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Jared Dudley says Lakers were laughing at Clippers as crosstown rivals blew 3-1 lead

The Los Angeles Lakers are NBA champions, and with the title comes the freedom to laugh at your rivals. Literally.

Before the Lakers’ captured their 17th title, their crosstown rival Los Angeles Clippers fell in embarrassing fashion by blowing a 3-1 lead against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals. All season, fans had been preparing for an all-Los Angeles Western Conference finals, but one team failed to uphold their end of the bargain.

Lakers couldn’t believe Clippers’ collapse

Lakers forward Jared Dudley revealed on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” that the Lakers’ reaction to the Clippers’ misfortune was laughter.

Via Silver Screen and Roll:

“We were laughing. We were laughing. We were laughing in the sense like ‘I can’t believe it.’ I picked them to win game seven, there was no way I thought they were going to lose. Our whole mind was, ‘We got to beat the Clippers. We want the Clippers.’ They wanted us. It was the trash talking that happened — Pat Beverley ‘check ball’ during the pandemic, ‘Playoff P’ talking about he the best, him and Kawhi, Kawhi with the commercials, the crown. We’re seeing all these billboards up here. So when we go to practice every day there’s a Kawhi billboard — we see this billboard every single day. It’s right there.

“But you know what, it was just crazy. You see Paul George hit the side of the backboard, Kawhi not having that, but those boys, they didn’t want to be in the bubble. They didn’t want to be there, and I don’t blame them for certain times, but the world needed to see the Clippers and the Lakers and it was unfortunate we didn’t get to see that.”

During the time the Clippers were falling apart, the Lakers had already advanced with a five-game victory over the Houston Rockets. They later took their own 3-1 lead over the same Nuggets and took care of business with a 117-107 Game 5 win.

Just another day in a Lakers-Clippers rivalry defined by a one-way flow of derision and schadenfreude.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - SEPTEMBER 24:  Anthony Davis (L) and LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers laugh while attending Game Four of the 2019 WNBA Playoff semifinals between the Washington Mystics and the Las Vegas Aces at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on September 24, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Mystics defeated the Aces 94-90 and won the series 3-1. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.  (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The Lakers weren't exactly sad to see the Clippers go. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

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