LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers and LA Clippers may have missed each other in the playoffs last year, but Lakers Reserve Jared Dudley revealed in a new book that his team was prepared for the “Battle for LA” due to Paul George .
“We hear some of the guys talking about how they should beat the team in LA,” Dudley and co-author Carvell Wallace wrote in their 42-page book, “Inside the NBA Bubble: A Championship Season Under Quarantine.” week. ‘This is good as Kawhi [Leonard] say such things. He defends a championship. We do not travel when someone like Patrick Beverley talks rubbish; so he feeds his family. We understand that. We respect the hustle and bustle.
‘But we think it’s disrespectful to Paul George, who did not win, to put himself at the level of [LeBron James] and [Anthony Davis]. It motivates us. ‘
In an interview with NBA TV during the Clippers ‘media day last season, George answers a reporter’s question and asks him if he and Leonard are the best duo in the league by saying,’ I think so. If you look at two guys who end up playing on both, two guys who can fetch a basket, two guys who can stop you from getting a basket, elite on both sides, I can not see how you can beat it. ‘
The Denver Nuggets devised a way to do that, with a 3-1 deficit to knock the Clippers out of the Western Conference semifinals, thus halting a power play with the Lakers-Clippers.
Asked about the passage in the book Wednesday, Dudley explained that it’s more about how the Lakers interpreted what George said than what the content of his message was, which got the team excited.
“Everyone can say anything,” Dudley said at a video conference. “That’s what we use as motivation. And sometimes, if you remember Michael Jordan, all the certain things he used as motivation for him. It was not like it was wrong. That’s what I consider.”
Dudley was asked if he, as a veteran role-player, was hypocritical in calling out an All-Star like George, and George similarly elevated himself to a conversation that included NBA champions when he was never in the finals. .
‘So, give me the right [to talk trash back]? I do not know. I do not know what gives me the right. Fourteen years, 900 games, played with more than 25 Hall of Famers. “Future coach, future GM, I think I put a little work into where I could talk about it,” Dudley said. Does not mean what I say is right. “
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue sounded like he would agree with the part about Dudley that was wrong.
A book? Jared Dudley? Asked Lue before the Clippers played the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday.
“I know I probably can not speak here, so I will not speak, but who cares? Just be who you are, play your game, who cares what people say and what people think outside. “As for me, I really do not care what people say on the outside. And you know, I hope PG does not either.”
Dudley explained in the book that it was not just George’s remarks that came under the Lakers’ skin. He added that a flashy Clippers billboard campaign had been plastered all over the city, including one strategically located near the highway leading to the Lakers training facility, which also provided plenty of fuel. That spoke too much for the Lakers’ tastes, he wrote.
“My comments were more about how we viewed the motivation,” Dudley said Wednesday. “Paul George is a hell of a player, a candidate for the MVP. Does not mean that what he said was not wrong. But the difference is … how you see someone like LeBron and AD say nothing. They and said: “You know what, we’ll find out who the king of LA is in court last year.”
The Clippers beat the Lakers 116-109 in the opening night in December in what Dudley hopes to be a preview of a national season meeting.
‘I mean, the Clippers – if you were to ask me who we’re going to play [last year], I thought we were going to play the Clippers in the Western Conference final. “I expected them to be there,” he said. I expect them to be there this year. They have the talent, they have the All-Stars, they have good coaching … and I think it’s all part of basketball.
“I think the league needs it. The league needs us to play the Clippers, the league needs us to play with Brooklyn. … We consider it a lot.”
Just not too high.
“We know Lakers will always be … the Lakers will be LA,” Dudley stated. “That’s what it is. It will always be our city. The Clippers can win ten championships and it will still be [that way]. This is history. This is how it goes. ‘
ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk contributed to this report.