Reggie Miller: Rivalry with Clippers is NBA’s best
Reggie Miller knows a little something about NBA rivalries.
He was the central figure in a rivalry so captivating that it was documentary-worthy, and two decades after his Pacers’ games against the Knicks — including his eight-points-innine-seconds outburst in Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals — thrilled fans, Miller says the Warriors and Clippers have become today’s best rivalry.
“There’s Cleveland vs. the Spurs, but that’s basically LeBron ( James) bringing his Miami history into games against San Antonio, and there’s Chicago and Cleveland, but the Cavaliers have pretty much dominated that matchup. There’s nothing that comes
close to the Warriors-Clippers,” said Miller, who will be analyzing the Warriors’ game against the Clippers on Thursday night for TNT. “It’s by far the best team rivalry.
“This is Hatfields and McCoys, easily. When you get teams and cities that don’t like each other, that’s what makes it great.”
That’s what made the games between Indiana and New York so special. Not only did the fans not like each other, the players didn’t, either. Miller famously got into it with Knicks fan Spike Lee.
The games were played on big stages and with big personalities. Since 2012, the Warriors and Clippers have played 20 times. The Warriors have won nine of 13 regular-season games, and the Clippers knocked the Warriors out of the playoffs in a seven-game, first-round series in 2014.
The games have been characterized by on-court dustups and off-court verbal jabs. The teams won’t even share pregame chapel services — breaking a custom throughout the league — and have had two near postgame altercations in the bowels of Staples Center.
“I absolutely love it,” Miller said. “It almost burns me to my core when I see guys hugging and high-fiving and shaking each other’s hands. You can respect your opponent, which I’m all for, but the whole love fest is something I’ve never been a fan of.
“Both of these teams have players who resemble old-school players that say, ‘Hey, we’ll talk when our careers are over. It’s all about winning right now.’ ”
That sentiment probably has best been personified by Warriors point guard Stephen Curry and Clippers point guard Chris Paul. The Carolina natives come from the same religious background, have fierce work ethics and have appeared in several TV commercials together.
They are friends, but now their friendship is on hold.
“You can have respect and admiration for each other, but the bottom line is: My team has to beat your team,” Miller said. “Steph and Chris both have that mentality. There will be times when they’re matched up, and we had last year when Steph broke Chris’ ankles and made him fall. Believe me, Chris remembers all of that.”
Maybe the defining game of the rivalry was on Christmas in 2013. Draymond Green was ejected for getting into it with Blake Griffin, who was ejected for getting into it with Andrew Bogut, and Paul and Bogut almost started a third squabble after the final buzzer of the Warriors’ 105-103 victory.
Green, who has been in the middle of a number of the scrums, didn’t back off from his dislike of the Clippers on Wednesday, but did show respect for the Pacific Division’s secondplace team. He even complimented the way Griffin has expanded his game.
“We always want to beat them, and they always want to beat us,” Green said. “… There’s definitely more respect than people think, but it’s also no secret that we don’t like them and they don’t like us. ...
“It’s OK to not like each other. That’s a part of the game. It makes it fun. If everyone’s out there being friendly, man, what are we playing for?”