No Changing of This Guard

The Staples Center clock read 6 p.m., and midnight struck on a rivalry trying desperately to become a rivalry.

The Laker locker room was open for interviews, yet a couple local writers were walking down the hallway in a different direction.

Toward the other guys.

Toward the Clippers.

“You need directions?” asks someone, and, no, thank you, a perfect map could be found in the stats.

The Lakers were running in place, the Clippers were sprinting out of their shoes, and after 21 years, this journey was finally getting interesting, right?

Wrong.

Wrong idea, wrong team, wrong way.

Several hours later, that Clipper locker room was as vacant as Mike Dunleavy’s face after a 103-89 Laker victory that was both dominating and disappointing.

Dominating, because the Lakers outscored the Clippers by 10 points in a fourth quarter that perfectly measured the distance between the two teams.

Disappointing, because we thought the Clippers were so much closer.

For the first time in nine years Wednesday, the Clippers came into the game without having to scale the Shaquille that has long menaced them.

For the first time in forever, the Clippers came into the game as the better-playing team.

The Clippers had a better record, were scoring three more points per game, with seven more assists per game and three more steals per game.

Every Laker weakness was a Clipper strength.

The Lakers were a one-man team named Kobe Bryant.

In eight games, the Clippers had five leading scorers.

The Lakers no longer played the sort of team defense that was once their hallmark.

The Clippers were holding opponents to seven fewer points than the Lakers, sixth-best in the league.

The Lakers were a team in search of its soul.

The Clippers are a soul in search of a team, surviving without two starters, including top off-season acquisition Kerry Kittles.

They had already had the biggest opening night win in franchise history and the best comeback win since the team moved from Buffalo to California 26 years ago.

And now ...

Well, now they’ve had their most disappointing loss since all those losses last year.

Their first game against a team that made the Western Conference playoffs last season was their worst shooting game of the season (41%) and their worst defensive effort of the season (the Lakers shot 51%).

“We just didn’t play well tonight,” Dunleavy said afterward. “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves by not being able to make open shots.... We had too many turnovers to the point of carelessness.”

Where, and when, have we heard that before? At least four times a year, right?

It was supposed to be refreshing. It was, instead, a rerun.

It was supposed to be like those American Music Awards, where Kobe Bryant takes a familiar stage and is stunningly booed.

It was, instead, like those Daytime Emmy Awards, where the same soap opera wins every year.

It began with the Clippers making every hustle play.

It ended with the Lakers making the only play that anyone will remember.

In the fourth quarter, leading by a dozen points, Bryant steals the ball, throws it to Chucky Atkins, and it goes back to Bryant for a soaring alley-oop slam that provided a familiar punctuation mark.

Those Clipper legs that had dominated Toronto on Tuesday night quickly turned to rubber.

Those memories of all those Laker-administered beatings came alive.

This makes 28 times in the last 33 meetings that the Clippers have lost to their roommates.

The Clippers have not won on a Laker floor, before a Laker crowd, in nearly four years.

“The key for us is how consistent we can be,” said Dunleavy before the game, “how we stay with it. Do you feel full of yourself? Or are you ready to bring it again?”

The verdict? Not ready.

At the start of the fourth quarter, the Clippers trailed by just four. Five minutes later, they trailed by 14.

During that five-minute stretch, the Clippers committed four turnovers and made just two shots.

“We thought we had them there,” said Corey Maggette, who was a nutty nine-for-25. “But turnovers really killed us. Offensive rebounds. Hustle plays. They came and got the ball, got the rebound. You’ve got to give credit to them.”

Indeed, in the first quarter, the Clippers grabbed 11 offensive rebounds, while the Lakers grabbed just one.

In the fourth quarter, the Lakers won that same battle, 4-2.

In the first quarter, the Clippers had 11 second-chance points.

In the fourth quarter, none.

The Lakers were so much in control, even courtside-sitting Milton Bradley smiled.

Sitting two chairs away was Lon Rosen, and he was also smiling, although probably because he had just figured out a way to fit the Laker girls on Dodger Stadium dugouts, but that’s another story.

“Basically, I think they just outplayed us tonight,” said Maggette. “We just got to forget about it.”

To which all Clipper fans must ask ... how? And when?

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.