The Clippers are no doubt proud of their 2012-13 season — the team’s first 50-win season — but that doesn’t mean they want to be embarrassed by their rivals, the Lakers.
The Clippers have a six-game lead on the Golden State Warriors in the Pacific Division, and as long as they hold on through the next six games, Los Angeles will win their first division title. The Clippers will need to decide whether to put a banner in the Staples Center rafters, though.
Star forward Blake Griffin does not want the team to put a division title banner next to the Lakers’ 16 championship banners. The Lakers do not have banners for their 32 conference titles or 23 division titles.
“I kind of have bigger goals than that for the team,” Griffin told ESPN.com. “I think the team has bigger goals than that. We expected to win the division. We didn’t come into this season thinking, ‘Oh, it would be great if we could win the division.’ We expected it. It’s something to be proud of and maybe there’s a banner that goes up (in the training facility), but it’s not something that needs to go up in Staples [Center], and we don’t need to hang our hat on that.”
Every NBA team other than the Celtics and Lakers hang division title banners. The Los Angeles Kings, who share the Staples Center with the Lakers and Clippers, also hang division banners.
Griffin’s teammate Caron Butler thinks the team should hang a banner, while head coach Vinny Del Negro doesn’t have an opinion either way.
