Los Angeles Clippers: Contender or Pretender?

After posting an abysmal 6-10 record coming out of the All-Star break, the Clippers have won six straight, none more impressive than their lopsided victory over the Mavericks in Dallas Monday night. They have reclaimed fourth place in the Western Conference and find themselves just one game behind the Lakers for the Pacific Division lead and third playoff seed.

So, what happened?

Barely a week ago, Los Angeles appeared to be a team on the brink of imploding. The Clippers were leaning as heavily on Chris Paul as the Hornets did, the team’s defense was atrocious and Vinny Del Negro was starting to feel the heat that comes with coaching a team laden with superstars.

Now, however, the Clippers look deep. Everyone in the rotation is contributing—Randy Foye with 28 points on eight three-pointers against the Mavericks anyone?—there’s commitment to defense and a sense of urgency has been achieved.

So, we must reiterate, what happened between now and last week?

Reality set in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GWvxWmoHfc

The Clippers are doing what the Heat need to do, what the Lakers must do and what the Knicks failed to do under Mike D’Antoni. Their waking up.

As powerhouse teams have become more prevalent, we’ve been witness to some seriously immaculate basketball. That said, we’ve also seen more than a fair share of complacency and borderline entitlement.

The problem with the Clippers was not that they expected to win each game, it’s that they expected to win each game no matter how well they played or how poorly they executed.

In fact, during that 16-game tailspin, the Clippers held opponents to under 90 points just twice, and only won one of those contests. That’s far from acceptable.

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of partaking in what is a essentially a superstar dance party, but as we’ve seen time and time again, the gritty, less prolific teams are not going to roll over and allow a more talented club to waltz to victory.

And that’s what the Clippers were seeing.

Los Angeles’ stretch of listlessness after the All-Star break included meltdowns against the Suns, Nets and even depleted Warriors. The Clippers looked disinterested in those games, as if they didn’t matter or the outcome was already determined.

That counterproductive sense of superiority proved to be contagious, not just situational, as it led to lackluster performances against the NBA’s better teams, like the Thunder and Pacers.

But that unhealthy perspective was nowhere to be found last night, as Foye looked like a superstar, Paul seemed at ease, Blake Griffin scored the most prolific 15 points possible and the team exhibited a willingness to play defense.

Truth be told, the Clippers have enough talent, enough athleticism and yes, enough star power to contend for a title. But up until now, they haven’t had enough of a work ethic.

And as we can see with each passing game, more often than not, that can make all the difference.