"One of the newest Los Angeles Clippers was sitting at his locker Sunday before his team went out and hammered the Raptors and the conversation got around, as it always does when the topic is the Clippers these days, to the rejuvenation of a moribund franchise.

It was a comparison to the dark old days, when the team was a laughingstock and an afterthought, when the Clippers were very much the other team in the City of Angels."