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The week ahead in the NBA

By Ben Bolch
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Looking ahead

CLIPPERS AT LAKERS: Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. TV: FS West, NBA TV.

Forget that little discrepancy in NBA championships for a moment. It’s time to take a look at who might really be the best team in Los Angeles this season. The Clippers have beaten Miami; the Lakers haven’t. The Clippers have beaten Portland; the Lakers haven’t. The Clippers have beaten the Lakers; well, the Lakers have beaten themselves at times over the last few weeks. If you throw in a pair of rapid-fire preseason games, the Clippers are 3-0 against the Lakers this season. Things have already gotten chippy in the onetime one-sided rivalry, with Clippers forward Blake Griffin shoving Lakers rookie Darius Morris in mid-air after the whistle had blown. Another Clippers victory, and the Lakers might be nudged into second-class status in the town they have long ruled.

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Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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