Montrezl Harrell believes the Clippers deserve more respect after they pulled off a 118-107 victory over the Lakers on Friday at Staples Center.
Lakers fans booed their own team off the court after the Clippers produced a 22-0 second-half run to secure the win in the teams' first regular-season encounter — and Harrell encouraged the booing. The Clippers forward said after the game he wanted to remind Lakers fans that there's another team in Los Angeles.
"I love it," Harrell said of hearing the boos (via ESPN). "Because they already don't recognize us as a so-called L.A. team, but we don't really care about that. But we want y'all to know that we're the LA Clippers. That means Los Angeles Clippers, man. So there's two teams in L.A.
"Y'all try to overlook us, just because of everybody in that purple and gold and the history of it. Yeah, I respect that. But that don't mean s— to me. Excuse my French — that don't mean nothing to me. I come out here and play for the guys that I am on the floor with. At the end of the day, y'all gonna have to recognize us, man. We are going to make you understand who we are."
Asked when people might start taking the Clippers seriously, Harrell said it doesn't really matter. He explained the Clippers will keep doing what they're doing and let their performance speak for itself.
"Don't really know, don't really care, you know? But we're going to keep doing what we need to, to make sure y'all see that we're here."
The Clippers took advantage of a Lakers team without LeBron James (groin) and Rajon Rondo (finger surgery) as they improved to 21-14. They are now sitting fourth in the Western Conference, while the Lakers fell to 20-16 and are ranked seventh in the West.
