’t necessarily be bodying up, but staying alert.
• Rebounding:  There’s one unintended benefit to the absence of Marcus Camby — it forces the Clippers’ wings to do some work on the glass.  They did so admirably against Minnesota, a decent rebounding squad.  The Lakers are the league’s 5th best team on the glass.   The Clippers likely won’t outrebound the Lakers overall, but they should aim to do so at two positions.

UPDATE: Upon further consideration, it’s likely Gordon will draw Fisher, with Mardy Collins, at 6′ 6″, the natural size matchup for Bryant.  For Gordon’s sake, a stint on Bryant would be instructive.