This Town Loves Winners

The Clip Show is really starting to capture the imagination of Southern California as it opened up a 2-0 lead over Denver in its best of seven playoff series. The Clippers were so impressive last night, they forced Orange County Register columnist Steve Bisheff to flip-flop on his assessment of the team. But the Bish went a little overboard.

Bisheff said last week that he would not be surprised if the Clippers reverted back to its losing ways against Denver. Bisheff reiterated that point on Sunday when he said that the Clippers win in Game 1 proved that the team was not ready to be a player in the playoffs. (Don�t look for it online, however, the sports editor has protected his boy by removing that column�much like it covered up his Tom Watkins mistake.)

Now the Bish today has compared the Clippers to George Mason, said it was �hip to Clip,� and to �Eat your heart out Lakers.� It is this kind of reactionary drivel that makes Bisheff really special as he serves as conductor on the Clippers Bandwagon.

Let�s get one thing perfectly clear about the Clippers�they ain't close to taking over Southern California. Not by a long shot. The Lakers are the most popular team in the region. Clippers fans are made up of about 5 percent hardcore fans (all 19,000 of them showed up at Staples Center for the first two games). The rest are Lakers fans who consider the Clippers their JV team or East Coast transplants who can�t root for the Lakers.

The Clippers are currently the passing fancy of area sports fans, and the toast of the town�kind of like the Bruins basketball team was a few weeks ago. But now Kohl�s is selling UCLA Final Four gear at 75 percent off. So its time for the real Clippers fans to enjoy their moment in the sun and for bald-headed columnists to find different tired angles to beat into the ground.

Be sure to check out The Hater Nation Forums. If you are still using Stub Hub, you are a dope. And all of the cool kids are now subscribing (whatever that means) to The Hater Nation by clicking here.